10/05/2011
The growing number of mega-fires around
the world may be contributing to global
warming, a new United Nations report says,
calling on governments to introduce comprehensive
strategies to reduce the risk of such conflagrations.
The report from the
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
released today (May 10, 2011) at an international
conference in South Africa, says policy-makers
need to improve their monitoring of carbon
gas emissions from wildfires to better determine
the potential climate change impacts.
The report's release
follows a series of high-profile mega-fires,
including the February 2009 Black Saturday
blazes in Australia that killed 173 people
and obliterated many towns, and record-setting
fires last year in Russia that claimed the
lives of 62 people and burned about 2.3
million hectares.
The report examined
recent mega-fires in Australia, Botswana,
Brazil, Indonesia, Israel, Greece, Russia
and the United States.
Pieter van Lierop, a
forestry officer with FAO, said today that
the problem was becoming more urgent as
the frequency and size of mega-fires increase
and weather projections indicate hotter
and drier fire seasons.
"Mega-fires are
mainly caused by humans and are likely exacerbated
by climate change, but now we suspect they
may also in themselves represent a vicious
circle that is speeding up global warming."
The report found that
nearly all the mega-fires studied were started
by people, sometimes deliberately to clear
land for the purposes of agriculture or
development.
In all but one of the
examples studied, drought was a factor that
prolonged or exacerbated the blazes, with
hot, dry and windy conditions also contributing
to the intensity of the fires.
But the report noted
two examples - one in south-western Australia
and one in Florida in the US - where despite
all the conditions being in place for the
uncontrolled spread of a mega-fire, relatively
little damage was done.
The report's authors
cited more balanced approaches by authorities
in those areas that featured prevention,
mitigation and suppression strategies to
minimize the impact of fires.
In Australia, the state
Government introduced a controlled burning
programme in fire-prone areas, while in
Florida a similar initiative by the US Forest
Service and that state's Government helped
to reduce the risk from potential fires.
Source: UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
+ More
Environment ministers
attend preparatory meeting for Rio+20 in
New York
11/05/2011
Environment ministers from about 50 countries
are in New York City (USA) today (May 11)
to attend a preparatory meeting for the
United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development (Rio+20) to be held in Brazil
on June 2012.
The meeting takes place
at UN headquarters and corresponds to the
high level segment of the session of the
Commission on Sustainable Development, which
began on May 2. Brazil is represented by
a delegation from the Ministry of External
Relations. The Brazilian Minister of the
Environment, Izabella Teixeira, does not
participate in the event due to the voting
process of Brazil's new Forest Code in the
Congress.
