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EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ARE being plagued by heatwaves and wildfires once again this summer, with temperatures in Mediterranean countries hitting 40C and above this week.
Eleven people were killed by a massive wildfire in Turkey last night while fires have also led to the evacuation of several villages in Greece, which is experiencing its earliest ever heatwave that has claimed the lives of several tourists.
Cyprus and Italy are also suffering extreme temperatures, with the Italian health ministry issuing red alerts for Rome and Palermo among other cities.
Scientists have warned that heatwaves and wildfires are becoming more common and lasting longer as a result of climate change.
The deadly wildfire in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast occurred overnight, the country’s health minister said.
Hundreds of animals also perished or were badly injured in the blaze that roared across the dry landscape, sending flames into the night sky.
By morning the fire had left huge areas of charred and blackened land across the Diyarbakir and Mardin provinces.
“Eleven people lost their lives,” Health Minister Fahrettin Koca wrote on X, adding that another 78 people suffered injuries and smoke inhalation.
Of that number, five people were being treated in intensive care, he said.
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM party, which won many municipalities in the southeast in the March local elections, criticised the government’s intervention as “late and insufficient”.
During the night, DEM had urged the government to send water bomber planes, saying fighting the blaze from the ground was “not enough”.
An AFP reporter in Koksalan village in Diyarbakir province saw around 100 animals lying dead on the ground.
Residents told the news agency around half their flock of about 1,000 sheep and goats had been killed by the fire.
Seracettin Bedirhanoglu, a member of the opposition CHP party and leader of the eastern Van province, described the images as “unbearable”, urging vets to go to the area to help treat the wounded animals.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on X the public prosecutor’s office had opened a probe into the cause of the fire.
Turkey has suffered 74 wildfires so far this year, which have devastated 12,910 hectares of land, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.
Firefighters have been battling wildfires on the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece for the third day in a row and several villages have had to be evacuated.
At least four major blazes were recorded in the southern peninsula in an area between 150 to 250 kilometres southwest of Athens.
The fires claimed their first victim today when a 55-year-old man collapsed and died while helping to fight one of the blazes.
Dozens of firefighters were battling to contain a fire near a power station outside the town of Magapoli, supported by 12 vehicles, six water-bomber planes and two helicopters, according to the Greek news agency ANA.
“The conditions are extremely challenging,” fire department spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis told reporters.
“The wind speeds have exceeded 95 kilometres per hour in some regions,” Vathrakogiannis said, adding that this was making life difficult for planes dropping water on the fires.
In all, he said “45 fire outbreaks have been recorded across the country,” the spokesman said.
The fire service had quickly contained a blaze that erupted near the seaside resort of Mavro Lithari close to the capital, he said, while urging civilians to take precautions.
Since Wednesday, Greek authorities have warned of a very high wildfire risk due to strong winds and high temperatures.
Two villages and three private schools were evacuated near Koropi on Wednesday due to a fire that broke out 30 kilometres southeast of Athens.
Accustomed to searing summer heat, Greece has been preparing for a particularly difficult wildfire season for weeks.
In 2023, Greece experienced an unprecedented two-week heatwave followed by devastating wildfires.
The flames consumed nearly 175,000 hectares of forest and farmland, according to the National Observatory of Athens.
In Rome, where the air force recorded a peak of 39C on Thursday afternoon, the city hall has installed potted palm trees at bus stops to provide some shade.
While the capital has many parks and is dotted with drinking water fountains in addition to the decorative ones, there are also many streets and piazzas with little to no cover from the sun.
The occasional palm was not enough to offset the sauna-like heat and during lunchtimes this week, many have spurned outside tables for the cool of air-conditioned restaurants.
“We’ll go back to the hotel for a while to avoid the hottest hours,” Anna Verna, an Italian tourist to Rome, told AFP while visiting an area near the famous Spanish Steps.
“Then we’ll go out again… Rome is beautiful, so we want to enjoy it even in the heat.”
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace took a thermal camera onto the streets of Rome and found temperatures above 50C at certain spots, including the Colosseum.
Last year, Rome recorded a record peak temperature of 42.9C on 18 July, according to city hall.
“A record, unfortunately, that we risk breaking this summer,” said Sabrina Alfonsi, lead councillor for the environment.
“Summer has already exploded, even though it is still June.”
With reporting from AFP
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I still didn’t get a bloody tan.
My grandfather said the same in the 1900′s
“The North and South Poles are not melting.” In that report, oceanographer Ted Maksym noted that polar ice “is much more stable than climate scientists once predicted and could even be much thicker than previously thought.”
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Al Gore , the Guru,said al the Arctic ice would be gone by 2014. He was wrong.
