On Sunday afternoon, I found myself on the Barcelona-Valencia bus. After three hours of uneventful southward travel along the Mediterranean coast, the bright sunlight suddenly dimmed and turned a hazy orange. We were passing the Vall d’Uixó wildfire, which had already spread close to the motorway. I could clearly see thick clouds of smoke pouring out of the forested hillsides, punctuated by flames, the blue lights of emergency vehicles and small planes flying overhead. The scale of the blaze – which is still active – was a stark, sobering reminder that the climate crisis is never far from our own doorsteps.
As the news fills with dramatic footage of wildfires across Spain, France and Greece, it’s easy to forget an old firefighting adage: summer fires are put out in winter. In other words, year-round prevention is just as important as the trucks, helicopters and personnel that spring into action after a fire breaks out.
Spain has spent heavily on fire suppression over the years but neglected prevention, which partly explains why its extreme fires are spreading so far. As Applied Economics professor María-Luisa Chas-Amil compellingly argues, Spain needs to drastically change how it invests in these measures.
With many of Europe’s fires burning close to urban and tourist areas, logistics and evacuation plans are also vitally important. Panicked people have to get out of an area using the same roads that allow firefighters and supplies in. Managing these flows is intensely complex, but as this article explains (with some very helpful examples) properly managing them can determine the outcome of a natural disaster.
Meanwhile in Berlin, last weekend’s Pride parade was cut short by a terrorist attack that left 1 dead and 29 injured. The attacker was known to authorities for his links to ISIS. Despite a recent lull in violence, this terror group’s threat to Europe is far from a thing of the past.
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