AFP UK

The so-far successful battle this month in California to save the world’s biggest trees from ever-worsening forest blazes seems to offer an important lesson: You can fight fire with fire.

Human-caused climate change has made the western United States hotter, drier and more vulnerable to increasingly destructive wildfires, which have this year taken a horrific toll on the region’s forests.

That has included threatening huge sequoias like the General Sherman, which looms 275 feet (83 meters) above the forest floor.

Firefighters were able to beat back the flames as they ate into California’s Giant Forest, thanks to decades of prescribed burns that starved the blaze of fuel. 

“It sounds a little strange to say this, but there actually has not been enough fire in California for about a century,” said Rebecca Miller, a researcher at the University of Southern California.

“There were policies in place at the federal and the state level throughout much of the 20th century to prevent fire, because there was an incorrect belief that fire was bad for the environment.”

Fires are part of the natural cycle of forest life, clearing away excess vegetation, purging pests, and making space for new growth.

In the wilderness, these fires eventually burn themselves out. 

But as human settlement has encroached further into formerly wild spaces, tolerance for these fires has diminished and firefighters are under instructions to put out all blazes as soon as possible.

Now there is a growing realization that this policy is actually contributing to the worsening of forest fires — giving them so much more fuel and making them hotter, faster and more destructive.

Instead, the thinking goes, we should actually be helping smaller fires to burn.

The practice was key to protecting Giant Forest, home to the General Sherman, says Mark Garrett, a spokesman for the force trying to tame the still-active KNP Complex fire. 

– ‘Best tool we have’ –

The sequoias of Giant Forest, some of which are up to 3,000 years old, have survived countless previous fires.

Their thick bark protects them from flames, and their cones actually need the heat of smaller fires to open up and spread their seeds.

But even these imposing giants cannot cope with the mega blazes tearing through California’s parched landscape.

Around 10,000 of them — up to 14 percent of the world’s total — perished in a huge fire last year.

So there was considerable nervousness when flames from the KNP Complex started eating into the Sequoia National Forest.

Garrett says it was the first time an uncontrolled fire had come so close to the General Sherman, which was wrapped in a protective foil.

But thanks to years of controlled burns, the fire couldn’t get much of a purchase, said Garrett.

“We’re seeing things we haven’t seen before, like near 300-foot trees being killed because of the smaller trees in between them that are carrying that fire,” he told AFP.

Controlled burns are “the best tool we have right now.”

– The next General Sherman –

But not everyone agrees.

“It is not an effective strategy and it’s been very much overblown,” says ecologist George Wuerthner. 

Controlled burning has to be so widespread and so regular that it’s prohibitive.

“We just can’t be doing the whole landscape at that kind of frequency. It’s misleading to suggest that that’s a panacea for preventing large fires.”

Former forest service official Andy Stahl says worthwhile controlled burns would cost billions of dollars.

“You can’t just burn it, walk away from it and say, ‘Well I don’t have to do that again for another 100 years.”

“No, you have to go back there in another five or 10 years and do it again,” said Stahl, who is executive director of FSEEE, an organization focused on ethical forest management.

Which explains why there are very few areas in the western United States where the practice is common — apart from around Giant Forest.

“It’s a very, very small footprint in a small National Park.”

For Garrett, there is simply no choice: “We need more money. We need more people. This needs to be done, all over the mountains and the federal lands. 

“We don’t have a lot of brand new sequoia trees in the Giant Forest because it hasn’t seen fire in so long.

“We need that new generation to replace the General Sherman 2,000 years from now.”

The so-far successful battle this month in California to save the world’s biggest trees from ever-worsening forest blazes seems to offer an important lesson: You can fight fire with fire.

Human-caused climate change has made the western United States hotter, drier and more vulnerable to increasingly destructive wildfires, which have this year taken a horrific toll on the region’s forests.

That has included threatening huge sequoias like the General Sherman, which looms 275 feet (83 meters) above the forest floor.

Firefighters were able to beat back the flames as they ate into California’s Giant Forest, thanks to decades of prescribed burns that starved the blaze of fuel. 

“It sounds a little strange to say this, but there actually has not been enough fire in California for about a century,” said Rebecca Miller, a researcher at the University of Southern California.

