South Korea offers ways to drastically cut carbon emissions by 2050


South Korea has pledged to tackle greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 

File Photo by Jeon Heon-kyun/EPA-EFE

Aug. 5 (UPI) -- South Korea proposed three ways to drastically cut carbon emissions by 2050, but some proposals do not meet Seoul's pledge of zero emissions by that year, local environmental activists say.

Korea's presidential 2050 Carbon Neutrality Committee said Thursday that it has drafted road maps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the target year, JTBC television and News is reported.

The first two plans will allow some level of carbon emissions. Plan 1 proposed allowing up to 25.4 million tons of emissions and Plan 2 has suggested 18.7 million tons. Plans 1 and 2 represent a reduction of emissions by 96.3% and 97.3%, respectively, according to Yonhap.

Only Plan 3 offers a roadmap to zero emissions, reports said.

Plan 1 also allows for the continued operation of 7 new coal power plants that recently came online or are near completion. Plan 2 assumes the shutdown of all 7 plants, according to JTBC.

Plan 3 offers a scenario in which all fossil fuel-based power plants and transportation are phased out and replaced by green energy sources.

While the plans propose a more environmentally friendly future amid a global movement to reduce emissions, the capacity of Korea's natural "terrestrial sinks" including forests to absorb greenhouse gases is shrinking.

According to JTBC, the capacity of Korean forests to absorb carbon dioxide will decrease to 24 million tons by 2050, from the present-day capacity of 41.3 million tons.

The presidential committee is to gather feedback from specialists and environmental groups through September.

The Korea Federation for Environmental Movements said Thursday that the proposals are "carbon neutral" in name only, referring to Plans 1 and 2, Newsis reported.

A "low conversion rate" to eco-friendly fuels also is a disappointment, activists said.

Greenpeace Korea said in statement that it is "very worrying" that the committee made no mention of goals for 2030.

Berlin-based Climate Analytics has said South Korea should slash emissions at least 59% by the end of the decade.

Key Atlantic Ocean current system could be collapsing

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation includes the Gulf Stream and circulates warm water to the ocean's surface that contributes to mild temperatures in Europe.

 File Photo by Victoria Lipov/Shutterstock

Aug. 5 (UPI) -- A major Atlantic Ocean current system may be declining in strength, which could have consequences for weather systems worldwide, according to a study released Thursday.

The study, published in Nature Climate Change, found evidence that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is approaching a collapse. The current system includes the Gulf Stream and circulates warm water to the ocean's surface that contributes to mild temperatures in Europe, according to a press release announcing the study.

Niklas Boers, an author of the study and researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Freie Universität Berlin and Exeter University, said in a statement that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is one of the planet's "key circulation systems."

Likened to a conveyor belt for oceans, the circulation system plays an important role in distributing heat globally. While there is evidence that the system is at its weakest point in more than a thousand years, the study examined whether it's becoming less stable.

"The difference is crucial because the loss of dynamical stability would imply that the AMOC has approached its critical threshold, beyond which a substantial and, in practice, likely irreversible transition to the weak mode could occur," Boers said.

Data measuring the AMOC does not exist, according to the researchers. But the system leaves "fingerprints" from sea-surface temperature and salinity patterns that the study used to find evidence that it is becoming less stable and could collapse.

The study found that factors linked to climate change are contributing, including the freshwater inflow from the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and sea ice, as well as precipitation and river runoff.

A different study published earlier this year found that the AMOC is the weakest it has been in a thousand years.

According to the United Kingdom's Meteorological Office, a weaker AMOC could bring less warm water northward and offset increasingly warm temperatures in western Europe. The office noted that a collapse of the system is unlikely before 2100. 

RELATED Florida Current study confirms decline in strength of Gulf Stream

 

Ghana court acquits 21 LGBTQ activists arrested during crackdown

The 21 activists who had been arrested for attending an LGBTQ event in May have been acquitted. The activists were taken into custody by police in a move that caused outrage among rights groups.

 

Ghana's LGBTQ community face an uncertain future with the proposal of a harsh anti-gay bill

Twenty-one LGBTQ activists, arrested in May on charges of "unlawful assembly," saw the charges against them dismissed by a court in Ghana on Thursday.

The 16 women and five men had been attending a paralegal training session conducted by Rightify Ghana, a human rights organization, in May. Police arrested the group for attending the training session, saying it promoted homosexuality, making it an unlawful gathering. They were released on bail by the country's High Court in June after more than three weeks of detention

Addressing the latest development, Chief Superintendent Akologo Yakubu Ayamga said: "What this means is that they cannot be brought back to court on the same charges. So they have been freed.”

The lawyer representing the 21 accused, Julia Averty, was pleased with the outcome. "We welcome the decision and that has always been our argument from the beginning of this case," adding, "it has been a rough journey since May, but, thankfully, the law has spoken." 

Ghana's stance on homosexuality

Gay sex is a criminal offense and punishable by up to three years imprisonment in the West African state. Those in the LGBTQ community are often victims of discrimination and abuse.

Ghanaian lawmakers are proposing harsher sentences and criminalizing LGBTQ advocacy in draft legislation that has made its way to parliament. The proposed bill has received global attention.

The Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill had its first reading in the House and, according to Rightify Ghana, has been referred to the Constitution and Legal Affairs Committee.

