‘Tragedy But Not An Anomaly’: EU Issues Stark Warning Amid ‘Climate Breakdown’

As extreme weather and natural disasters sweep across the globe, the European Union is pointing to devastating floods in Central Europe and deadly wildfires in Portugal as proof that “climate breakdown” is now a part of daily life on the continent.

“Make no mistake. This tragedy is not an anomaly,” EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarčič of Slovenia said after heavy rainfall flooded parts of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Austria. “This is fast becoming the norm for our shared future.”

The flooding led to at least 23 reported deaths, but its full impact is still unfolding, with casualties confirmed in Romania, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland, as authorities and volunteers scrambled to offer protection and aid.

At the other end of the EU, more than 100 raging wildfires through northern Portugal have killed at least seven people, including three firefighters. Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro declared a state of calamity for the hardest-hit areas late on Tuesday, invoking powers to mobilize more firefighters and civil servants.

Over 150 square kilometres of land have been scorched in Portugal, with a combined 13 kilometres of fire fronts detected by the European Copernicus satellite service. An area home to 210,000 people is exposed to the fire risk, the service said.

People need only to follow the daily news to understand the urgency of the issue, said Lenarčič.

“We face a Europe that is simultaneously flooding and burning,” he warned. “These extreme weather events… are now an almost annual occurrence.

“The global reality of the climate breakdown has moved into the everyday lives of Europeans.”

Wildfires raging through Peru have had an even deadlier impact, claiming at least 15 lives and injuring 98 since July, AP reports. Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzén said the fires were started by human activity, while Peru’s National Forest and Wildlife Service, SERFOR, indicated that the effects of climate change intensify the conditions that facilitate the spread of fire.

“Extremely strong winds and prolonged droughts dry out vegetation, turning it into highly flammable fuel,” said Romina Liza, a specialist in forest fire monitoring and management at SERFOR. “This allows the fires to spread rapidly.”

In neighbouring Brazil, firefighters battled flames spreading through a national park, with smoke enveloping the capital Brasilia this week. It is the latest wildfire in the country, which is experiencing a historic drought, writes AP. Fires are also raging in the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado savanna, and the Pantanal wetlands.

While dry conditions are also raising wildfire risks in British Columbia this fall, several wildfires have already been burning well south of there through Southern California, where heatwaves broke several temperature records in early September. Firefighters are now making progress amid higher humidity and cooler weather. A California man charged with starting one of the fires has pleaded not guilty.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, a “firehose” storm that dumped as much as 50 centimetres of rain in a so-called 1,000-year flood shocked many with its intensity. It left homes flooded, cars submerged, and schools closed Tuesday, with scientists pointing to it as one marker of climate change, AP reports.

“Data shows one of the strongest relationships between climate change and precipitation is that as the atmosphere warms, the capacity to hold water increases,” explained Andrew Kruczkiewicz, senior researcher at the Columbia Climate School at Columbia University. “Therefore we see more intense rainfall in a shorter period of time.”

Across the globe in China, the strongest typhoon to hit Shanghai since at least 1949 flooded roads with water and broken tree branches, knocked out power to some homes and injured at least one person as it swept over the financial hub earlier this week. More than 414,000 people had been evacuated ahead of the powerful winds and torrential rain. Schools were closed, and people were advised to stay indoors.

And in Myanmar, the death toll from flooding and landslides caused by Typhoon Yagi has reached at least 74, with 89 people missing as of last Saturday. Difficulties in compiling information have raised fears that the number of casualties may be higher.

Yagi also left 233 people dead in Vietnam, revealing its toll as rescue workers recovered more bodies from areas hit by landslides and flash floods, state media reported.

Cover photo: screen grab of Brasilia wildfire from Vanessa Soares/Twitter