“There were policies in place at the federal and the state level throughout much of the 20th century to prevent fire, because there was an incorrect belief that fire was bad for the environment.”

Fires are part of the natural cycle of forest life, clearing away excess vegetation, purging pests, and making space for new growth.

In the wilderness, these fires eventually burn themselves out. 

But as human settlement has encroached further into formerly wild spaces, tolerance for these fires has diminished and firefighters are under instructions to put out all blazes as soon as possible.

Now there is a growing realization that this policy is actually contributing to the worsening of forest fires — giving them so much more fuel and making them hotter, faster and more destructive.

Instead, the thinking goes, we should actually be helping smaller fires to burn.

The practice was key to protecting Giant Forest, home to the General Sherman, says Mark Garrett, a spokesman for the force trying to tame the still-active KNP Complex fire. 

– ‘Best tool we have’ –

The sequoias of Giant Forest, some of which are up to 3,000 years old, have survived countless previous fires.

Their thick bark protects them from flames, and their cones actually need the heat of smaller fires to open up and spread their seeds.

But even these imposing giants cannot cope with the mega blazes tearing through California’s parched landscape.

Around 10,000 of them — up to 14 percent of the world’s total — perished in a huge fire last year.

So there was considerable nervousness when flames from the KNP Complex started eating into the Sequoia National Forest.

Garrett says it was the first time an uncontrolled fire had come so close to the General Sherman, which was wrapped in a protective foil.

But thanks to years of controlled burns, the fire couldn’t get much of a purchase, said Garrett.

“We’re seeing things we haven’t seen before, like near 300-foot trees being killed because of the smaller trees in between them that are carrying that fire,” he told AFP.

Controlled burns are “the best tool we have right now.”

– The next General Sherman –

But not everyone agrees.

“It is not an effective strategy and it’s been very much overblown,” says ecologist George Wuerthner. 

Controlled burning has to be so widespread and so regular that it’s prohibitive.

“We just can’t be doing the whole landscape at that kind of frequency. It’s misleading to suggest that that’s a panacea for preventing large fires.”

Former forest service official Andy Stahl says worthwhile controlled burns would cost billions of dollars.

“You can’t just burn it, walk away from it and say, ‘Well I don’t have to do that again for another 100 years.”

“No, you have to go back there in another five or 10 years and do it again,” said Stahl, who is executive director of FSEEE, an organization focused on ethical forest management.

Which explains why there are very few areas in the western United States where the practice is common — apart from around Giant Forest.

“It’s a very, very small footprint in a small National Park.”

For Garrett, there is simply no choice: “We need more money. We need more people. This needs to be done, all over the mountains and the federal lands. 

“We don’t have a lot of brand new sequoia trees in the Giant Forest because it hasn’t seen fire in so long.

“We need that new generation to replace the General Sherman 2,000 years from now.”

A French sports group on Saturday announced plans to launch a sailing race in the thawing Canadian Arctic to raise awareness of global warning.

Due to kick off in 2023, the North Pole Race will see ships sailing from Quebec to Vancouver along the Northwest Passage, a sea route through the Arctic Ocean along North America’s northern course.

Crews will sail on special aluminum boats designed for polar waters, according to Herve Favre, president of the French group OC Sport.

These ships will have to be “fast enough to make the crossing in two months, because the window is not large,” between the summer period free of ice and the return of winter precipitation, Favre said, according to a story published in the Montreal daily La Presse.

“The North Pole Race will make the world population aware of sustainable development and the importance of acting now to save our environment,” Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume said last week, when the race was first reported.

Quebec City’s municipal government said in a statement that the North Pole Race will bring together teams from 10 countries, including Canada, China, Russia, France and Denmark. Each team will consist of a scientist, an experienced skipper and citizens of the country it is representing.

This race “could not have existed without global warming, because the melting ice in the Northwest Passage makes it possible to travel along this strategic nautical route,” a statement from Quebec City said.

Passing through the Canadian archipelago, a vast network of isolated and inhospitable islands located beyond the Arctic Circle, the Northwest Passage saves ships approximately 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles) of distance between Europe and Asia. But the lack of infrastructure, the remoteness of emergency services and the limited cartography of the Arctic Ocean make navigation in these waters very perilous.

