[MCN] Europe's summer wildfires follow familiar formula [BOLD ITALICS ADDED]

[Lance Olsen]

Drought, devilish winds and historic heat have unleashed vicious wildfires <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/world/europe/france-split-italy-fires.html>across southern Europe this summer. In June, more than 60 people died in a blaze that whipped through a forest in Portugal <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/18/world/europe/portugal-pedrogao-grande-forest-fires.html>. Since then, hundreds of fires in Spain, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, Italy and elsewhere have burned thousands of acres, killed untold numbers of wild animals <http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/incendies-dans-le-luberon-98-des-animaux-sont-morts-28-07-2017-2146660_23.php> and forced the evacuation of thousands of people <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/26/france-wildfires-corsica-cote-d-azur-holiday>, including many tourists. Fires in Sardinia forced the evacuation of a prison, with prisoners spending the night on a nearby beach.

While forest fires are a normal feature of summer in Mediterranean Europe, the frequency <http://www.euronews.com/2017/07/26/how-europe-s-wildfires-have-more-than-trebled-in-2017> and intensity of the blazes this summer are exceptional. The unprecedented heat that has stoked them, and caused droughts like the one that led to water rationing <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/world/europe/rome-water-shortage.html> in Rome, is a harbinger of what climate change will bring <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/28/climate/more-frequent-extreme-summer-heat.html?_r=0>, scientists say.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/07/opinion/mediterranean-sardinia-italy-fires-climate.html?mabReward=ACTM6&recid=4ede40ee-bb2e-4dd9-6d1d-4ebf17839821&recp=4&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/07/opinion/mediterranean-sardinia-italy-fires-climate.html?mabReward=ACTM6&recid=4ede40ee-bb2e-4dd9-6d1d-4ebf17839821&recp=4&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine>

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“The growth in CO2 emissions closely follows the growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) corrected for improvements in energy efficiency.”

P. Friedlingstein, et al. “Update on CO2 emissions.”
Nature Geoscience. Published online: 21 November 2010

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“Changes in world GDP (WGDP) have a significant effect on CO2 concentrations, so that years of above-trend WGDP are years of greater rise 
of CO2 concentrations.” 

Granados et al. Climate change and the world economy: short-run determinants of atmospheric CO2. 
Environmental science & policy 21 (2012) 50–62
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