Rights groups concerned

Various rights groups, including Rightify Ghana and Human Rights Watch, had been vocal in their condemnation of the arrests. For Ghana's president, Nana Akufo-Addo, the measures on so-called family values come at a sensitive time as he tries to entice African-Americans into moving to Ghana.

Various celebrities with Ghanaian heritage lent their support to Ghana's LGBTQ community. Idris Elba and Naomi Campbell were among those who signed an open letter in which they expressed their concern about the state of LGBTQ rights in Ghana.

kb/sms (AFP, Reuters)

TINDERBOX

German Forest Summit: Three ways to revive dying woods

More German forest died in 2020 than any other year — even if spared the wildfires now blazing through southern Europe. Experts are debating solutions.


Germany's forests were spared the flames, but have been suffering from bark beetle plagues, among other things

In 2018, German forests burnt at around four times the rate they had in previous years, especially in the northern state of Brandenburg. But wildfires are not the problem for monoculture spruce conifer forests that dominate the wooded area covering one third of Germany. These forests are instead falling victim to bark beetle plagues thriving in dryer and hotter weather induced by global heating.

Germany's second national forest summit, appropriately titled "Waldsterben 2.0" (Forest Dieback), explores how to manage the German woods back to health in the midst of a climate crisis. Here are three suggestions that are on the table.

1. Better ecological forest management

One of the key themes at the second national forest summit being hosted at the Wohlleben Forest Academy in western Germany is forest restructuring and ecological forest management.

German woods have almost no old growth, and very little biodiversity. That makes them extremely vulnerable to climate change. This is due to poor forest management, say some of the experts attending the summit.

The prime target for reformation are "artificial" conifer forests that were largely planted after the war because they were fast-growing and could provide wood for reconstruction. Making up 25% of German forests today, the predominant spruce tree is an Alpine species that requires wet and cold conditions. Now they are badly struggling in non-native areas as they age, a process exacerbated by climate change.

IT'S DO OR DIE FOR GERMANY'S FORESTS

The forests are dying

German forests are dying in part due to drier and hotter summers, and heat-loving bark beetle plagues that have destroyed ubiquitous spruce trees. More trees died in Germany in 2020 than in any other previous year, including beech trees planted widely in the past decade for their climate resilience. This week's national forest summit titled "Waldsterben 2.0" (Forest Dieback) asks what can be done. 12345678

"Our forests are not natural forests," said Christopher Reyer, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and national forest summit participant.

Planted with very few other species, and containing very little biodiversity, these historical forest management "legacy effects" are being compounded by "unprecedented climate impacts on these types of trees," Reyer told DW.

Peter Wohlleben, forester, founder of the Wohlleben Forest Academy, and author of the bestseller, The Hidden Life of Trees, said that 50% or more of German forests could die in the next decade "because of bad management."

"My suggestion is to leave the forest alone," he said. "Natural forests can create their own local climate, whereas plantations get drier and hotter and cause their own problems," he added.

2. Fostering climate resilience through biodiversity

Climate impacts on forest are compounded by invasive timber harvesting, which also compacts the soil and limits its ability to retain water. On the first day of the summit, Wohlleben described a healthy native beech forest very close to his academy which had virtually no water runoff during the heavy rains that flooded nearby regions.

But the problem is not going away as the German timber industry continues to export much of its product to China and the US for construction, notes Judith Reise, a researcher at Germany's Oeko-Institut.

"Timber harvesting is not ecologically sustainable," she said, adding that removing all the dead and fallen wood from forests — not just for timber harvesting but also as part of the aesthetic cleaning forests for recreation purposes — has also depleted the microbial processes that are essential to biodiversity. This might increase fire risk in the short term, but the nurturing of old growth will ultimately increase the climate resilience of all forests, especially in terms of remaining cool and wet.

"Don't harvest trees that have biodiversity attached to them," suggested Sebastian Kirppu, a Swedish forest conservationist, during the summit.

Kirpuu said that in terms of biodiversity, forests in "Europe and Russia are the worst in the world."

He added that Red Listed species in these forests has increased significantly in recent years. In spite of sustainable forest certification for timber products, very few species are coming off the list, and more and more are being added.

"Biodiversity protection must be the basis for whatever we do," said Judith Reise. But so far only 2.8% of German forests are protected for biodiversity, well short of a 2020 target of 5%.

3. Using wood in a sustainable way

There are no easy solutions to Germany's forest crisis. While conservationist are calling for the forests to be left alone, low carbon timber products can also help fight global heating — especially as an alternative to CO2 heavy construction materials like steel and concrete.

"If we can use wood products in the best possible way, with the best possible life cycle, and the best possible recycling and upcycling strategy. If we rethink the way we use this wood, then it's a very powerful solution," said Reyer of the climate benefits.

"It's not that harvesting is always bad," he added, even if he agrees there should be less timber cutting, and that there should be more protected old growth. "But compared to all the other land uses, forestry is an area where we can have a quite a natural ecosystem and still create useful products."

This forest design will be one of the key issues at the forest summit when deciding how to spend the €1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) promised by the federal government in 2020 to support municipal and private forest owners for reforestation, among other measures.

One strategy, as a forester from Lübeck in northern Germany said at the summit, will be to shift from clear-felling to single-tree cutting to create "an ecological system in forestry."

Whatever the solutions, they will need to holistically encompass German forest health, climate resilience and productivity.


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Global wildfires: Greece a 'powder keg' as thousands flee their homes

People are fleeing their homes north of Athens as fires rage for a fourth day in a row. California has lost an entire town, while Brazil is bracing itself for another catastrophic fire season. 