Favre, whose group also organizes the Route du Rhum transatlantic solo yacht race, said the North Pole Race was more likely to attract adventurers rather than professional racers.

Clouds of thick black ash from volcanic eruptions in Spain’s Canaries archipelago forced the closure of the airport on La Palma island on Saturday, authorities said.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano came to life a week ago and has intermittently spewed out lava and ash leading to the cancellation of all seven flights on Friday.

“The airport is closed because of the accumulation of ash,” said state-owned airport operator Aena.

“Clean-up operations have begun but the situation can change at any moment,” it added.

More evacuations were also ordered Friday at the town of El Paso as large explosions and new openings were reported at the volcano.

“Given the increased risk for the population due to the current eruptive episode”, the regional government said, an obligatory evacuation order was issued for several districts.

That pushed the number of people forced to leave their homes so far to more than 6,200, including 400 tourists. 

The flight cancellations began on Friday.

“It is not yet possible to say when we can resume flights,” Spanish carrier Binter said on Twitter. 

According to the European Union’s Copernicus Earth Observation Programme, lava has so far destroyed 420 buildings and covered more than 190 hectares (470 acres) of land.  

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced La Palma would be declared “a zone affected by a catastrophe” which opens financial aid to residents. 

The speed of the lava flowing from the crater has steadily slowed in recent days, and experts hope it will not reach the coast. 

If the molten lava pours into the sea, it can generate clouds of toxic gas into the air, also affecting the marine environment. 

No casualties have been reported so far but the damage to land and property has been enormous, with the Canaries regional head Angel Victor Torres estimating the cost at well over 400 million euros ($470 million). 

The eruption on La Palma, home to 85,000 people, was the first in 50 years. 

The last eruption on the island came in 1971 when another part of the same volcanic range — a vent known as Teneguia — erupted on the southern side of the island.

Two decades earlier, the Nambroque vent erupted in 1949. 

Heavy rains, frost, hail and disease have battered vineyards across France this year but few places were hit as hard as Burgundy, where growers are warning of the poorest harvests in memory.

“In a normal year it would be full by 9:30 am,” said Julien Cheveau as he watched workers dump grapes into a cart at the muddy edge of his field in Solutre-Pouilly, part of the famed Pouilly-Fuisse appellation.

But as the lunch break approaches, the mound of golden yellow grapes has yet to reach the top of the bin.

The very factors that make Burgundy whites and reds a favourite of wine fans — small but prestigious houses, the predominance of chardonnay grapes, relatively high altitudes — made the region particularly vulnerable to the extreme weather.

“Sometimes you can go down an entire row without even having to empty your bucket,” said Aurelie Cheveau, Julien’s sister-in-law and co-manager of their namesake vineyard.

An April cold snap struck from Bordeaux in the southwest to Champagne in the northeast, but in Burgundy night-time lows plunged to minus eight Celsius (18 Fahrenheit).

And Chardonnay grapes, which make up two-thirds of Burgundy, suffered more than others from the freezing temperatures, destroying buds just as they were emerging after a mild winter.

“Eventually the vines started growing again but then we had a huge hailstorm on June 21, and all our hopes were obliterated in 15 minutes,” Cheveau  said.

Then came September downpours that fostered rapid mildew growth just as ripening was at hand — she pointed with her shears to bunches of shrivelled grapes, and others shot through with purple veins and covered with fine white fuzz, the hallmark of rot.

“There’s really not much left. In certain areas we’ll have losses of up to 95 percent,” she said, with estimates of 70 to 90 percent for Pouilly-Fuisse as a whole.

– ‘Only 35 barrels’ –

The rest of Burgundy was also hit with losses far exceeding the 30 percent forecast for French vineyards overall.

“I’ve lost 75 to 80 percent here,” said Ludivine Griveau, director of the storied Hospices de Beaune, amid half-filled crates of pinot noir from the renowned slopes of Corton.

She said she’ll be lucky if losses are kept to 50 percent at the rest of the 60 hectares that abut the historic hospital, whose wines include Pommard and Echezeaux appellations. 

“This year I only ordered 35 barrels, usually it’s 120 to 150,” Griveau said.

Even if the quality of the surviving vintages remains stellar, price hikes spurred by rarity are unlikely to make up for the lower output.

