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A firefighter leaves as the flames approaching him during a wildfire in Vati village, on the Aegean Sea island of Rhodes, southeastern Greece, July 25, 2023
EUROPE suffered a huge number of climate extremes as the continent was hit by heatwaves, wildfires, droughts and flooding last year, with scientists warning that disasters are set to get more frequent and intense.
Extreme weather affected human health and caused billions of pounds in economic losses, experts from the EU’s Copernicus climate change service (C3S) and the UN’s world meteorological service (WMO) said as they launched a report on Europe’s climate in 2023.
The report details the impacts of global warming, including a “beyond extreme” marine heatwave off British and Irish coasts, the continent’s largest-ever wildfire and exceptional glacier melt.
When it comes to extreme weather events, from wildfires to flash floods, it’s firefighters who are on the front line of defence, but services have been cut to the bone, and government is not taking seriously its responsibility for the environment, says STEVE WRIGHT
