AFP

The wildfire threat to the world’s largest trees in California has almost passed, with the blaze now spreading away from giant sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park, a forestry official said Thursday.

More than 1,000 firefighters have scrambled to contain the Washburn fire, which started a week ago, and which for days threatened the world-renowned Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias.

“The threat is essentially almost gone,” Stanley Bercovitz, a US Forest Service spokesperson, told AFP.

“Currently none [of the giant sequoias] have been killed. You never know, down the road. In two years, if maybe some of the younger ones, their needles start to turn yellow… it might be because of the fire,” he added.

“But otherwise… almost every tree was very fortunate to have a low-grade fire burn around it.”

The Mariposa Grove is the largest group of sequoias in Yosemite, with over 500 mature trees.

Giant sequoias are the world’s largest trees by volume. Their relatives, the California redwoods, can grow taller — well over 100 meters (330 feet) — but are not as wide.

Crews worked to remove quick-burning leaves, sticks and branches. Sprinklers supplied with water tanks have been running 24 hours a day, increasing overall humidity in the area.

The fire has spread over 4,375 acres (1,770 hectares) and is 23 percent contained, according to the latest official data.

It is currently moving north and east, into the neighboring Sierra National Forest.

Weather conditions have helped efforts to control the blaze.

“It’s not being driven by the wind. It’s just being driven by the fuels,” said Bercovitz.

He added: “The threat is not completely gone. Until the fire is 100 percent controlled, there’s still always some threat.

“But it is currently greatly reduced, and burning away [from the giant sequoias].”

Giant sequoias, which can live for thousands of years, typically endure many fires, the heat from which helps their cones to open, allowing the seeds to disperse.

But longer, hotter and more aggressive fires can damage them, sometimes irreparably, and California has recently seen multiple severe fire seasons in a row.

In 2020, up to 10,000 of the giants — up to 14 percent of the world’s total — perished in one fire, and another 3,600 died last year.

Scientists say global warming, which is being driven chiefly by humanity’s unchecked burning of fossil fuels, is making extreme weather events more likely.

A heatwave sweeping across southwestern Europe peaked on Thursday in Spain, with scorching temperatures fuelling stubborn wildfires that ravaged several countries.

Temperatures soared in Greece, Spain and Portugal, while the heatwave was expected to continue in Britain and France into next week.

It is the second heatwave to hit the region in a matter of weeks, as scientists say they are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change. 

The mass of hot air pushed temperatures into the mid-40 degrees Celsius in parts of Spain again for the second day in a row.

The mercury hit 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) at 5 pm (1500 GMT) near the central city of Avila as the suffocating temperatures continued.

On Wednesday, the city of Almonte in the southern region of Andalusia recorded Spain’s highest temperature that day — 45.6C.

Spain’s state meteorological agency AEMET said it expects temperatures to ease slightly on Friday in some parts of the country, although it predicts the heatwave will continue “at least” until Monday.

The health ministry told people to drink plenty of fluids, wear light clothes and stay in the shade or air-conditioning.

It also recommended people avoid caffeine and alcohol and reduce “intense” physical activity outdoors during the hottest hours.

– ‘Major’ fires –

A fire in Spain which started in the eastern region of Extremadura on Monday has so far ravaged at least 4,000 hectares of land, local officials said.

Between January 1 and July 3, more than 70,300 hectares of forest have gone up in smoke in Spain, the government has said — almost double the average of the past 10 years.

Italy, Croatia, France and Portugal all reported forest fires linked to the heat this week. 

In Greece, a helicopter helping to fight a forest fire on the island of Samos on Wednesday crashed into the Aegean Sea, killing two of its four crew members, the coastguard said Thursday.

The fire continued to burn on Thursday, fanned by strong winds.

In Portugal, over 2,000 firefighters were battling dozens of wildfires across Portugal, including four deemed “major”.

One person died in a forest blaze, authorities said Wednesday, after a body was found in a burned area in the northern region of Aveiro.

Around 60 others have been injured, some 860 people evacuated and roughly 60 homes destroyed or damaged.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa earlier warned that Thursday would be the “most serious” day of the heat wave because temperatures were expected to rise and winds were stronger.