That could put the squeeze on Burgundy houses in particular, since most are smaller operations — the average vineyard is just six and a half hectares (16 acres). 

That means they don’t have the extensive domains and financial stamina of bigger producers found elsewhere in France.

“These yields are historically low,” said Francois Labet, president of the Burgundy Wine Bureau, estimating overall losses at 30 to 50 percent.

“I don’t know a single area that was spared the cold snap,” he said.

This year has also heightened fears that climate change could make extreme weather — cold and rain but also devastating droughts as in 2003 — more common in the region.

“Since 2010, we’ve only had two years without major problems: 2017 and 2018,” Labet said.

For Aurelie Cheveau, the risks are clear.

“In 2019, we only got half our harvest, it was already due to the frost,” she said.

“If every other year is like that, it makes you wonder where our profession is headed.”

Thousands of shark fins were confiscated by Colombian authorities before they could be illegally shipped to Hong Kong, officials said.

Bogota “seized 3,493 shark fins and 117 kilos of fish bladders that were en route to Hong Kong”, environmental ministry head Carolina Urrutia said.

The haul highlights the continued demand for shark fin, served at wedding banquets in some Chinese communities and falsely believed to have medicinal properties.

The fins, removed from 900 to 1,000 sharks measuring up to five metres, were found on Friday in five boxes in Bogota’s busiest airport El Dorado.

Taken “more than three species” of shark, the fins were likely harvested in “illegal fishing”, said Urrutia, condemning “the irreversible environmental damage to Colombia’s marine ecosystem”.

National police will handle the investigation, she added.

Shark fishing has been banned in Colombia — which is home to 76 of the 500 known shark varieties — since 2020 in an attempt to stem Asia’s fin trade.

The sale and consumption of shark fin is not illegal in Hong Kong but must be licensed, and has remained stubbornly popular despite years of campaigning.

Some of the ocean’s most vital apex predators, shark populations have been decimated over the last few decades with finning and industrial longline fishing the main culprits.

Guatemala’s Fuego volcano on Friday has quieted after a 32-hour long eruption, authorities said Friday.

The volcano, located some 35 kilometers (22 miles) southwest of the capital Guatemala City, began spewing lava and ash high into the sky on Thursday. 

No damages or injuries have been reported and Emilio Barrillas, spokesman for National Volcanology Institute, told journalists that ash eruptions eased and lava emissions stopped on Friday.

“The seismic, acoustic and field observation parameters have shown that in the last hours this (eruptive) activity has remained in a progressive decline, which translates into low effusive activity,” Barrillas said. 

Fuego, 3.7 kilometers (12,240 feet) high, is one of three active volcanoes in Guatemala.

Though some areas on its eastern flank saw a bit of ash fall, there were no evacuations, the official said.

The current activity is the strongest since June 2018, when Fuego unleashed a torrent of mud and ash that wiped the village of San Miguel Los Lotes from the map, said Barillas.

More than 200 people were killed.

A US power company whose cables sparked a devastating California fire that killed four people has been charged with manslaughter, prosecutors said Friday.

More than 56,000 acres (22,000 hectares) were set ablaze when power lines operated by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) came into contact with a tree in September 2020, igniting what became known as the Zogg Fire.

Prosecutors said the company knew the tree in Shasta County was dangerously close to a powerline and should have removed it three years earlier.

“We have sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company is criminally liable for their reckless ignition of the Zogg Fire and the deaths and destruction that it caused,” the county’s district attorney Stephanie Bridgett said.

“Their failure was reckless and was criminally negligent, and it resulted in the death of four people” including an eight-year-old girl.

The county also levelled charges over three other fires.

PG&E is one of California’s biggest power companies, and is responsible for maintaining large swathes of the state’s creaking electricity infrastructure.

That includes keeping trees away from powerlines, especially at a time when the region is suffering through a prolonged drought that has left its forests dry and vulnerable to wildfires.

The company on Friday denied it was criminally culpable for the blaze.

“We’ve accepted (the fire department’s) determination, reached earlier this year, that a tree contacted our electric line and started the Zogg Fire. But we did not commit a crime,” said chief executive Patti Poppe.

“We’ve already resolved many victim claims arising from the Zogg Fire… and we are working hard to resolve the remaining claims.”

