Month: January 2025

 

Domingos Xavier Viegas briefs hearing into the Fires in Madeira

Domingos Xavier Viegas said that his knowledge of the fires in Madeira in August is indirect, as he was not in Madeira when the fires broke out or after they were put out.

The hearing of Domingos Xavier Viegas, director of the Centre for Studies on Forest Fires, University of Coimbra, is currently taking place in the Assembly of the Republic, on the management of civil protection resources in the fire that occurred in August 2024 in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, as a result of a request by the PS.

Sofia Canha, deputy elected by PS-Madeira, regretted that the inquiry commission promoted by the Legislative Assembly of Madeira will not produce a final report, and therefore considers that it becomes more imperative to debate these issues in the Assembly of the Republic, especially because national resources were involved in fighting the fires.

Sofia Canha wanted to know what changes in Madeira led to rural fires having more intense consequences. The socialist wanted to know if there was a lack of appreciation on the part of political decision-makers in the first phase of fighting the fire. The local civil protection units were also the subject of debate.

“I don’t know the details”, but he argues that there should be an independent study on the fires in Madeira. However, he points out that this was done in Madeira during the 2016 fires, and on several occasions.

The climate in Madeira has changed, as in the rest of the world. Although there is no history of fires, they have become more serious. A large tourist population also deserves special attention, so if residents are not prepared to face fires, tourists are even less so. In addition, there have been changes in the Civil Protection structures over the last 20 years.

Regarding the assessment of the initial phase of the fire, there was “inefficiency”. Although he acknowledges that it was a place where it was difficult to intervene, he says that in the first photos it was possible to see an area where there could have been an initial attack. “The initial attack is very important”. 10% of ignitions on the continent have been put out in the initial attack.

Decisions to request external assistance should be based on technical documents.

The expert says he is a “fan” of Local Civil Protection Units, so that the population can defend themselves and their property. The initiative has been expanded across the continent, in order to mitigate the access of firefighters to more remote areas.

Domingos Xavier Viegas says he spoke with the mayor of Ponta do Sol. In this sense, he says the role of mayors in prevention and in passing on information to the population is crucial.

On the other hand, while respecting the autonomy of the Region, he says it is important to monitor what is being done on the continent, integrating a system that involves everyone. Risk governance can be done in different ways, but we must have the same principles.

 

 

 

 

Lisbon Tourism concerned about perception of insecurity calls for greater police visibility.

 

The tourism sector is concerned about “a change in the perception of security” in the city of Lisbon, according to the president of the Regional Tourism Entity, who calls for increased police visibility and a coordinated strategy between entities.

Speaking to the Lusa news agency, Carla Salsinha said that the change, felt in recent months, refers especially to the central and most touristic areas of the capital.

“There is concern. Tourists themselves are beginning to feel a change in their perception of safety. […] There are other sectors of the economy that are not able to overcome the various crises in the same way that tourism has managed to do. Together with private and state entities, we have been paving the way here and year after year we have been conquering and overcoming challenges, but there are two fundamental things, regardless of the products and the tourist offer […]: first, our ability to welcome visitors and the second is to be a safe country”, she said.

Carla Salsinha said that there have been reports of robberies and the presence of drug addicts, including at the entrance to hotels, mainly in the Baixa area.

“For the first time, the veil of insecurity is beginning to be lifted on social media, which tourists use to give their opinions about the city. The Baixa area is clearly starting to receive some less positive comments. What we want is more human resources and more police visibility on the streets. We want to sit down with the Ministry of Internal Affairs to discuss the matter,” she said.

The representative acknowledged that “you cannot get drug addiction off the streets overnight”, as this response requires mechanisms and support at national and local level, and also considered that it is necessary to make the police profession “more attractive”.

However, she called for investment in reinforcing human resources, to have “police officers on the streets, patrolling cars, bicycles, motorbikes – that is, the visibility of the police, both for citizens and tourists” – and he also defended video surveillance.

On February 6th, training will be held for the hotel industry with the PSP to publicize the precautions that must be taken.

