Across the world, communities are currently battling historic wildfires that are yet the latest signs of global warming, a reality most recently addressed in the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) report. The report, which is the work of more than 200 scientists worldwide, warns that without dramatic measures to reduce greenhouse emissions, Earth will warm by 1.5 degrees celsius in the next two decades, causing more extreme weather events. The Dixie Fire ignited on July 14 in Northern California and has burned 487,764 acres, destroyed nearly 900 structures, and was 25% contained as of August 10. It is now the second-largest overall fire in California history and the largest single fire on record in the state, according to USA Today, which also noted that only the August Complex Fire in 2020 burned more land than Dixie to date. According to Cal Fire, more than 16,000 structures are under threat of the Dixie Fire as evacuation warnings remain in effect in Butte and Plumas counties. And although the cause of the wildfire is still under investigation, PG&E suspects it may have started when a tree fell on a utility power line, Reuters reported.

Source: Statista
On almost the other side of the world, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Russia also are fighting raging wildfires. In a public address, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that 586 fires have started in the past seven days "in all corners of Greece." The Guardian reported that more than 2,600 people were evacuated by boats from the island of Evia, east of Athens, as massive fires took over the island amidst a heatwave. Officials said a volunteer firefighter was killed in Greece when a utility pole struck his head. At least eight people have died in Turkey as fires sweep through coastal towns, scorching more than 500 square miles of coastal forest. In Italy, firefighters have dealt with 44,442 wildfires since June 15, up from 26,158 fires experienced last summer, said The Guardian. While in Siberia in northern Russia, huge fires are worsening by the day, with smoke from burning forests traveling 1,850 miles to reach the north pole, "a first in recorded history," a Russian weather monitor said. Related: |

   

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Heather A. Turner

Heather A. Turner is the managing editor of ALM's NU Property & Casualty Group. She can be reached at [email protected].

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