分类： environment

A punishing new wave of record-shattering heat has swept across large swathes of Western Europe this week, creating tinder-dry conditions that have ignited dozens of destructive wildfires stretching from southwestern France to coastal Croatia, overwhelming firefighting teams and forcing thousands of residents and tourists to flee their homes.

France, which is already enduring its driest calendar year on record, has been one of the hardest-hit regions. Overnight Thursday into Friday, a fast-moving wildfire tore through vast woodland areas in Landes, a coastal region in the country’s southwest. Local regional authorities confirmed Friday that the blaze forced more than 500 residents of the town of Luglon to evacuate their properties, as hundreds of firefighters were deployed to contain the spread. This blaze is just one of multiple major wildfires burning through forested land across France this week, with even normally cool, wet regions in northern France and Brittany seeing major outbreaks. Last month, a catastrophic, historic wildfire near the southwestern city of Bordeaux destroyed thousands of hectares of forest and displaced 250,000 people.

Across the English Channel, the United Kingdom recorded its hottest day of the year Thursday, with temperatures hitting 38.1 degrees Celsius (100.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in west London. That same heat fueled wildfires across the West Midlands of central England, where multiple residential properties were completely destroyed by flames. Simon Tuhill, chief fire officer for the region, described the outbreak as one of the most significant wildfire incidents the service has ever responded to. New data from the UK’s National Fire Chiefs Council shows 1,017 wildfires have broken out across England and Wales since the start of 2024.

The extreme heat has spread beyond France and the UK, devastating parts of Southern Europe as well. On the Croatian Adriatic coast, a wildfire fanned by strong gusts of wind erupted overnight Thursday near the coastal town of Omis, spreading rapidly toward the town center. The blaze forced more than 1,000 residents to evacuate, cut power to parts of Omis, destroyed dozens of vehicles, and even ignited fires on anchored boats, leading some evacuees to jump into the Adriatic Sea to escape. By early Friday, 36 people had sought medical treatment for fire-related injuries, 14 were admitted to hospitals, and seven remained in critical, life-threatening condition. Firefighters managed to contain the Omis blaze by Friday morning, but air crews were immediately dispatched further south to the Peljesac peninsula, where a second large wildfire broke out overnight.

Further east in northern Greece, a wildfire swept through a coastal pine forest Thursday, threatening residential and tourist properties. Authorities evacuated more than 300 vacationers and local residents by sea to safety.

Meteorologists across the continent recorded near-record temperatures Thursday, with parts of France ranging from southwestern Aquitaine to the eastern Rhone River valley hitting 41 degrees Celsius (106 Fahrenheit). Forecasters predicted temperatures would hold near those extreme levels Friday before cooling over the weekend. Climate scientists have repeatedly linked this type of extreme heat event across Europe to human-caused climate change, noting that many European nations, accustomed to long, cool winters and moderate summer temperatures, remain poorly equipped to handle prolonged extreme heat, with most residential and public buildings lacking air conditioning.

A record-breaking, climate-fueled drought that has parched much of Central and Southern Europe has forced the complete shutdown of Romania’s sole nuclear power facility at Cernavodă, triggering urgent concerns about energy shortages and economic fallout across the continent. The plant, whose two 706-megawatt reactors normally generate roughly 20% of Romania’s total electricity output, relies on water from the Danube — Europe’s second-longest river, where water levels have dropped to 30-year lows across multiple riparian nations. The second and final operating reactor at Cernavodă was taken offline just before midday Thursday, following the shutdown of the first reactor back in July.

Plant director Romeo Urjan confirmed to AFP that no restart is planned for at least the next 10 days, marking only the second time the facility has been fully shut down since it began operations, with the only previous full shutdown occurring in 2003. In a last-ditch effort to raise water levels around the plant’s cooling intake infrastructure, Romanian authorities sank rock-loaded barges in the Danube earlier this week, but the intervention failed to reverse the falling water levels enough to keep the reactors running.