Greek officials said the extreme heat has turned the country into a 'powder keg'

Thousands of residents fled a wildfire north of Athens early Friday as Greece's government warned of tough days ahead.

Firefighters continued their efforts to prevent the flames from reaching populated areas, electricity installations and historic sites, as the region faces its fourth day of inferno

In heat wave conditions, fires tore through forest areas 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) north of the capital, destroying dozens of homes. Fires are also causing destruction in the Peloponnese, a peninsula located at the southern tip of the mainland; and in Euboea, Greece's second-largest island. These two regions, along with Athens, are suffering blazes of "enormous strength and scale," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.

Nearly 60 villages and settlements were evacuated Thursday and early Friday across southern Greece, with temperatures set to increase in the coming days.

Mitsotakis warned of strong westerly winds on Friday, meaning the affected regions are going through an "unprecedented" situation "because the past few days of heat and drought have turned the country into a powder keg."

People are not allowed to visit forests until at least Monday, while any work involving sparks or flames is banned.

Fire crews, planes and helicopters from five European countries are set to arrive on Friday and across the weekend as the EU steps up efforts to halt the fires.

'All is tinder-dry, and it just takes the tiniest spark': Barbara Wesel reports from Athens

Here are the latest developments across the globe as several countries battle wildfires and increasing temperatures.

Turkey

Turkey entered its 10th consecutive day of fires, with 12 blazes still out of control, the Presidential Communications Office said on Friday.

The country is suffering from its most severe fires in well over a decade, with the worst-affected areas along Turkey's southern and western coastline, and in the regions of Antalya, Marmaris, Bodrum and Milas.

Flames engulfed several neighborhoods during the night in Milas, but with residents already evacuated, the fire was eventually brought under control by emergency crews.

At least eight people have died in Turkey since the fires broke out last Wednesday, and more than 100,000 hectares of forest and fields have fallen victim to the flames

Evacuations in southwest Turkey as wildfires reach power plant – DW's Julia Hahn reports

North Macedonia

Wildfires in North Macedonia have prompted the government to declare a 30-day state of crisis.

Over the course of the month-long emergency, the fire brigade, the military and security forces will fight the blazes.

Eight forest fires are still burning with the largest being near the village of Pehcevo in the center of North Macedonia.

NORTH MACEDONIA REELS FROM RAGING WILDFIRES DURING HEAT WAVE
State of emergency
North Macedonia has declared a state of emergency for 30 days in response to the wildfires that have been raging through the country for the last four days. That means the government in Skopje can centralize all resources and forces and take complete command of the situation from local communities. The scorching heat and strong winds have already resulted in huge damage.  123456

Albania

Albania's defense ministry has described its fires situation as "critical" because of the increasing threat to villages and residents' homes.

United States

A fire that has been raging for three weeks engulfed Greenville, California, on Wednesday and Thursday, prompting regional Republican representative Doug LaMalfa to say the town had been "lost" to the blazes.

The inferno left a trail of destruction, meaning most of Greenville's historic downtown and homes were reduced to ash as crews braced themselves for more severe weather in the coming days.

A Greenville gas station was among dozens of buildings destroyed by the Dixie Fire

The Dixie Fire, aided by winds of 40 miles per hour (64 kilometers per hour), "burnt down our entire downtown," Plumas County Supervisor Kevin Goss wrote on Facebook.

Greenville dates back to California's gold rush era with some wooden constructions well over 100 years old.

United Kingdom

The UK announced a £5 million ($7 million, €5.9 million) research program on Friday to help better prepare for the risks posed by climate change.

With nearby nations such as Germany and Belgium witnessing devastating floods recently, and large areas in southern Europe currently ablaze, the UK is taking urgent action.

"From flooding to wildfires – the extreme weather events we've recently witnessed show how crucial it is for communities to build resilience and protect their futures," Alok Sharma, president for the COP26 international climate talks to be held in Britain later this year, said in a statement.

The UK's independent climate advisers in the climate change committee have warned that Britain has so far failed to prepare for the upcoming changes. A warmer planet is likely to bring many challenges, including worsening food security and more health risks due to overheating buildings.

Brazil

Severe drought and early data suggests forest fires in Brazil this year will match those of 2019 and 2020 in terms of devastation caused.

With the Latin American country's forest fire season underway, the government space agency said last month more area was burned than in any July since 2016. Results for June were exactly the same, with that month's data also the worst in the last five years.

Most wildfires in Brazil are started intentionally, often illegally by land-grabbers clearing forest for cattle or crops. The fires tend to increase in intensity in June before peaking in September, according to historical data. They can easily get out of control during the dry season, burning large swaths of forest to the ground.

Brazil experienced catastrophic fires in the last two years, which caused the greatest annual forest loss since 2015. Widespread criticism from the international community ensued over the response to the crisis by the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly called for development of the region while ignoring the pleas of the indigenous population.

jsi/dj (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)

IN PICTURES: DEADLY EXTREME WEATHER SHOCKS THE WORLD
Fierce flash floods in Europe
Unprecedented flooding — caused by two months' worth of rainfall in two days — has resulted in devastating damage in western Europe, leaving at least 209 people dead in Germany and Belgium. Narrow valley streams swelled into raging floods in the space of hours, wiping out centuries-old communities. Rebuilding the ruined homes, businesses and infrastructure is expected to cost billions of euros. 34567891011

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Europe is burning: Four explanations

Barely halfway through summer, the area burned by wildfires raging through the Balkans, Italy and the southeastern Mediterranean has already eclipsed yearly averages.