“We are doing our job, our way. We can improve the situation not only for tourists, but for everyone who lives in the city. What we cannot do is wait another seven or eight months. I often say that the time of public bodies is not the time of society, which evolves more quickly. Therefore, we appeal to our Minister of Internal Affairs to help us,” she said.

 

Study reveals that more than 2.3 million people in Europe could die due to heat by the end of the century

 

An increase in global average temperature of between 3 and 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century would lead to the death of 2.3 million people in Europe due to heat, reveals a study in the journal Nature Medicine.

The study published on Monday, which modeled the impact of rising global average temperatures on 854 urban areas in 30 European countries, reveals that some of the most affected cities would be Spanish cities such as Barcelona, ​​Madrid and Valencia.

The researchers considered three temperature scenarios: one in which the Paris Agreement to combat climate change is met and global temperatures do not rise more than 2 degrees by the end of the century; another in which they rise between 2 and 3 degrees; and a third, of between 3 and 4 degrees of increase by the end of the century, which is where we are heading according to the current emissions trajectory.

“We took into account the variables that relate temperature and mortality over the last 20 years and analysed them with 19 climate models in the three temperature scenarios mentioned,” one of the authors, Veronika Huber, a biologist and specialist in environmental epidemiology at the Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC), explained to the EFE agency.

In the worst-case scenario, with an increase in global average temperature of around 4 degrees by the end of the century, Barcelona (north eastern Spain) would be the European city with the most excess deaths associated with high temperatures by the end of the century: 246,082, the researchers calculate.

After Rome and Naples, Madrid ranks fourth among the most affected cities, with 129,716 additional heat-related deaths by the end of the century, and Valencia seventh, with 67,519. In fifth and sixth place are Milan and Athens, respectively.

According to previous studies, Europe has 10 cold-related deaths for every 1 heat-related death, but climate change is upsetting this balance, causing heat-related mortality to increase despite a possible decline in cold-related deaths.

“Even if cold deaths were to decrease if global temperatures were to rise, the balance would still be very negative, because additional heat-related deaths would increase dramatically and exceed two million,” adds Huber.

The good news is that researchers found that in the most optimistic scenario, in which emissions are reduced and the Paris Agreement is implemented, limiting the increase in global average temperature to 2 degrees by the end of the century, 70% of deaths from high temperatures could be avoided.

SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press

 

 

Well-protected homes can be safe places against forest fires

 

Well-protected and maintained homes, with interventions at the building level and on adjacent land, can be safe places for the population in the face of forest fires, concluded a project led by researchers from the University of Coimbra (UC).

Speaking to Lusa, Miguel Almeida, lead researcher on the House Refuge project, said that traditional homes, when well designed and maintained, can serve as safe places in the event of a fire, as long as they are surrounded by adequate fuel management areas.

The researcher at the Forest Fire Studies Center at ADAI (Association for the Development of Industrial Aerodynamics), created more than 30 years ago in the Mechanical Engineering department at UC, noted, in this context, that one of the components of the project involved studying the management of fuels in the surroundings of buildings.

“What the legislation requires is that there be [around homes] a fuel management strip. It is not a strip without fuel or a strip with fuel cuts”, noted Miguel Almeida.

The researcher explained that these areas must therefore have plant species – complying with the rules that provide for a distance of five metres between each treetop, which doubles to ten metres in the case of pine or eucalyptus trees – so that the houses are not in open fields facing a surrounding forest area, which, if it were to happen, would be harmful, as it would increase the risk of them being hit by fires, due to the projection of sparks.

He recalled, in this regard, that, in the 2017 fires, a study carried out by ADAI found that around 61% of the homes affected were not affected because the flames had reached these homes, but rather by the projections of incandescent particles, which ended up destroying buildings that were unprepared to withstand fires, often entering through the roofs.

“These sparks are transported because there is turbulence in the vicinity of the buildings”, noted Miguel Almeida, reaffirming that the existence of trees, in accordance with standards, around the buildings, reduces this turbulence and decreases the risk of sparks being transported and falling on the most vulnerable parts of the houses.

The researchers also analyzed what type of trees should be in the building’s surroundings, leading, according to the ADAI specialist, to the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests changing a determination that excluded garden trees or agricultural vegetation from the spacing standards between canopies.

