As announced several months ago, the OMPE, global environmental NGO, laid the first brick of its PFM 2018 (Plan against Fires Worldwide 2018) this Monday, October 23, 2017, sending 21 invitations to the 21 ministers and governors of countries and states affected by forest fires and increased drought waves. This is the first time in the world that an Environmental Project has been launched on a global scale in as many countries.
While in Corsica, the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, the United States and Portugal still have just undergone major forest fires, the OMPE, global environmental NGOs, decided to take the body to the arms global problem of forest fires.
As a reminder, since the beginning of summer, the planet has seen the rhythm of fires and forest fires :
- Since the beginning of 2017, Portugal has seen 550,000 hectares of forests and more than 500 homes go up in smoke, not counting the human toll of about 110 deaths. The record of 2003, which was 426,000 hectares, is well exceeded with more than 500 fire departures in one day for the Fire of October 2017, 4000 firefighters mobilized and… the resignation of the Prime Minister !
- La France, also largely affected by fire, lost the equivalent of 10,000 football pitches in the space of 3 days in the Southeast. Not to mention dozens of fire starts, fire red alerts… Some forest fires in Upper Corsica are still in progress.
- In the United States, forest fires have raged since the beginning of summer 2017. In California, 100,000 people have had to be evacuated after the declaration of emergency, more than 10,000 firefighters are currently mobilized and the balance sheet of the last fires of October extends to 40 dead and 200 missing persons. One of the worst catastrophes that California has ever known…
- In Canada, in August, the country experienced the largest fire ever seen in the province of British Columbia : 500,000 hectares of forest gone up in smoke due to the merging of 19 separate forest fires into a single blaze ! A total of 134 fires were active in the province, resulting in the evacuation of 46,000 people and the mobilization of 3,900 firefighters.
In all, Europe has had to face 3 times more forest fires during the summer of 2017 ! In the World in 2016, the loss of the world’s wooded areas had jumped by 51% with 30 million hectares burned on the surface of New Zealand. We are waiting for 2017 figures with sadness !
Total number of forest fires in the European Union
2017 compared to the average of the fires over the period 2008/2016
Source : EFFIS
Hectares of forest destroyed by fires in the European Union
2017 compared to the average of the hectares destroyed during the 2008/2016 period
Source : EFFIS
We know all too well the consequences of this long series of forest fires… : deoxygenation, air pollution by massive emanation of CO, CO2 and PM, destruction of biodiversity, loss of life, material and financial costs… But when will we act to stop the annihilation of thousands of homes, the upheaval and the trauma experienced by people and firefighters ? How long will we accept this destruction of natural resources and exceptional biodiversity ? That is why, in June 2017, the global NGO OMPE presented its solutions in the fight against forest fires, based on the UFFFES or Ultra Fast Forest Fire Extinguishing System. A solution that will finally give firefighters all over the world the modern and effective means to fight against fires, which they are now paying too much for.
Through this communiqué, and in line with its previous actions against fires, the OMPE appeals to the 21 countries concerned by the drought and forest fires and invites them to join its Plan against the World Fire 2018.
Scientists, climatologists, planetologists, journalists, the media, the press… can not deny that the frequency of fires increases, that no country is spared and that it is an environmental emergency. An already critical situation that will only be aggravated by the increase in global warming and drought. The OMPE, a global environmental NGO located near Cannes, today addresses ministers and politicians from 21 countries in the world affected by drought or forest fires : Portugal, Spain, France, Andorra, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Canada, California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Utah and Colorado.
To respond and implement solutions to the dramatic events that we know today, the OMPE created the PFM 2018, a Plan against the World Fire through, among others :
- several “World Supersemen’s Teams”, eventually equipped with UFFFES and located, from 2018, around the Mediterranean, in the United States and Canada;
- the creation of an R&D committee made up of European, American or Canadian scientists, as well as fire officials and environment ministers from the countries participating in the 2018 PFM;
- the validation of a global law for arsonists providing for a 10-year sentence for intentional fires (reduced to 1 year firm and 8 years suspended in case of designation and the arrest of the eventual sponsor).
OMPE, a global environmental NGO, is one of the few in the world to offer this kind of global approach and to promote concrete solutions to end this catastrophic situation, both environmentally and humanly. A different approach that has largely raised a mobilization of citizens, like the manifesto “Stop, that’s enough” of the OMPE dedicated to forest fires, having gathered more than 25 000 signatures !
The World Organization for the Protection of the Environment (OMPE) is a completely independent environmental NGO, which receives no subsidies and is not attached to any political, ideological or religious entity or group. For 4 years, Gilles Lazzarini, President and founder of OMPE, businessman and environmentalist French ecologist, helped his team engages in various environmental themes : forests, air, wild animals, plastic, pesticides, oceans and the drinking water.
If you wish to join the OMPE 2018 PFM, contact the organization before 15 November 2017.
All PFM 2018 calendar will be posted on the site OMPE ( www. Ompe.org ) that will display daily evolution and detailed progress of each step of the project.
About Post Author
