EU Wildfire Trends
By Paul Homewood
https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/daviz/burnt-forest-area-in-five-4#tab-chart_5
The European Environment Agency has not yet published its wildfire data for 2023 yet, but they did issue the final data for 2022 in October. So I have updated its graph above of burnt area for EUMEDS, the five countries listed – Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece – which it has not updated since 2020.
https://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/reports-and-publications/effis-related-publications
The chart gives the lie to claims that wildfires are now much worse.
The 2022 report states that 96% of wildfires are caused by human actions. It is a simple fact that much of the Mediterranean region is a tinder box every summer, just waiting for a spark.
Provisional data for last year is, I believe, due out in April, so I’ll update then.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
If peoples’ laxity about starting fires is on the increase, I’m sure some imaginative climate scientist could provide a route for that also to be attributable to a warming planet- inattentiveness due to psychological stress perhaps. It’s no more far-fetched than many other claims that it’s all down to global warming.
Presumably the other 4% natural causes will mostly be lightning strikes and the effects of extended hot sunshine on parched grasses and the like?
It’s hard to see how ‘man made climate change’ can reasonably be attributed to be causing materially significant gains in forest fire burn rates caused by hot summer weather in locations that always have hot summer weather, especially when the data shows no gain in burn acreage rates!
It’s virtually impossible to get vegetation to spontaneously combust. You need temperatures way beyond even the hottest temperatures we get.
Yep, you need an ignition source. I don’t know, maybe like a mirror angled to catch and focus the suns energy and propped up on a stick by a ‘climate scientist’?
That’ll be another ‘man made’ forest fire right there.
I fear that some eco loons will cause fires to make the point.
You won’t hear this on the BBC.
Just back from Tenerife where there have been extensive forest fires, but the interesting bit is that the Canary pine has adapted to this over the millennia and sprouts new growth quickly, likewise the Pitch pine on the eastern seaboard of N America, they are superbly adapted to the volcanic environment where there are regular extrusions of molten lava. All happening pre industrial revolution.
Look up fire chaser beetles. These are insects that evolved to sense fires. They then rush off and lay their eggs in the burnt areas so that their offspring have an advantage. Found all over the world in large numbers.
The lowest three years are 2018, 2014 and 2008. All this century. So not a problem.
OT
Be interesting to see how the BBC plays this ball….
Surkeer got someone else to announce it … yeah, real leadership there.
Greta gets off again:
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/greta-thunberg-s-public-order-charge-dropped-as-judge-criticises-police-action/ar-BB1hFWZW
In the past, Mediterranean forests were worked by people such as charcoal burners and goat herders, so the forest floor was kept clear of tinder. This meant fires were rarer in the past (pre WW2). Also the only people around were the locals.
Each summer thousands of fire fighters are deployed into southern France, and unfortunately every year a few of these are found guilty of arson. Vast numbers of tourists visit the Mediterranean each summer, and again they include arsonists and ignorant people who light barbecues, discard cigarettes etc.