Neighboring Hungary, which also operates its only nuclear plant — the Soviet-era Paks facility with four reactors — on the Danube, has so far avoided a similar shutdown, but the threat remains imminent. Last month, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar warned that Paks could be forced to shut down entirely for the first time in its history if water levels continue to drop. Plant officials have already noted that Danube levels are so low that some of the facility’s water intake suction nozzles are no longer fully submerged.

The full shutdown of Cernavodă has created an immediate gap in Romania’s energy grid that officials are scrambling to fill. While solar and wind generation are able to offset most of the shortfall during hot, windy daylight hours, evening demand requires increased output from coal and gas-fired power plants, as well as additional energy imports from neighboring countries. Romania’s large hydropower sector, which could otherwise fill the gap, has also seen its output slashed dramatically by the same low river levels that forced the nuclear shutdown.

Beyond energy security, the ongoing drought and accompanying extreme heat waves are causing widespread disruption across the European continent. Key waterways including the Rhine are seeing record-low levels that have severely restricted commercial shipping traffic, while the agricultural sector has suffered billions of euros in damage. Italy’s largest agricultural trade association Coldiretti estimates that climate-related damage from drought, hailstorms and wildfires this year could exceed €3 billion. In France, Environment Minister Monique Barbut warned that recent heat waves could result in between €10 billion and €15 billion in combined direct and indirect economic losses.

The extraordinary conditions have even revealed long-submerged remnants of history: dozens of sunken World War II ships that have sat hidden beneath the Danube’s waters for decades have now re-emerged as levels have dropped. Across Western Europe, the heat wave has pushed temperatures to record levels. On Thursday, temperatures at London’s Kew Gardens provisionally reached 38.1°C (100.6°F), which would mark the hottest day recorded in the United Kingdom so far this year if confirmed. Some parts of England already saw temperatures top 37°C (99°F) earlier the same day.

Scientists from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirm that climate change is the primary driver of these extreme conditions, noting that Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average, making it the fastest-warming continent on Earth. This accelerated warming is leading to more frequent and intense summer heat waves, increasing water scarcity, and spurring more severe wildfire seasons across the continent. Economists warn the extreme conditions could already erase much of the European Union’s projected economic growth for the year. Dutch bank Triodos noted that the EU’s projected 1.1% annual growth, and the International Monetary Fund’s 0.9% growth forecast for the euro area, are at severe risk from the cascading impacts of the drought and heat wave.

In a high-profile wildlife protection enforcement case on Norway’s remote Svalbard archipelago, an unnamed individual has been ordered to pay a 50,000 Norwegian kroner (roughly £3,890) penalty for intentionally waking a sleeping polar bear with a ship’s foghorn, local authorities confirmed this week.

The incident unfolded earlier this August in a fjord located in northwestern Svalbard, a frigid Arctic island chain sitting approximately 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the North Pole. As the vessel cruised along the coastline, crew members spotted a polar bear resting on shore. One person on board activated the ship’s foghorn directly at the animal, shocking it awake and forcing the bear to relocate to a new area, according to an official statement from Svalbard governor Lars Fause.

Longstanding regulations in Svalbard strictly prohibit the unnecessary disturbance, luring, or chasing of polar bears, a species that has held full protected status across the archipelago since 1972. The person who triggered the foghorn has already acknowledged responsibility and agreed to pay the issued fine.

This is not an isolated case of wildlife disturbance penalties in the protected Arctic region. Just last year, another visitor was fined 11,500 kroner (£900) after venturing too close to a resting walrus, violating the same wildlife protection framework. Broader rules laid out in the Svalbard Environment Act require all human activity on the archipelago — from tourism to local transport — to be conducted in a manner that avoids unnecessary disruption to native wildlife, a group that includes polar bears, seals, whales, Svalbard reindeer, and Arctic foxes.