Sheep are shepherded away from an advancing fire in Marmaris in western Turkey, a region struggling against its deadliest wildfires in decades

Wildfires burning across southern Europe in the last month — whether sparked naturally by lightning, or by arsonists — have been flamed by drought and extreme heat.

Scientists have no doubt that climate change is the key driver of yet another extreme fire season. They also understand that climate adaptation in fire-prone countries is inadequate to deal with wildfires that are set to worsen.

We look at why Mediterranean and Balkan countries are so prone to wildfires and explore the consequences of a warming world.

1. Why is the Mediterranean region burning now?

Summer wildfires are a natural and often necessary part of the life of Mediterranean forests. In the decade before 2016, around 48,000 forest fires burned 457,000 hectares annually across the five southern European nations where wildfires are most prevalent: Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and Greece. According to the scientists, fire can also breed renewal and foster biodiversity in these regions.

Indeed, communities have learned to cope better with the average annual fires in hot and arid regions across southern Europe, with more sophisticated fire prevention strategies leading to an overall decline in the number and size of fires since 1980.

But too often in recent years, fire events have escalated way beyond their normal size and intensity.

Devastating 2017 and 2018 wildfires claimed hundreds of lives across an area stretching from Turkey to Spain, while countries in central and northern Europe, including Sweden, were also scorched.

Such unprecedented fire events are inevitably linked to extreme droughts and heat waves.




2. What is starting the fires?

The month of July was the second-hottest ever recorded in Europe (and the third hottest globally). The south of the continent has been the focus of this extreme heat, with temperatures in Greece this week expected to peak at 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit).

Greece and neighboring Turkey are in the midst of a heat wave that could be the worst in 30 years — invoking memories of the nightmarish 1987 fire season that claimed more than 1,500 victims in Greece alone.

In Turkey, almost 200 separate wildfires have raged through the country in just over a week, forcing some coastal residents and tourists to flee into the Aegean for safety.

So while arson and natural causes such as lightning are equally to blame for starting the fires, extreme heat has increased their intensity and is the real culprit for the destruction wreaked across fire-hit regions. This is why at least 55% more area has burned across Europe by August 5 than the average over the previous 12 years.



This fact is compounded by outdated forest management, and sometimes even the over-protection of natural forests.

A fire on August 1 blazed through the Pineta Dannunziana, an urban pine forest in the Italian city of Pescara, forcing 800 people to evacuate. But because the area is a protected nature reserve, it is not subject to forest management such as regular clearing of undergrowth or being subjected to controlled burns. "The undergrowth burned very quickly," said Carlo Masci, mayor of Pescara.

Meanwhile, existing fire suppression policies do not account for the impact of global heating on the flammability of areas where wildlands (sometimes grown up on abandoned agricultural land) and expanding urban centers more commonly interface. This was evidenced by the flaming outer suburbs of Athens this week.

"In most Mediterranean regions, the current wildfire management policies are generally too focused on suppression and are no longer adapted to the ongoing global change," wrote the authors of a 2021 study on "Understanding Changes to Fires in Southern Europe."

3. So what has climate got to do with it?

While the burned area of the Mediterranean region has decreased slightly over the last 40 years, this is mainly due to more effective fire control efforts, according to the European Environment Agency (EEA).

Global heating increases the frequency and severity of fire weather conditions globally — as witnessed during the unprecedented wildfires across Australia and California in recent years. And inevitably, climate change has increased forest fire risk across the whole of Europe, including central and northern regions that are not typically fire-prone.

The current record droughts and heat waves across the Mediterranean region echo the events of 2018 when "more countries suffered large fires than ever before," according to the EEA.

In Greece, more than 100 people died in the so-called Attica fires of 2018 — the second-deadliest fire event this century after the 2009 "Black Saturday" fires in Australia.

"An expansion of fire-prone areas and longer fire seasons are projected in most European regions," stated the EEA.

Carbon emissions are not decreasing fast enough to limit this heating, despite climate agreements such as the European Green Deal and Paris Climate Accord.

"They put out plans, they define goals, but they don't really act," said Mojib Latif, a climate scientist at the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research. "Since 1990, global carbon emissions increased 60%," he told DW, adding that emissions will rise again in 2021 following the pandemic-related slowdown the previous year.

4. What are the global climate change repercussions?

Globally, wildfires are responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions, and for 5% to 8% of the 3.3 million annual premature deaths from poor air quality, according to climate group Carbon Brief.

But carbon emissions from wildfires have been on the decline in recent decades. This again is due to improved fire prevention.

The problem remaining is fire severity or intensity, which has a more far-reaching effect on carbon sequestration since forests burn so badly that they do not regrow.

In 2017, CO2 emissions from extreme wildfires across southwestern Europe (namely the Iberian Peninsula, southern France and Italy) were the highest since at least 2003, reaching approximately 37 teragrams of CO2.

To put this in context, the exceptionally wide-ranging wildfires over the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean coast in 2003 accounted for the same level of anthropogenic emissions as all of western Europe for that year.

And if the wildfire intensity kills off significant forest cover in 2021, the resulting loss of carbon sinks could be even more devastating for the climate.


