Human-induced climate change made the fire-prone conditions that have devastated large swathes of Europe up to 20 times more likely, scientists have warned.
Spain and France have been grappling with uncontained blazes that have scorched more than 120,000 hectares of land and forced around 300,000 people to evacuate their homes. The EU activated its emergency response system, sending firefighting aircraft and ground vehicles to tackle the blazes – but warned it was quickly running “out of capacity”.
Earlier this week, a wildfire in France grew so powerful that its own smoke column turned into a thunderstorm, generating lightning that struck the ground and ignited even more fires. It also produced heavy winds that pushed the flames in new directions.
More recently, wildfires have broken out in Greece – killing three firefighters on the island of Crete – while hundreds have been evacuated along Türkiye’s western and southern coasts.
While the blazes have garnered global media attention, many outlets have avoided linking Europe’s so-called ‘mega fires’ to climate change.
