The OMPE sends an alarming signal on the forest fires

Forest fire : OMPE urgently calls for the holding of national conference !

A summer 2017 that starts under the flames !

100,000 hectares… This is the area that has gone up in smoke in Portugal since the beginning of 2017. A figure that keeps climbing after the fire on 17 June 2017. The final assessment of this terrible fire is without appeal : 64 dead, hundreds injured, more than 26,000 hectares of forest smoke, exhausted firefighters, significant financial expenses… The images of this event speak for themselves : http://www.parismatch.com/ News / International / the-terrible-pictures-of-the-fire-the-more-the-killer-Portugal-1287515

Unfortunately, Portugal is not the only one affected by forest fires in this early summer of 2017 :

• In Spain, for nearly 3 days, a gigantic fire destroyed 8500 hectares, of which 3/4 touched the protected natural park of Doñana, transforming it into a “cemetery of calcined trees”. Again, the images are astounding : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUx4XU8odCc

• In Turkey,  in the Izmir region, 500 hectares of forests have been on fire for several days, where the heat wave is well established with temperatures up to 45°C. A helicopter has been damaged in a lake, during a supplies of water : http://www.francesoir.fr/actualites-monde/grece-et-turquie-sous-la-canicule

• In Russia, it has been 10 years since the forests of Siberia burn almost continuously. Since November 2016, temperatures have increased by 4°C, already double the maximum of COP21 at this location in a few months , which has led to the destruction of more than 500 km2 of forests  for 6 months. Should not something be done ? Should we not intervene in Russia if the Russians fail to extinguish their fires ? Why are we going to help the Portuguese and not the Russians ? https://sciencepost.fr/2017/07/10-ans-forets-boreales-siberie-brulent-a-rythme-precedent/

• In France, we have to face a multiplicity of fire starts in the South : fire in Ramatuelle where nearly 4 hectares of pine forest have burned, red alert fire of five forest massifs of Var, 6 fire departures in the department Corsica, more than 5 hectares burned this Friday, June 30 in Martigues, 12 hectares burned south of Perpignan this Sunday, July 2, etc… Since April, the start of fires are increasing  (several per day anything that In France, dozens and tens per day in the world) and the drought that is taking place in many departments of France and around the world only increases the risks.

We all know that lives, homes but also animals and an exceptional biodiversity will forever be traumatized or destroyed by these events.

Today, beyond the balance sheet, the urgency is with Solutions!

The OMPE has denounced for several months the total absence of taking into account the serious dangers associated with Forest Fire (we had already communicated on forest fires : http://www.ompe.org/causes-et-consequences- Of-forest-fires). The OMPE is therefore issuing a strong warning signal and calls for the holding of general statements on forest fires and their preservation in the presence of the OMPE and other NGOs, which are too often ignored and yet bear of solutions.

France has just experienced the second warmest month of June since 1900 with an unprecedented heat wave (average temperature of 26.4°C). Heat waves are unfortunately intensified and repeated for at least several decades. In the United States, the heatwave is so strong that the Bureau of Meteorology was forced to add a new color on the weather maps !

Who can claim that the drought rate and rising temperatures are not related to the forest fires that we face today ? For more than 10 years Portugal and Spain (and much of Europe) have been experiencing periods of extreme drought… Yet, despite the urgency of the situation, our approach to fires remains the same and not at all in adequacy !

When the heat wave and the drought rate are associated with increasingly flammable forests (pines, eucalyptus…), we foresee the forest fires and their consequences : rejection of CO and CO2 in the atmosphere but also acceleration of Global warming and biodiversity shake-up. All these elements support and reinforce the alarm signal that the OMPE is launching today.

The OMPE supports all the firefighters of the World :

We take advantage of this release to emphasize our dedication and respect for firefighters around the world who struggle with fire and the danger of their lives against fires. A great hat-trick for the firemen of Portugal, Spain and those of the south of France and without forgetting those of Corsica. The OMPE supports all firefighters and calls on states, decision-makers and institutions to give them more resources and, above all, more current and more effective means of defending fires,  means  more in line with global warming !

We must act now!

If we do nothing very quickly, the OMPE fears a sixth mass extinction of which man is unlikely to be a part… For how to live on a land where fires are permanent, forests in decline and global temperature increasing ?

The OMPE therefore asks the French government to hold urgent general statements on forest fires and the UN and UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) to use the Green Fund to finance research to stop the lights NOW !

Sign our manifest which has already received more than 3000 signatures on our site : http://www.ompe.org/stop-ca-suffit-feux-de-foret/