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Greece faces worst heat wave in over three decades

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Mediterranean faces fiercer heatwaves, drought, fires: UN draft report



Issued on: 06/08/2021 

Much of Europe is sweltering in a heat wave and Greece and Turkey are battling huge wild fires - Eurokinissi/AFP/File


Paris (AFP)

The Mediterranean will be hit by ever fiercer heatwaves, drought and fires supercharged by rising temperatures, according to a draft United Nations assessment seen exclusively by AFP that warns the region is a "climate change hotspot".

The assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- to be published next year -- details the future impacts that carbon pollution will have on the region, which this week sweltered in above-average temperatures while Greece and Turkey battle record-breaking blazes.

The Mediterranean's more than half-a-billion inhabitants face "highly interconnected climate risks," says a chapter dedicated to the region in a draft of the IPCC's Working Group II report on climate impacts, due for official release in February 2022.


"Reasons for concern include sea-level rise related risks, land and marine biodiversity losses, risks related to drought, wildfire, alterations of water cycle, endangered food production, health risks in both urban and rural settlements from heat, and altered disease vectors," is its grim assessment.

The draft predicts that temperatures across the Mediterranean are likely to rise faster than the global average in the decades to come, threatening the region's vital agriculture, fisheries and tourism sectors.

Tens of millions more inhabitants will face heightened risk of water shortages, coastal flooding and exposure to potentially deadly extreme heat, it warns.

Depending on how quickly humanity reins in its greenhouse gas emissions, some Mediterranean regions could see rain-fed crop yields decrease by 64 percent, the draft predicts.

Currently, 71 percent of the Middle East and North Africa region's GDP is exposed to high or very high water stress, and 61 percent of its population, it says.

The burnt area of forests in Mediterranean Europe is projected to increase by up to 87 percent if Earth's average surface temperature warms two degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, and as much as 187 percent in a 3C-hotter world.

Global heating has seen the planet warm 1.1C so far.

While not predicted to be the region of the world worst affected by rising temperatures, the IPCC draft identifies the Mediterranean as a "climate change hotspot".

Sakis MITROLIDIS AFP/File

The most comprehensive assessment of climate impacts ever assembled concludes that only a scenario in which global warming is limited to below 2C -- the core target of the 2015 Paris Agreement -- "is likely to maintain coastal settlements, cultural heritage sites, land and ocean ecosystems in a viable state in most parts of the (Mediterranean) basin".

- More likely, more intense -

Although individual fires such as those in Greece and Turkey are hard to blame directly on warmer temperatures, heatwaves and drought caused by climate change are increasing their probability.

"Every heatwave occurring today is made more likely and more intense by human-caused climate change," Friederike Otto, associate director at the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute, told AFP.

"Heatwaves are the type of extremes where climate change is really a game changer and it is a major way how climate change has manifested for years already."

Otto, who is co-lead of the World Weather Attribution service that measures climate change's impacts on weather events, said extreme heat was the most pressing threat facing the Mediterranean region as heatwaves "are by far the deadliest extreme events in Europe".

The IPCC draft predicts that up to 93 million more people in the northern Mediterranean could face high or very high heat stress by mid-century.

Depending on how aggressively humanity draws down greenhouse gas emissions, the risk of heat-related death for elderly people in the Middle East and North Africa will be between three and 30 times higher by century's end, it shows.

- Heat threat -

Climate models project warming across the Mediterranean region about 20 percent higher than global averages, according to the draft.

Southern Europe is currently in the grips of a crippling heatwave with near-record temperatures.

Ilan Kelman, professor of disasters and health at University College London's Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, said that when it came to disasters such as fire or flooding, there were practical steps that governments and planners could take to mitigate risk.

These include building less on flood- or fire-prone regions, better forest management, and creating easy, robust escape plans for when things go wrong.

Water stress and scarcity is set to worsen across the Mediterranean 

PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA AFP/File

"Heat is different. Climate change is pushing us into areas where we cannot survive," he told AFP.

"To survive this level of heat, the only option is 24/7 indoor cooling and people cannot afford that. We're going to get power outages. The only way is stopping human-caused climate change."

- 'Substantially increasing' risk -

Matthew Jones, research fellow at the University of East Anglia's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said the average number of days where the Mediterranean faces extreme fire weather conditions had roughly doubled since the 1980s.

"Climate change is forcing Mediterranean landscapes into a flammable state more regularly by drying out vegetation and priming it to burn," he said.

Air quality has sharply dipped in burning regions of Greece and Turkey, and pollution from the blazes had reached as far as Cyprus, according to Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the EU's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.

With the population set to reach 657 million by 2050 in Mediterranean areas vulnerable to extreme events, more people are likely to be affected in the future.

"Even if humans were not changing the climate, the risk of these sorts of disasters would be ever-present and substantially increasing," said Kelman.

"We are putting more people and property in harm's way and we are not training people to be able to deal with atypical environmental events like fires, floods and droughts."

© 2021 AFP

Greece, Turkey battle fierce fires as heatwave continues



Issued on: 06/08/2021 - 

Flames rise from a fire spreading around Kapandriti, on the outskirts of Athens 

Louisa GOULIAMAKI AFP

Athens (AFP)

Hundreds of firefighters battled a blaze on the outskirts of Athens on Friday as dozens of fires raged in Greece in what the prime minister dubbed a "critical situation," while neighbouring Turkey came under increasing pressure over its handling of wildfires.