Population estimates from the most recent comprehensive scientific survey, conducted in 2015, put the total number of polar bears residing across the Svalbard archipelago at around 250. Conservation experts have repeatedly emphasized that Arctic wildlife like polar bears already face extreme pressure from rapid climate warming, which erodes their sea ice hunting habitat and disrupts natural feeding and resting patterns. Unnecessary human disturbance adds additional stress to already vulnerable populations, making consistent enforcement of protection rules a key priority for regional environmental managers.

A United Kingdom-based maritime emergency firm has been contracted to launch a high-stakes salvage operation for a grounded Russian shadow fleet tanker off Oman’s southwestern coast, where a rapidly expanding oil spill has already reached shore and threatens one of the region’s most biodiverse protected marine habitats.

The 247-meter vessel, the Caroline Bezengi, has been stranded near Qabiliyah Island since early June, when an explosion of unknown origin disabled the tanker. The ship was carrying more than 800,000 barrels of Russian crude when it ran aground after departing Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk in May. Classified as part of Moscow’s shadow fleet of unregulated oil tankers, the Caroline Bezengi is currently sanctioned by both the British government and the European Union, and it remains unflagged with no clear confirmation of insurance coverage. Geospatial analysts link the vessel’s ownership to entities based in Shanghai, China.

Over recent weeks, stormy conditions driven by the annual Khareef monsoon season, which peaks between July and August, have accelerated the spread of leaking oil from the damaged tanker. Satellite imagery confirms the spill has expanded exponentially across hundreds of square kilometers of ocean, and now the slick is increasingly encroaching on critical coastal ecosystems. On Wednesday, Omani environmental authorities confirmed oil has already reached the shore at Ras Madrakah, located more than 200 kilometers north of the grounded tanker. Officials warn the spill could travel another 100 kilometers further north to reach Masirah Island in the coming days. New satellite data also shows the Caroline Bezengi is slowly submerging, with experts warning that a full structural break or total sinking could release the vessel’s entire cargo, triggering what would be an unprecedented environmental catastrophe for the region.

Ambrey, the London-headquartered maritime risk and response firm leading the operation, announced Thursday that its assessment team had already boarded the tanker with air support from Omani authorities to stabilize the vessel after completing an initial damage survey. In an official statement, Ed Wollaston, Ambrey’s global response director, described the operation as uniquely difficult, noting that ongoing monsoon storms have created exceptionally challenging working conditions. As of Thursday, the company had not released public estimates for either the timeline or total cost of the full salvage and cleanup effort.

Environmental advocates warn that the spill’s spread to shore dramatically increases the long-term risk to ecosystems and complicates cleanup efforts. “It is extremely concerning that the oil has spread from an offshore spill to the shoreline where it can contaminate coastal sediments,” explained Hanen Keskes, a campaigner for global environmental organization Greenpeace. Once oil reaches coastal habitats, she noted, “cleanup becomes significantly more complex than containment at sea, and even after the visible slick is removed, environmental damage can persist for decades.”

The Qabiliyah Island marine protected area at the center of the crisis is one of the Arabian Sea’s most ecologically important regions. It hosts fragile coral reef systems, extensive seagrass meadows, critical nesting grounds for endangered sea turtle species, and breeding habitats for dozens of species of migratory seabirds. The area is also one of the only known habitats for the rare and critically endangered Arabian Sea humpback whale. Compounding challenges, the remote location of the spill has very limited existing infrastructure, requiring additional safety protocols and complicating access for salvage and response teams, Keskes added.

This oil spill crisis is not the only environmental emergency unfolding in the strategic Gulf region. Just across the Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s Qeshm Island, Iranian authorities are already working to contain a separate large oil spill, with blame for the incident remaining contested. Iranian officials have linked the spill to rising tensions between Iran and the United States and are demanding compensation for cleanup costs, but maritime tracking firm TankerTrackers.com published satellite evidence on social media platform X indicating the spill likely originated from an Iranian attack on a commercial bulk carrier off Oman’s coast, with the slick drifting across the strait to reach Iranian shores.