As a result of this global warming/climate change hysteria and it’s attendant scams every aspect of your life has been interfered with and has become more expensive. Old people have died in Ireland and the UK and on the Continent as a result of having to choose between food and heat. Further afield people are starving as food is turned into fuel. People like Al Gore make millions while having the ‘carbon footprints’ of small towns and all the time carbon is nothing more than plant food NOT the poison the alarmists make it out to be and yet we are force fed articles like this written by the useful idiots of the green religion. Wake up folks, you are being taken for a very expensive ride.
I fully agree with Uncle Mort, the biggest rip off in history, set to destroy western values and way of life and when the warmers do that they will walk off into the sunset leaving us with the mess
In before the anti-science brigade claiming that all this talk of global warming is just a conspiracy cooked up by a secret cabal of climate scientists which has been exposed by a plucky bunch of amateur oil billionaires and venture capitalists.
One of the main causes of global warming is the destruction of Rainforests …
One of the driving forces behind the economics that have driven this is none other than Peter Sutherland and his GATT arrangement…..
This is undeniable economic and historical fact .
Does Peter Sutherland want to kill trees – probably not. Are his policies destroying trees -definitely .
That will help you distinguish between fantastical theories and economic and historical facts Robin …
Or to put it simply fats buck in third world resources is destroying the planet and the beauty of it all is that no-one is to blame – “It’s just business !” …
*fast – but fats works just as well actually …
Re Robin
You mean cooked up by 2-3% of scientists. That 97% of scientists agree has been rubbished.
No one who is 18 years old or younger has experienced global warming.
As I said, in before the tinfoil hat brigade!
*sheesh*
Sorry, I forgot to provide link to backup my statement on the 97% of scientists agree rubbish.
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2014/03/16_not_97_agree.html
Here’s that 97% figure from a peer-reviewed scientific journal, rather than a crank website:
http://m.iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024024
“Among abstracts expressing a position on AGW, 97.1% endorsed the consensus position that humans are causing global warming.”
Re Robin
Well the fact you are referencing this site shows you believe in AGW as defined by the IPCC which is that it is solely caused by man made co2 emissions.
It’s hard to have debates with people devoid of reason and bought off scientists. All the factors that can contribute to climate change(natural anyway), hundreds of them, and you believe that man made co2 emissions is the sole cause. Good God.
Man made co2 emissions make up 2-3% of all co2 emissions with planet Earth providing the other 98-97%. And you believe man made co2 emissions are solely to blame…
As I said above, innit great that all these thousands of climate scientists, bought off by bearded, nasal hippies and voluptuous earth mother types, have been exposed by a tiny group of amateur oil billionaires and venture caps?
Makes me proud to be human, it does!
So libertarian bloggers are henceforward the sole determiner of Climate Change, got it.
Congratulations Robin. Straw Men, Ad Hominum, Appeals to authority – three fallacies in one sentence. That takes some doing. None of the fallacies of course actually mean anything.
Even if you don’t believe in climate change you cannot deny green energy is the best way to power a society. Cheap, clean and doesn’t run out
“The global surface temperature average (land and sea) for 2014 was nominally the warmest since the global instrumental record began in 1850; however, within the margin of error, it is tied with 2005 and 2010 and so we can’t be certain it set a new record.”
The only conclusion to be drawn from the addition of 2014 data is that the post-1997 standstill seen in global annual average surface temperature has continued for one more year making it now about 17 years in duration. This is the opposite of what is claimed in the Nasa press release.
It is clear beyond doubt by now that there is a growing discrepancy between computer climate projections and real-world data that questions their ability to produce meaningful projections about future climatic conditions.
@stephen lane, Hilliard and co are masters of the sneer and jeer and little else. The Climategate 2 emails showed the nastiness behind the climate fraud.
Not if you actually read the stolen emails, Mort.
Which I suspect you didn’t.
Robin,
What was the volcanic activity like in 2014 compared to other years ?
When you find that out then you can talk about Glowbull Warming.
“Even if you don’t believe in climate change you cannot deny green energy is the best way to power a society. Cheap, clean and doesn’t run out”
Absolute rubbish on all accounts. You cant design a grid around “green” energy – its all but useless without fossil fuel. And btw, it takes copious amounts of fossil fuel to build and install wind turbines.
So they are a complete waste of resources :
http://www.scotsman.com/news/comment-renewables-drain-our-resources-1-3659067
Let’s just have a bit of perspective here.
It’s hotter by four one-hundreths of a degree. This is within the margin of error that the reports provide, so basically we don’t know if it was a hot year as the temperature rise was too small.
Try read that bit again there young Horgay:
“For the year, the average temperature was 0.69 degree Celsius above the 20th century average, beating the previous record-holding years of 2005 and 2010 by 0.04 C.”
Don’t be too harsh, Horgay has reading difficulties.
It appears, that even in Ireland , we have some Bible thumping, ‘world is flat’ , in denial , GOP – Tea Party types, who just haven’t even noticed – the weather changes , the ice melts , the extremities of heat and cold weather !