Greece and Turkey have been fighting blaze upon blaze over the past week, hit by the worst heatwave in decades, a disaster that officials and experts have linked to increasingly frequent and intense weather events caused by climate change.

French firefighters arrived in Greece on Thursday night to help, while Switzerland, Sweden, Romania and Israel are due to send back-up.

"Our country is facing an extremely critical situation," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said late Thursday, putting six out of 13 regions in the country under high alert.

A person watches a fire fighter dousing flames from the top of a truck as a fire spreads around the village of Afidnes, some 30 kilometres north of Athens 

LOUISA GOULIAMAKI AFP

"We're facing unprecedented conditions after several days of heatwave have turned the country into a powder keg."

Some 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of Athens, a fierce blaze ate through vast areas of pine forest, forcing yet more evacuations of villages overnight and blowing thick, choking smoke all over the Greek capital.

Fighting wildfires David LORY AFP

In the small town of Afidnes, firefighters were seen standing on their truck in the dead of night, dousing flames that leapt high above them.

Part of a motorway linking Athens to the north of the country has been shut down as a precaution.

- Foreign help -

Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias said that out of 99 fires reported on Thursday, 57 were still active during the night, notably on the island of Evia where monks who refused to leave their monastery had been forcibly evacuated.

Around 82 French firefighters -- both military and civilian -- arrived on Thursday evening, a French official said.

A dead animal lies amongst burnt trees on a hillside on Evia Island 

LOUISA GOULIAMAKI AFP

France was also due to send two water-bombing planes, as was Sweden, while Romania was to dispatch 112 firefighters and 23 vehicles and Switzerland three helicopters, a spokesman for the Greek firefighters told AFP.

Israel, too, said it is planning to dispatch an aircraft carrying 15 firefighters and a large cargo of flame retardant.

Given the extreme danger, the Greek authorities have issued a blanket ban on any visits to forests, national parks or nature spots until Monday.

"If some people still doubt if climate change is real, let them come and see the intensity of phenomena here," Mitsotakis said Thursday while inspecting the ruins where the first Olympic Games were held in ancient times, also threatened by flames.

Villagers were evacuated by sea by Turkish coastguards after a deadly wildfire engulfed the outer edges of the 35-year-old Kemerkoy thermal power plant storing thousands of tonnes of coal Yasin AKGUL AFP

The blazes also forced the government of North Macedonia to declare a 30-day state of emergency and the defence ministry in its Balkan neighbour Albania to declare the situation "critical" because of the threat to village homes.

- Erdogan under fire -

In Turkey, 208 fires have lit up since July 28, and 12 were still ablaze on Friday, according to the Turkish presidency.

Eight people have died and dozens have been hospitalised across the southern coasts of the country.

In one particularly critical event earlier this week, winds whipped up a flash fire that subsumed the grounds of an Aegean coast power plant in Turkey storing thousands of tonnes of coal.

A man pushes a bike along a road in the vicinity of a forest fire close to the Kemerkoy Thermal Power Plant in northen Turkey Yasin AKGUL AFP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office said an initial inspection conducted after the flames had been doused showed "no serious damage to the main units in the plant".

The government is facing rising pressure after the opposition referred to a report which showed only a fraction of the budget for forest fire prevention had been spent.

The General Directorate of Forestry (OGM) spent only 1.75 percent of nearly 200 million Turkish lira ($23 million) allocated for forest fires in the first six months of 2021, main opposition party MP Murat Emir said, referring to numbers apparently from the state agency's own report, which he submitted in a parliamentary question.

"This is a situation that could one could go as far as to describe as treachery," he told AFP.

Erdogan has come under especially withering criticism for being slow or unwilling to accept some offers of foreign assistance after revealing that Turkey had no functioning firefighting planes.

The government has defended itself by blaming the Turkish Aeronautical Association, which Erdogan said at the weekend had not been able to update its fleet and technology.

burs/mbx/spm

© 2021 AFP

Villager speaks of 'hell on earth' as Turkey battles wildfires

DPA

August 06, 2021

Firefighters work to extinguish burning trees as wildfires have been raging for nearly 10 days near Mugla. Thousands of ground personnel, backed by firefighter planes, drones and helicopters, were striving to tackle massive wildfires across seven cities and provinces in southern TurkeyMugla is one of the regions hardest hit by the fires. Hakan Akgun/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Firefighters work to extinguish burning trees as wildfires have been raging for nearly 10 days near Mugla. Thousands of ground personnel, backed by firefighter planes, drones and helicopters, were striving to tackle massive wildfires across seven cities and provinces in southern TurkeyMugla is one of the regions hardest hit by the fires. Hakan Akgun/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Turkish emergency crews continued to battle the worst fires seen in years for the 10th consecutive day on Friday.

Twelve fires still remain out of control, the Presidential Communications Office said on Friday.

The worst fires are burning along Turkey's southern and western coastline, in the regions of Antalya, Marmaris, Bodrum and Milas.

Later, officials said two of the fires near Antalya had been brought under control. Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli thanked rescue workers for their efforts in a tweet on Friday.

The flames engulfed several neighbourhoods during the night in Milas, but residents had already been evacuated from their homes, the local authorities said.

The Milas fire is now under control, but in other areas, flames threaten to engulf residential areas: A time-lapse video from Thursday showed a wall of fire consume a village in half an hour.

The fires also caused devastating damage in Manavgat in Antalya. "This is hell on earth," Murat Olcay, who lost his house in the village of Kalemler, told dpa.