“Today is the day where we have to be the most careful,” he said.

In June, 96 percent of Portugal was classified as being in either “extreme” or “severe” drought.

– French evacuations – 

Meteorological services in France also warned the situation would “become intense between Sunday and Tuesday” — possibly exceeding 40C before dipping by Wednesday. 

Although temperatures eased by a few degrees Celsius across France, two large wildfires continued in the Gironde region near the southwestern city of Bordeaux, destroying 4,200 hectares of forest in three days, with firefighters still unable Thursday to stop the blazes.

Some 4,000 people, including residents of a military base, were evacuated on Thursday as a precaution because of the risk from the smoke from the fire, local officials said.

Tourist magnet the Dune de Pilat, Europe’s highest sand dune, was closed to visitors after several thousands were evacuated from campsites this week.

“The situation is stable, but not yet under control,” the region’s authorities said Thursday as temperatures were forecast to hit 38C.

However, no additional evacuation of residents was planned, after hundreds were moved from their homes in recent days as a precaution in the region.

Further south, the Landes region and the city of Nimes cancelled all fireworks for Bastille Day, France’s national holiday.

Temperatures were expected to reach 36C in southern France, 25C in the north of the country, and 32C in Paris on Thursday.

London meanwhile has issued an “amber” alert — the second highest of three levels — while one UK climate official said there was a chance Britain’s highest temperature — 38.7C recorded on July 25, 2019 in Cambridge — could be surpassed.

London mayor Sadiq Khan announced an emergency plan to help homeless people deal with the extreme heat that includes distributing water and suntan lotion.

Germany on Thursday paid tribute to more than 180 people killed in severe floods a year ago, as those left behind charged that help with the reconstruction effort has been too slow to arrive.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier embarked on a tour of the Ahr valley, while Chancellor Olaf Scholz joined a human chain in the hard-hit town of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler and took part in a minute’s silence to remember the victims.

In Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Cornelia Weigand, who was the mayor of nearby Altenahr at the time of the floods, told a sombre crowd that “the scale of the damage to body and soul” was “inconceivable”.

“Our mourning cannot be described with words,” she said, her voice wavering.

In Altenahr, Steinmeier said he wanted to “show that we haven’t forgotten the people of the Ahr valley” and “how many are still struggling to rebuild their homes”.

However, a year on from the disaster, frustration is building at the sluggish pace of help promised by the government.

Alfred Sebastian, the mayor of Dernau, said the town was “still at the very beginning” of the reconstruction process.

“We need to be financially supported by the state… We need it now. If not now, when? We have to move forward,” he said. 

– Trail of destruction –

“Many of us are simply tired, exhausted and also disappointed about the fact that parts of the reconstruction… are only progressing slowly,” said Guido Orthen, the mayor of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler.

Orthen also called on the government to “improve disaster prevention so that people no longer lose their lives in this way”.

Severe floods pummelled western Germany over two days in July last year, ripping through entire towns and villages and destroying bridges, roads, railways and swathes of housing.

Between 100 and 150 millimetres (four and six inches) of rain fell between July 14 and 15, according to the German weather service — an amount that would normally be seen over two months. 

Forecasters had issued warnings, yet many residents were simply unaware of the risks of such violent flooding, with dozens found dead in their cellars.

With former chancellor Angela Merkel still in charge at the time of the floods, the government pledged a total of 30 billion euros ($30 billion) in federal and state aid to help with the reconstruction effort. 

But in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, only 500 million euros in aid has been handed out of the total 15 billion euros set aside.  

In neighbouring North Rhine-Westphalia, 1.6 billion euros of government support has been approved for use, out of a total of 12.3 billion euros.

– Climate concerns –

Rhineland-Palatinate state premier Malu Dreyer on Thursday told residents of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler that their suffering had not been forgotten.

“I can assure you that we are working hard every day to ensure that the reconstruction succeeds for all and we take your concerns very seriously,” she said.

The disaster prompted criticism of Germany’s flood warning system and a criminal inquiry was opened into local officials for “negligent homicide”.

