French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a speech today in front of people involved in fighting wildfires last summer. The event was at the Elysee Palace in Paris. French President Macron met firefighters, rescuers, and volunteers who battled brutal summer blazes.
Wildfires destruction will be replanted
Macron also promised to replant 1 billion trees. It is 10% of the French forest, and the timetable is within 10 years after massive wildfires. Massive summer wildfires ravaged large areas of the country, particularly in the southwest.
In response to the increased risk of fires caused by global warming, Macron announced plans to invest 250 million euros in modernizing the firefighting air fleet.
Macron made the announcements during a ceremony at the Elysee Palace to honor firefighters, volunteers, and local governments who fought the summer wildfires. According to him, the fires destroyed 72,000 hectares, which is six times the average annual fire destruction over the last ten years.
Following a particularly hot summer, France and Spain are also experiencing unusually warm temperatures this autumn, adding to growing concern about changes in European weather patterns.
This year has been exceptional, but it may not be so in the future, according to Macron.
Satellite images show unprecedented devastation
Since 2006, the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) has been recording fires detected by satellite images from the European Copernicus observation program. It allowed researchers to examine the unprecedented scale of this year’s blazes.
The area burned in France since the beginning of the year is 7.5 times greater than the annual average. It is compared with the previous 15 years (2006-2021) wildfire cases. It even outnumbers the maximum amount recorded in a single year.
Interpretation of these figures, however, should be cautious. The detected fires are from satellite data. Unfortunately, EFFIS makes no distinction between their causes. Some of them maybe started voluntarily and under control. That was in cases of land clearing by burning or by firefighters starting backfires.