He said the fire had swept through the village within the space of just half an hour, burning countless homes in no time at all.

He was only just able to escape on foot, he said.

More than 200 forest fires broke out last Wednesday across several provinces, in the worst blazes seen in more than 13 years. Many of the fires are still burning with unprecedented intensity.

At least eight people have died and at least 100,000 hectares of forest and fields have fallen victim to the flames, according to estimates.

In Marmaris alone, an area of more than 16,000 hectares has been burned by the fires, the local authorities said.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose constituency is in Antalya, had hopeful words on Thursday night, saying the wind was due to die down in Antalya on Friday. He said he hoped the fires there could be brought under control.

Of the residents evacuated across the nation, some are now staying in schools and sports stadiums.

The authorities have issued lists of things that people need, ranging from cutlery to plates, pillows and blankets.

On Friday, Cavusoglu called his Greek counterpart, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, as his country is also battling extensive wildfires.

The two ministers agreed to help each other in fighting the flames, although they said this would only be possible when each country had managed to control the fires in their own territory.

The two countries have been fighting for decades over sovereign rights in the Aegean Sea and over the Cyprus issue, and the situation had further escalated in recent months.


Firefighters work to extinguish burning trees as wildfires have been raging for nearly 10 days near Mugla. Thousands of ground personnel, backed by firefighter planes, drones and helicopters, were striving to tackle massive wildfires across seven cities and provinces in southern TurkeyMugla is one of the regions hardest hit by the fires. Hakan Akgun/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa


Firefighters work to extinguish burning trees as wildfires have been raging for nearly 10 days near Mugla. Thousands of ground personnel, backed by firefighter planes, drones and helicopters, were striving to tackle massive wildfires across seven cities and provinces in southern TurkeyMugla is one of the regions hardest hit by the fires. Hakan Akgun/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

On the frontline: Afghan woman governor recruits anti-Taliban militia

Issued on: 06/08/2021

Female district governor Salima Mazari is on a mission -- recruiting men to fight the Taliban 

FARSHAD USYAN AFP

Charkint (Afghanistan) (AFP)

Salima Mazari sits nonchalantly in the front seat of a pickup as it cruises through a rural district of northern Afghanistan; a popular local song belts out from a loudspeaker stuck on top of the vehicle.

Mazari, a female district governor in male-dominated Afghanistan, is on a mission -- recruiting men to fight the Taliban.

"Homeland... I sacrifice my life for you," the song goes -- and, these days, she is asking her constituents to do just that.

The Taliban have swept through much of rural Afghanistan since early May, when US President Joe Biden called time on America's longest war and ordered his troops home.

Life has changed little in many areas the insurgents have captured, but in Charkint -- the ruggedly remote district of mountains and valleys that Mazari governs, about an hour south of Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh province -- the stakes are higher.

"Taliban are exactly the ones who trample human rights," she said.

Under Taliban rule women and girls were denied education and employment, but even after the militants downfall in 2001 attitudes have changed slowly 

FARSHAD USYAN AFP

Under Taliban rule women and girls were denied education and employment, but even after the militants' downfall in 2001 attitudes have changed slowly.

"Socially, people were not ready to accept a female leader," Mazari told AFP, her head modestly covered with a butterfly-patterned shawl, her eyes hidden behind oversized sunglasses.

- Targeted community -

Mazari is also a member of the Hazara community -- most of whom are Shia Muslims, who the Sunni Taliban consider a heretical sect.

They have been regularly targeted by the Taliban and Islamic State fighters, including an attack on a school in the capital in May that killed more than 80 girls.

Half the district Mazari nominally governs is already under Taliban control, so she spends a lot of time recruiting fighters to defend the rest.

ARABIAN NIGHTS

A member of Mazari's volunteer force keeps watch against a backdrop of a starry sky in Charkint district, northern Afghanistan FARSHAD USYAN AFP

Hundreds of locals -- including farmers, shepherds and labourers -- have joined her cause, at enormous cost.

"Our people didn't have guns but they went and sold their cows, sheep, and even their land, to buy weapons," Mazari said.

"They are on the frontline every day and night without getting any kind of credit or salary."

District police chief Sayed Nazir believes the only reason the Taliban haven't taken over is because of this local resistance.

"Our achievements are due to our people's support," he told AFP, still smarting from a leg wound he received recently fighting the Taliban.

Mazari has so far recruited some 600 locals to supplement the conventional security forces in the district -- including Sayed Munawar, 53, who took up arms after 20 years of farming.

"We used to be craftsmen and workers until they attacked our villages," he told AFP at an outpost manned by police and local volunteers.

"They took a nearby village and raided their carpets and goods... we were forced to buy weapons and ammunition."

- Studies put on hold -

Faiz Mohammad, 21, is another volunteer -- putting his political science studies on hold to fight the Taliban.

He hadn't seen combat until three months ago, but since then has fought three battles.

A member of Mazari's volunteer force keeps watch from a hilltop machinegun post in Charkint district, northern Afghanistan 

FARSHAD USYAN AFP

"The heaviest fight was a few nights ago when we had to repel seven attacks," he told AFP, dressed in civvies and listening to mournful Hazara music on a cheap Chinese-made cellphone.

In Charkint, villagers still have bad memories of life under the Taliban before the hardline Islamic regime was toppled by the 2001 US-led invasion.