“We have vegetation that is more or less flammable and vegetation that has a greater or lesser potential for releasing incandescent particles,” said Miguel Almeida.

He revealed that the investigation compiled a list of more than two dozen trees and shrubs that, in his opinion, should be banned from the gardens of homes located in areas with increased risk of forest fires, as they have “an associated danger much greater than a pine or eucalyptus tree”.

The project also proposed “more flexible approaches” and possible changes to the legislation that aims to create circular fuel management strips — a radius of 50 meters around isolated houses and 100 meters around villages — noting that the efficiency of these measures also depends on the topography of the terrain and the danger of the location.

“A house on a slope is more vulnerable to a fire that comes from below than one that moves in the opposite direction,” argued Miguel Almeida, claiming that, in this case, an elliptical configuration of the protection strip could offer more effective protection than a circular one.

Defending populations against rural fires also involves the need for autonomous energy systems, interventions in buildings and new construction practices, with the use of water sprinklers on roofs and around houses, the use of fire-retardant screens on floors, as well as the installation of a spark retention network under the tiles, in houses that do not have a concrete slab, a measure that, although it does not completely eliminate the risk of particles entering, considerably reduces this danger, observed the ADAI researcher.

House Refuge also addressed the fire risk insurance market, highlighting the need for reforms in the sector and the project, which has now ended, also resulted in the compilation of several technical and scientific documents and books, also with instructions on self-protection measures for populations, available free of charge on the internet at https://houserefuge.adai.pt/resultados/.

 

Inspection identifies health facilities unprepared for disaster

In total, 19 entities were targeted in the IGAS inspection plan, including hospitals and health centers in the public network, with 228 recommendations being issued.

No health establishment audited between 2020 and 2024 anticipated the use of external personnel to deal with high-impact emergency situations in the public administrative sector, revealed the General Inspectorate of Health Activities (IGAS).

Likewise, “no evidence was given of ongoing training for workers in areas related to disaster response,” IGAS noted in a document published online on Friday.

The conclusions relating to the public administrative sector indicate that in two of the four entities, procedures were not defined at the level of the organisation of human resources to respond to an external emergency situation and that no entity envisaged the use of external personnel, either through recruitment or through partnerships with other entities.

In this sense, IGAS recommended the preparation of an emergency and disaster plan for external situations, which establishes “the organization and mobilization of human resources, as well as training in disaster situations”.

The audits mainly focused on the response capacity of healthcare entities in the face of high-impact, unforeseen and unknown emergency situations, maintaining minimum standards of service continuity, as well as the safety of users and professionals.

In total, 19 entities were targeted in the IGAS inspection plan, including hospitals and health centers in the public network, with 228 recommendations being issued.

“The entities in the North region were those to which the most recommendations were addressed, an average of 13 recommendations per process. The entities in the other three regions registered an average of 11.2 recommendations (Greater Lisbon), 11.5 (Setúbal Peninsula) and 11.8 (Centre)”, according to the report.

In six entities, regular periodic inspections were not carried out by the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) and in four there were no internal procedures for action, space and decontamination equipment or protocols established with other entities to respond to victims of contamination by biological, chemical or radiological agents.

“In more than half of the audited entities, it was necessary to define or clarify communication circuits with families, the press, healthcare professionals and pre-hospital entities, namely interlocutors, dedicated spaces and media”, IGAS found.

In the State’s business sector, nine entities did not have estimates of goods and medicines, due to probable scenarios of catastrophe occurrence.

“None of the entities had defined formal cooperation mechanisms for the exchange of goods and equipment with other institutions,” the report reads.

At the level of the chain of command, failures were also identified.

IGAS recommended regular Civil Protection inspections and other measures that allow a prompt response to disaster situations, such as identifying areas for referral of victims after triage and specifying the equipment and specific general and clinical emergency lines to be used in such a situation.

The Inspectorate stressed the importance of developing “an unequivocal procedure” for communication with public security forces.