The government has since pledged to introduce phone alerts in the form of “cell broadcasting” and to reinstall sirens, many of which have been taken down in recent years.

It also raised concerns about climate change, with one international study showing that man-made global warming had made the floods up to nine times more likely.

A year on, Germany is set for more extreme weather with temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) expected this week as a heatwave sweeps across Europe.  

In neighbouring Belgium, where 39 people were also killed in the deluge, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde attended a ceremony in Liege.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo paid tribute to the “heroes” who came to the aid of the victims, including a 14-year-old boy who threw himself into a river in an unsuccessful attempt to save a fellow scout camp member.

The first stunning images from the James Webb Space Telescope were revealed this week, but its journey of cosmic discovery has only just begun. 

Here is a look at two early projects that will take advantage of the orbiting observatory’s powerful instruments.

– The first stars and galaxies – 

One of the great promises of the telescope is its ability to study the earliest phase of cosmic history, shortly after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. 

The more distant objects are from us, the longer it takes for their light to reach us, and so to gaze back into the distant universe is to look back in the deep past.

“We’re going to look back into that earliest time to see the first galaxies that formed in the history of the universe,” explained Space Telescope Science Institute astronomer Dan Coe, who specializes in the early universe.

Astronomers have so far gone back 97 percent of the way back to the Big Bang, but “we just see these tiny red specks when we look at these galaxies that are so far away.”

“With Webb, we’ll finally be able to see inside these galaxies and see what they’re made of.”

While today’s galaxies are shaped like spirals or ellipticals, the earliest building blocks were “clumpy and irregular,” and Webb should reveal older redder stars in them, more like our Sun, that were invisible to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Coe has two Webb projects coming up — observing one of the most distant galaxies known, MACS0647-JD, which he found in 2013, and Earendel, the most distant star ever detected, which was found in March of this year.

While the public has been enticed by Webb’s stunning pictures, which are shot in infrared because light from the far cosmos has stretched into these wavelengths as the universe expanded, scientists are equally keen on spectroscopy.

Analyzing the light spectrum of an object reveals its properties, including temperature, mass, and chemical composition — effectively, forensic science for astronomy.

Science doesn’t yet know what the earliest stars, which probably started forming 100 million years after the Big Bang, will look like. 

“We might see things that are very different,” said Coe — so-called “Population III” stars that are theorized to have been much more massive than our own Sun, and “pristine,” meaning they were made up solely of hydrogen and helium. 

These eventually exploded in supernovae, contributing to the cosmic chemical enrichment that created the stars and planets we see today. 

Some are doubtful these pristine Population III stars will ever be found — but that won’t stop the astronomical community from trying.

– Anyone out there? – 

Astronomers won time on Webb based on a competitive selection process, open to all regardless of how advanced they are in their careers.

Olivia Lim, a doctoral student at the University of Montreal, is only 25 years old. “I was not even born when people started talking about this telescope,” she told AFP.

Her goal: to observe the roughly Earth-sized rocky planets revolving around a star named Trappist-1. They are so close to each other that from the surface of one, you could see the others appearing clearly in the sky.

“The Trappist-1 system is unique,” explains Lim. “Almost all of the conditions there are favorable for the search for life outside our solar system.”

In addition, three of Trappist-1’s seven planets are in the Goldilocks “habitable zone,” neither too close nor too far from their star, permitting the right temperatures for liquid water to exist on their surface.

The system is “only” 39 light year away — and we can see the planets transit in front of their star.

This makes it possible to observe the drop in luminosity that crossing the star produces, and use spectroscopy to infer planetary properties. 

It’s not yet known if these planets have an atmosphere, but that’s what Lim is looking to find out. If so, the light passing through these atmospheres will be “filtered” through the molecules it contains, leaving signatures for Webb.

The jackpot for her would be to detect the presence of water vapor, carbon dioxide and ozone. 

Trappist-1 is such a prime target that several other science teams have also been granted time to observe them.

Finding traces of life there, if they exist, will still take time, according to Lim. But “everything we’re doing this year are really important steps to get to that ultimate goal.”