Well in the REAL World, in my 63 years , there has been a remarkable change in our weather and environment .
Speak to anyone – who is prepared to be truly honest . But unfortunately honesty is somewhat sadly lacking – where there is conflict of interest , or a narrow minded outlook !
Differing daily measured values from the old and new sensors for temperature measurement spurred the author [Hager] to conduct a comparison spanning from January 1, 1999 to July 31, 2006 at Fliegerhorst Lechfeld (WMO 10856) 8-1/2 years long, daily without interruption, among other comparison tests of mercury maximum glass thermometers in a Stevenson screen and a Pt 100 resistance thermometer inside an aluminum enclosure, both unventilated. The 3144 days yielded a mean difference of +0.93°C; the Pt 100 was higher than the mercury thermometer. The maximum daily difference even reached 6.4°C! Klaus Hager
@An Ciarraioch, your anecdotal opinion on climate is not exactly scientific , climate always changes.
Remarkable change in you 63 years? Really?
So 1947, 1963,1976 & 1977 were not extreme years? If a slight increase in temprature is in fact global warming then I’m all for it. Anyway, as soon as it does warm up we won’t have to burn as much oil and gas to warm our homes so it is all good really!
@Jack Delaney, I can give better anecdotal evidence than our friend for 47, 63, etc and recall going up to Blessington in 63 where the snow reached the phone wires and the army Auster plane was dropping fodder to sheep :-)
BTW the records show that 1934 was the warmest decade in the last 100 but NASA/GISS seem to have misplaced the data when the ecoloon Hansen retired.
Uncle Mort, you just prompted my memory of 1963 because although I was a small boy I do recall that Christmas, on a vist to relatives in the countryside, getting stuck in snow. My uncle had just purchased a new MF 35 tractor the year before and came to rescue us by towing the car to his yard. I think that 1973 was also a funny year when we lost a 200 year old tree from wind in early January of that year.
Yes Jack – We won’t have to Worry ? – most of our homes will be under water ??????????
You’ll need more oil Jack, if the temperature goes up the Gulf Stream will slow down and our weather will be closer to Canada’s
Always worth familarising oneself with a new religion. The Church of Global Warming has its dogma (“97% of scientists yadadada”) , its Prophets (Michael Mann, Al Gore), its Priests (Climate (ahem) “scientists”), Its Holy Books (IPCC annual reports). It preaches that sinning will result in damnation. etc etc etc – you get the drift. Basically its all bollox.
As I said above hours ago, in before the tinfoil hat brigade.
Insult is the scraping of the bottom of the barrel
The tinfoil hat brigade are the ones who dont even understand the first thing about the 2nd law of Thermodynamics but lecture to others on “globull warming”.
Do us all a favour Robin – go and borrow a book on physics please.
Global warming is just another excuse for more carbon tax
Most sensible comment yet.
Very very very very very very sensible comment
Man made climate change is a fact. Climate change deniers fall into the category of evolution deniers. Scientists overwhelmingly agree and the evidence comes from a multiplicity of sources, peer reviewed articles and so on. Thankfully intelligent people understand this.
However, reversing this and acting on it, of course, are 2 different things. However it doesn’t help having people who don’t understand the basics of how to determine reality from fiction. The usual reference to articles in bogus journals rather than esteemed journals subjected to peer reviews.
It is an arms race now between science backed by political will embarking on solutions to negate the warming amongst the depletion of biodiversity and the impact of long term climate change effecting a tipping point. Long odds in my view that correction will happen in time.
What is it exactly that the 97% of ‘climate scientists’ agree?
PS no warming for how many years now?
Currently standing at zero years there, Mort.
As the article title, and all the science, clearly indicates.
I wonder how did the British grow grapes in the 1400s?
Satellite measurement shows that September 2014 was a mere 0.195°C above normal, at least 7 or 8 other satellite-era years were warmer, such as 2003.
There are several so-called reliable measurements of global temperatures and all you see these people doing that are making, screaming and yelling of the hottest temperature ever, is using one of the least reliable datasets. Their very own NCEP reanalysis shows something very different. So, again, there’s a lot of controversy in this. And what happens is that they scream this stuff out, and then they walk it back.” When alarmist climate institutes roll out papers claiming global warming is going to cause severely cold winters, then you have to wonder if they know something is up and are acting preemptively to salvage their crumbling climate science, which not long ago predicted with high confidence balmy snowless winters.
In 2000 a leading UK climate change “scientist” said that the babies of the day will never see snow in their lives on UK soil. Yawn.
2014 was NOT the hottest year on record (in Ireland)
http://irishenergyblog.blogspot.ie/2015/02/2014-was-not-hottest-year-on-record-in.html
The hottest year in 218 years – on a planet that is 4,000,000,000 years old.
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