“Develop a uniform and integrated External Emergency Plan for the current reality of the entity, regardless of the characteristics and specifications of each health care unit” is another of the recommendations contained in an extensive list.

The public administrative sector must update the management instruments provided for in current legislation and draw up sectoral plans for evacuation in the event of an emergency.

The internal regulations must provide for a “Security Committee” and its respective powers, as a service and support unit.

 

 

 

 

The impacts of Natural hazards in 2024. The hottest year ever with more and more frequent disasters

 

In the last month of the hottest year on record, data released indicated that in the first 11 months of the year, more than 100 climate disasters occurred, resulting in approximately 200,000 deaths and 117 million people displaced worldwide.

Climate change is one of the world’s biggest concerns today. It has been the subject of international conferences and debates among world leaders over the past few decades, but 2024 was the hottest year on record: global warming is now a reality and no corner of the planet is immune. Natural disasters are becoming more intense and more frequent around the world, leaving already vulnerable regions exposed to greater risk of climate disasters. Tornadoes in the United States, floods in the Middle East, Asia and the Western Pacific, and heatwaves and fires in Europe are just some of the calamities that have claimed the lives of thousands of people over the past 12 months.

The World Meteorological Organization has concluded that this was the hottest year on record. In the first nine months of 2024, the average temperature was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The global average temperature “exceeded anything ever recorded, and often by a large margin,” the organization said in its ” State of the Climate ” report, which warns of the risk that climate change will make extreme and deadly weather events more common and intense.

Alongside these constant warnings and events that have devastated some regions of the world throughout the year, the so-called “petro-state” Azerbaijan hosted the United Nations Climate Change Conference – a country that was once the epicentre of oil production. Among the criticisms of COP 29, which took place in November this year and after records of hundreds of climate disasters, the most notable were the admittedly insufficient financial commitments and the targets for the phasing out of fossil fuels.

With the energy transition still slowly progressing, the consequences have been devastating. In the hottest year on record, millions of people have been exposed to multiple weather events. While the scientific community says that a single year with warming of more than 1.5°C does not constitute a failure to meet the stated Paris climate targets, the trend of rising temperatures shows no sign of stopping.

January
2024 promised high temperatures from the start and would break all records, with the hottest January ever across the world.

Also this month, Southeast Asia faced heavy rains that caused devastating floods, affecting countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

And a little further south, Cyclone Ellie brought torrential rains and floods to Australian territory.

February

Winter became harsher in the Americas. The United States and Canada faced winter storms, leaving entire cities without access due to snow and intense cold, which caused several damages and deaths. In Peru, many communities were affected by heavy rains, floods and consequent landslides.

On the other side of the planet, February rains failed to arrive and South Africa was hit by a months-long drought. Corn crops dried up and most livestock died. About 27 million people, many already on the brink of starvation, did not have enough food. The drought was caused by the natural climate cycle known as El Niño, which was compounded by rising temperatures.

March

The air and oceans were already experiencing record heat. And in March, the global average sea surface temperature spiked to 21.07 degrees Celsius, or nearly 70 degrees Fahrenheit — a phenomenon that triggered mass bleaching on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef , home to 400 types of coral that feed thousands of species of fish. It was the fourth and largest bleaching event on record.

The heat continued on the African continent, with prolonged drought in countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. Millions of people in the Horn of Africa were once again at risk of food insecurity.

April

In the middle of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, the world experienced the hottest April on record. A wave of heat spread across southern and southeastern Asia, with temperatures exceeding 45ºC for several days. Abnormally high temperatures for the season caused thousands of deaths, power outages and schools to close in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and the Philippines.

At the end of the month, and lasting for weeks, Brazil suffered one of the country’s worst climate disasters. In several cities, between April 27 and May 2, it rained between 500 and 700 millimetres, corresponding to a third of the historical average rainfall for an entire year, and in many others the rainfall was between 300 and 400 mm between May 3 and 5. The rains that caused the major floods in Rio Grande do Sul affected more than 60 percent of the state’s territory and two million people. At least 170 people died in the more than 400 municipalities affected.