PG&E has already been found guilty of causing the Camp Fire in 2018, the deadliest fire in recent California history.

That fire virtually wiped the small town of Paradise off the map and killed 86 people.

This year the company said it would bury 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) of powerlines in an effort to keep them away from vegetation.

The western United States is suffering through yet another terrible wildfire season.

Scientists say human-caused global warming is making the region hotter, drier and more vulnerable to fire.

A US power company whose cables sparked a devastating California fire that killed four people has been charged with manslaughter, prosecutors said Friday.

More than 56,000 acres (22,000 hectares) were set ablaze when power lines operated by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) came into contact with a tree in September 2020, igniting what became known as the Zogg Fire.

Prosecutors said the company knew the tree in Shasta County was dangerously close to a powerline and should have removed it three years earlier.

“We have sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company is criminally liable for their reckless ignition of the Zogg Fire and the deaths and destruction that it caused,” the county’s district attorney Stephanie Bridgett said.

“Their failure was reckless and was criminally negligent, and it resulted in the death of four people” including an eight-year-old girl.

The county also levelled charges over three other fires.

PG&E is one of California’s biggest power companies, and is responsible for maintaining large swathes of the state’s creaking electricity infrastructure.

That includes keeping trees away from powerlines, especially at a time when the region is suffering through a prolonged drought that has left its forests dry and vulnerable to wildfires.

The company on Friday denied it was criminally culpable for the blaze.

“We’ve accepted (the fire department’s) determination, reached earlier this year, that a tree contacted our electric line and started the Zogg Fire. But we did not commit a crime,” said chief executive Patti Poppe.

“We’ve already resolved many victim claims arising from the Zogg Fire… and we are working hard to resolve the remaining claims.”

PG&E has already been found guilty of causing the Camp Fire in 2018, the deadliest fire in recent California history.

That fire virtually wiped the small town of Paradise off the map and killed 86 people.

This year the company said it would bury 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) of powerlines in an effort to keep them away from vegetation.

The western United States is suffering through yet another terrible wildfire season.

Scientists say human-caused global warming is making the region hotter, drier and more vulnerable to fire.

Fresh volcanic eruptions in Spain’s Canary Islands prompted the cancellation of flights, airport authorities said Friday, the first since the Cumbre Vieja volcano came to life again.

New evacuations were also ordered as large explosions and new openings were reported at the volcano on La Palma island on Friday. 

A large cloud of thick, black ash spewed into the air, forcing several airlines to call off flights.

La Palma had six inter-island flights scheduled for Friday operated by Binter, Canaryfly and Air Europa, while the national carrier Iberia had a single service from Madrid to the mainland. All were scrapped. 

They were the first flights to be cancelled since the volcano erupted on Sunday. 

“It is not yet possible to say when we can resume flights,” Spanish carrier Binter said on Twitter. 

Authorities also ordered new evacuations, adding to the 6,100 people already forced to leave to area this week, including 400 tourists. 

The compulsory evacuation order was issued in parts of El Paso town on La Palma island “given the increased risk for the population due to the current eruptive episode”, the regional government said.

According to the European Union’s Copernicus Earth Obervation Programme, the lava has so far destroyed 390 buildings and covered more than 180 hectares (445 acres) of land.  

Video footage from the civil guard showed a garden in the area completely covered in thick ash.

Visiting the island, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced La Palma would be declared a zone affected by a catastrophe” which opens financial aid to residents. 

– Toxic gas fears –

The speed of the lava flowing from the mouth of the volcano has steadily slowed in recent days, and experts are hoping it will not reach the coast. 

If the molten lava pours into the sea, experts fear it will generate clouds of toxic gas into the air, also affecting the marine environment. 

Authorities set up a no-go zone this week to head off curious onlookers.  

No casualties have been reported so far but the damage to land and property has been enormous, with the Canaries regional head Angel Victor Torres estimating the cost at well over 400 million euros ($470 million). 

The eruption on La Palma, home to 85,000 people, was the first in 50 years. 

The last eruption on the island came in 1971 when another part of the same volcanic range — a vent known as Teneguia — erupted on the southern side of the island.

Two decades earlier, the Nambroque vent erupted in 1949.