Two French teenagers in court on suspicion of causing wildfires
Two French teenagers in court on suspicion of causing wildfires
28 July 2017
published by https://www.theguardian.com
France – Boys suspected of starting one of wildfires in southern France that have destroyed homes and forced evacuation of thousands
Two adolescent boys are to go before a judge on Friday on suspicion of deliberately starting one of the wildfires that devastated parts of south-eastern France and Corsica this week.
The two boys, both aged 16, were stopped on Wednesday by police who believed arson was behind the blaze in Carros, north of Nice, where 150 hectares (370 acres) of vegetation were burnt, according to the deputy police prosecutor of Aix-en-Provence, Rémy Avon.
Fires this week, the worst in France for more than a decade, have scorched over 7,000 hectares of land, destroyed homes and forced the evacuation of thousands.
About 230 firefighters battled the Carros fires, which damaged houses and injured a first responder.
Avon said the adolescents may also be charged with theft and could face a prison sentence of 15 years.
François Arizzi, the mayor of Bormes-Les-Mimosas, the site of one of the most dramatic blazes, is among officials who have claimed that some of the five days of wildfires were caused by arsonists.
We have to stop closing our eyes to the facts. We need to find the people responsible and punish them so that they dont do it again, the mayor told reporters.
The French prime minister, Édouard Philippe, warned that malicious acts must be punished by the authorities.
Meanwhile, a 41-year-old man has admitted starting a wildfire by accident with a metal-cutting device.
That fire in Peynier, about 30km (19 miles) north-west of Marseille, burned 72 hectares (178 acres) of vegetation before being contained by a team of more than 300 firefighters. The man will go to court on Friday afternoon and could face up to five years in prison.
An international team of climate researchers from the US, South Korea and the UK has developed a new wildfire and drought prediction model for southwestern North America. Extending far beyond the current seasonal forecast, this study published in the journal Scientific Reports could benefit the economies with a variety of applications in agriculture, water management and forestry.
Over the past 15 years, California and neighboring regions have experienced heighteneddrought conditions and an increase inwildfire numbers with considerable impacts on human livelihoods, agriculture, and terrestrial ecosystems. This new research shows that in addition to a discernible contribution from natural forcings and human-induced global warming, the large-scale difference between Atlantic and Pacific ocean temperatures plays a fundamental role in causing droughts, and enhancing wildfire risks.
“Our results document that a combination of processes is at work. Through an ensemble modeling approach, we were able to show that without anthropogenic effects, the droughts in the southwestern United States would have been less severe,” says co-author Axel Timmermann, Director of the newly founded IBS Center for Climate Physics, within the Institute for Basics Science (IBS), and Distinguished Professor at Pusan National University in South Korea. “By prescribing the effects of man-made climate change and observed global ocean temperatures, our model can reproduce the observed shifts in weather patterns and wildfire occurrences.”
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-atlanticpacific-ocean-temperature-difference-fuels.html#jCpAn international team of climate researchers from the US, South Korea and the UK has developed a new wildfire and drought prediction model for southwestern North America. Extending far beyond the current seasonal forecast, this study published in the journal Scientific Reports could benefit the economies with a variety of applications in agriculture, water management and forestry.
Over the past 15 years, California and neighboring regions have experienced heighteneddrought conditions and an increase inwildfire numbers with considerable impacts on human livelihoods, agriculture, and terrestrial ecosystems. This new research shows that in addition to a discernible contribution from natural forcings and human-induced global warming, the large-scale difference between Atlantic and Pacific ocean temperatures plays a fundamental role in causing droughts, and enhancing wildfire risks.
“Our results document that a combination of processes is at work. Through an ensemble modeling approach, we were able to show that without anthropogenic effects, the droughts in the southwestern United States would have been less severe,” says co-author Axel Timmermann, Director of the newly founded IBS Center for Climate Physics, within the Institute for Basics Science (IBS), and Distinguished Professor at Pusan National University in South Korea. “By prescribing the effects of man-made climate change and observed global ocean temperatures, our model can reproduce the observed shifts in weather patterns and wildfire occurrences.”
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-atlanticpacific-ocean-temperature-difference-fuels.html#jCp