May

These floods in Brazil began at the beginning of May. On the other hand, the heat of the previous month in South Asia continued. Many areas of India experienced extreme temperatures in May, which threatened many agricultural workers.
Severe storms and flooding were also recorded in northern Europe, particularly in Germany. As rainfall levels had already been above average in previous months, the saturated soil was unable to absorb much of the rainwater and many rivers overflowed.

June
With temperatures at record highs, Brazil’s Pantanal has been hit by the worst forest fires in two decades, burning more than a million hectares. The fires are caused by deforestation and drought in Brazil, exacerbated by climate change, and have killed rare species of jaguars and parrots that live in the Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland in the world.

On the other side of the world, several countries along the Mediterranean were also battling major forest fires, which forced the evacuation of cities and the displacement of thousands of people in Greece, Turkey and Spain.

July

Hurricane Beryl hit Caribbean island states including Grenada, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Across the Pacific, torrential rains triggered major flooding and landslides, with dozens of deaths in southern China and Japan.

Meanwhile, Europe was experiencing yet another heatwave, with Spain and Italy recording record highs.

August

With temperatures 1.68ºC above the pre-industrial average in the middle of August, the northern hemisphere was experiencing its hottest summer on record – a phenomenon explained by a global heatwave.

The extreme heat worsened the drought situation and increased the risk of fires: European authorities joined forces to combat forest fires near the Greek capital and in a nature reserve near Rome. The island of Madeira also suffered from fires that burned more than five thousand hectares.

In August, scientists concluded that Europe is the continent that is warming the fastest due to climate change.

But the heat was also felt in South America. From August onwards, Brazilian biomes, including the Amazon, Cerrado and Pantanal, suffered from extreme droughts that favoured the spread of fires.

September

In September, devastating fires hit the northern and central regions of Portugal, resulting in at least nine deaths, including four firefighters. More than 135,000 hectares were consumed by the flames, leading the government to declare a “state of emergency” in the affected areas. More than 5,000 firefighters were mobilized, with support from European countries, to combat the fires.

In Africa, in countries such as Chad and Nigeria, where conflict has forced thousands to flee, massive floods have forced hundreds of thousands of people to relocate. These floods have destroyed acres of crops that are essential to the diet and economy of these populations.

In the United States, Hurricane Helene made landfall in the south of the country. Nearly 230 people died, making it the deadliest hurricane to hit the country since Katrina in 2005. Helene’s torrential rains caused massive damage and disruption in North Carolina, where major roads were washed away and critical infrastructure was destroyed.

October

The Isolated High Level Depression (DANA) was already expected in the Iberian Peninsula, but the storm that passed through the Spanish region of Valencia was devastating. In a deluge never seen in Spain, it rained for eight hours the amount of precipitation expected for a year. More than 200 people died, streets and houses were destroyed by flooding, some bridges were destroyed and thousands of cars piled up on roads, tunnels and garages.

November

As New York City issued a drought warning as the northeastern United States struggled to recover from an unusually dry fall season, the state was ravaged by wildfires. In a more common phenomenon on the other side of the world, Australia’s fire season started early due to prolonged drought

In the Atlantic, Storm Patty brought heavy rains that caused flooding and damage in the Azores and Madeira archipelagos. The Portuguese island regions faced significant challenges due to adverse weather conditions.

With winter approaching in the northern hemisphere, heavy rains affected France, Germany and the United Kingdom, causing new floods. In Southeast Asia, persistent rains worsened weather events in Vietnam and the Philippines, which were simultaneously affected by severe storms that forced thousands of people to evacuate.

December

Cyclone Chido devastated the French island of Mayotte. There were more than 30 victims in the country, which belongs to the French archipelago located in the Indian Ocean. It was the first time that France declared a day of national mourning due to a climate disaster.

In Mozambique, the same cyclone caused even more victims: at least 120 deaths. Cyclone Chido mainly hit the north and centre of the country, in particular the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Niassa, Nampula, Tete and Sofala. The provinces in the centre were the most affected.

In the last month of the hottest year on record, data released indicated that in the first 11 months of the year, more than 100 climate disasters occurred, resulting in approximately 200,000 deaths and 117 million people displaced worldwide.