And Governor Mazari knows if they return, they would never tolerate a woman in such a leadership position.

"Women would be banned from educational opportunities and our youth would be deprived of employment," she said, leading a meeting with militia commanders at her office, preparing for the next fight.

© 2021 AFP

Sky News Australia faces Senate grilling over Covid videos


Issued on: 06/08/2021 

YouTube suspended Sky News Australia for one week over covid misinformation 

Robyn Beck AFP

Sydney (AFP)

Sky News Australia will face a Senate inquiry after serving a week-long suspension by YouTube over Covid-19 misinformation concerns, the senator in charge of the hearing said Friday.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned news channel faces a Senate panel hearing on August 13.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, chair of the upper house's media diversity committee, said her panel had called Sky News Australia executives, YouTube, and the Australian media regulator to appear.

"Australians are rightly worried about the promotion and dissemination of Covid lies and conspiracy theories that put lives at risk and undermine public health," she said.

YouTube temporarily cut Sky News Australia from its 1.87 million subscribers last week, saying it had removed some videos and "issued a strike" against the channel.

Without citing specific video content, YouTube said it does not allow medical misinformation about Covid-19 that contradicts health authorities' guidance.

Sky News Australia's posts, including some questioning whether there is a pandemic and the efficacy of vaccines, are widely shared on social media forums around the world that spread virus and vaccine misinformation.

It returned to uploading videos this week under the headline: "Uncancelled: Sky News Australia Set Free."

YouTube has a "three strikes" policy on violations, with the first resulting in a one-week suspension, a second strike within 90 days producing a two-week ban, and a third leading to permanent removal from the platform.

Sky News Australia was not immediately available to comment on Friday evening.

Following the initial YouTube suspension, a spokesperson for the channel said: "We support broad discussion and debate on a wide range of topics and perspectives which is vital to any democracy".

"We take our commitment to meeting editorial and community expectations seriously."

Hanson-Young also said Australia's television regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, appeared to have been "sitting on its hands".

"If information is too dangerous for the internet, surely it's too dangerous to be on our TV screens," said the senator, who has been a long-time critic of Murdoch-owned media outlets.

The Senate committee has also called the nation's chief medical officers to answer questions about the dangers posed by medical misinformation, she said.

© 2021 AFP

French wine production faces historic low after frost disaster

Issued on: 06/08/2021 - 

A spring cold snap caused devastation in French vineyards 

Sylvain THOMAS POOL/AFP

Paris (AFP)

France's wine output this year will go on record as one of the worst in history, if not the worst, after severe spring frosts devastated vines, the agriculture ministry said on Friday.

France, the world's second-largest wine producer after Italy, is likely to see its production drop between 24 and 30 percent in 2021, taking it to a "historically low" level, the ministry said.

It is already certain to fall below output seen in 1991 and 2017, the two most recent years of disastrous harvests amputated by bouts of late frost.

"For now, it looks like the yield will be comparable to that of 1977, a year when the the vine harvest was reduced by both destructive frost and summer downpours," the ministry said.

Several nights of frost in early April caused some of the most damage in decades to crops and vines across the country, including its best-known and prestigious wine-producing regions from Bordeaux to Burgundy and the Rhone valley to Champagne

Overall output, also affected by an onslaught of mildew prompted by heavy summer rains, is projected to come at in between 32.6 and 35.6 million hectolitres, the ministry said.

As well as wine producers, growers of kiwis, apricots, apples and other fruit have been badly hit along with farmers of other crops such as beet and rapeseed.

Apricot production is headed for its worst year in more than four decades, the ministry said, falling by half from its average seen over the previous five years.

Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie has called the frost attack "probably the greatest agricultural catastrophe of the beginning of the 21st century".

Some scientists say that climate change has sharply increased the odds of such events happening again.

World Weather Attribution, an international organisation that analyses the link between extreme weather events and global warming, said in a study in June that a warmer climate had increased the probability of an extreme frost coinciding with a growing period by 60 percent.

© 2021 AFP

French wine production faces lowest output in decades after cold spells, heavy rains

Issued on: 06/08/2021 - 

French vineyards have been severely hit by this spring's freezing temperatures, followed by heavy downpours this summer. © Clotaire Achi, REUTERS

Text by: NEWS WIRES

France’s wine production could slump by as much as 30% this year, to its lowest level in decades, after vineyards were hit by spring frosts and summer downpours, its farm ministry said.

Champagne producers have warned that harvest potential has been cut by about half due to severe spring frosts followed by torrential summer rain that caused mildew fungus.

In its first outlook for 2021 wine output, the French farm ministry on Friday projected wine output at between 32.6 million and 35.6 million hectolitres, 24-30% less than last year.

A hectolitre is the equivalent of 100 litres, or 133 standard wine bottles.

“Wine production in 2021 is forecast to be historically weak, below levels in 1991 and 2017 that were also affected by severe frost in spring,” it said in a report.

“Yields are expected to be close to those of 1977, a year when the harvest was cut by damaging frost and summer rainfall.”

The impact on market supply and prices, however, could be limited by inventories built up during the coronavirus pandemic.

Champagne producers also say their longstanding practice of using stocks from previous seasons will prevent any spike in prices of the sparkling wine.

Overall production would be the lowest since at least 1970, ministry data showed, with nearly all production hit by frosts.

Meanwhile mildew disease spawned by soggy summer conditions had affected areas including Champagne, Alsace and Beaujolais.

(REUTERS)