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is about wildfires and we are going to talk about the consequences and the causes

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of these fires and the solutions to avoid them. Then we will explain in detail some examples that

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took place last year and this year and finally we will talk about some preventions taken by

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the governments. So we have chosen to talk about this because we think it is a very important

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problem as a large percentage of them are caused by humans and we believe that by learning

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more about this topic we will put an end to this big issue.

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so most of fires are caused by humans due to impedances like throwing cigarettes or deliberate

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like arsonist or in revenge others are due to natural phenomena like lightning but they are not

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as usual so in the image we can see the causes of fires in spain and we can see uh 60 percent of

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them were delivered and a 19 percent were um we don't know the exact the exact cost that

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produce them. So obviously when there is a fire there is a destruction of the ecosystem

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and there is a loss of the fauna and flora in that place but not only the living things suffer

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as the soil becomes useless and there is a loss of minerals but this also affects our health

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because ashes and smoke produce respiratory issues.

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So they also play an important role in climate change

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because there is an increase in the emissions of CO2 and greenhouse effect gases.

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And if we destroy the forests, which are the ones who produce the most oxygen,

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we are damaging ourselves so there are some solutions that were made by the governments

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to avoid this issue so first there is an analysis of the problem where we understand and research

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data and then there is a prevention method which Carmen will explain later in detail

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and the third one is that we have to know how to use fire in an appropriate way so that it's

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not harmful and the fourth is that we know that obviously these fires won't stop but we have to

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work in a corporate way to put an end and the five point is that we after these fires happen

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we have to restore the ecosystem for example by replantation of trees so now I'm going to explain

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what happened in the Amazon forest. The first thing we have to really understand

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that it's not an occasional event that took place last year but this has

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happened for several years because in those places there is a

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method called the slash and burn method in agriculture that consists of

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cutting down trees, then drying them and burn them and they do this to obtain a

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large amount of area to plant other crops. So in the late 90s and in 2000s

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these fires reached their highest peak. So after those years the governments

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decided to implement some laws to reduce deforestation but these measures were

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were taken but in the year 2018 and 2020 the government encouraged the

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the agricultural activity, so there was a drawback.

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So in this graph we can see the fires between the years 2003 and 2019.

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So in blue we can see the data before the regulations, then in purple after the regulations,

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But in the year 2007 and 2010 there was a climate phenomenon called El Niño which caused

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an unusual increase in temperatures.

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So in 2019 there was an increase in the 80% of the fires.

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So this was due to the economic and political background.

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So in 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was declared president of Brazil and he wanted to open up the forest

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to create business with the plantation of soy and cattle pastures.

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So now I'm going to explain what happened in 2019.

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So in January, between January and August, there were 74,000 fires detected and by the

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15th of August, there were 9,500.

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So in the image we can see the data of that day, this satellite image taken by the NASA.

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So the government between those days didn't do anything to solve this issue.

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So the 24th, Bolsonaro was forced by other countries to deploy the army to put an end

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to these fires. By the end of September, there was a fall of 36% due to the action of firefighters

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and the intense rain. There were many things affected by these fires. The main one was

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the flora and fauna in this place which um they are the 10 percent of the species in the world

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and they suffered a lot due to these fires but also a people and the indigenous mulva tribe

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were really damaged and and we we as a as a society we were also damaged because

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Because this area, the Amazon basin produces the 20% of the earth's oxygen.

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So we really harmed ourselves.

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But the area that was really affected by these fires were places in Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay

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and Peru.

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So the government of Brazil didn't do anything, so they were forced to implement some laws.

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So Bolsonaro banned the use of fire in agriculture for 60 days, but a few days later, the NASA

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detected 2,000 new outbreaks, so this measure didn't do anything.

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So we were, the people around the world were really upset about this, so they mobilized

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and they created the hashtag PrayForAmazoners in social media and also the action of NGOs

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like Amazon Watch, Rainforest Alliance, WWF and Greenpeace took a very important role

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the collection of funds to solve this issue so this image was taken yesterday so we can see the

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fires that happened in south america and as we can see and there is a few number of them but

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there are some so now carmen will continue with a fires in australia to talk about wildfires in

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australia so wildfires are nothing new for australia but these last years they have intensified

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so the main causes of the wildfires in australia um there is not just one cause that led to

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to that situation so this it is the accumulation of the prolongated high temperatures strong wind

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drought and all of that basically it is the accumulation of climatic changes there were

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gusts of wind that reached 96 kilometers per hour and this makes much more difficult for

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the firefighters to eliminate the fire as the gusts acted as fuel for the fire there is not

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a exact date when the fire began but it is thought that around spring 2019 on because

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Because from that moment on the temperatures began to be higher.

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The most affected areas are the eastern and southern coast of Australia.

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In the photo we can see the red spots are like the places where there were wildfires.

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And these wildfires led to several consequences.

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According to the ecologist Christopher Dickman from the University of Sydney, around one

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One billion of the animals have died because of these wildfires.

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Some of these animals were kangaroos, wombats or koalas.

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But some of them died because of the direct contact of the flames with their body.

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But this is not strictly necessary, others they just smoke and this made the animals

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to panic and produced a lot of stressful situations with the animal didn't know how to react and this

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caused their death. One third of the koalas in New South Wales have been killed. New South Wales as

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you can see in the photograph it is located on the south and on the east of Australia

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and over 104,000 homes have been destroyed and around 28 people have died.

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It is true that lots of people have been evacuated from their houses because of these wildfires

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and also Australia is a place which has the highest rate of species loss of any area in the world

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and that is why the researchers feared a lot these wildfires

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because if the wildfires had lasted for too long, some species could have disappeared.

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This is not the case of koalas or kangaroos that are spread all over the country,

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but other species of animals that live in very specific climatic conditions and that live in niche environments,

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and in these animals the populations are much smaller, they could have disappeared completely.

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and these animals are the eastern beast bird which is the photograph on the left and it's on the top

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then the mountain pygmy possum which is the photograph on the top right and the other

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photograph which is in the bottom and in the middle is the coral bore frog

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So, Australia, the 70% of Australia's surface is a desert, and there were 32,432 square

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miles burned in these wildfires, and it is said that 21% of the burned country's forest

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was burned in these fires.

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This not only led to environmental consequences that I have already mentioned but also other

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type of consequences that I'm going to talk about now.

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So some of the consequences is the loss of tourists because Australia was very famous

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because of its landscape and not because of its environment and as many of it has been

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destroyed by the fires this can produce a lot of a lot of loss in terms of

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tourists. The second one is that the smelling smoke and ash for a pretty long

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time this can lead to diseases, respiratory diseases. Then it is also true that the

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wildfire reduces the productivity of the burnt areas. Another consequence is

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that australia had to spend a lot of money on equipment for the firefighters and for the people

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who were trying to reduce their fires um and australia spent around 31 million euros trying

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to help those animals that have larger habitats um although australia is considered a rich country

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this shouldn't have to be a huge impact on their economy but it is estimated that from now

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until 2050 they should spend like 20 000 million euros but due to our actual situation this

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may change and now it's very difficult to predict how much would it cost me okay so

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now i'm going to focus on other wildfires that happen worldwide and basically i'm going

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to talk about a Spanish world. Australia's wildfires evolution we can see in these two

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photographs but the one on the left shows like the temperature of Australia

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related to the one of the world in 2019 2019 and we can see the difference that

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the Australian one is much higher then in the other the the other photograph

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with us on the right, we can observe the fire alerts according to the months, in which basically

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we observe that those months that have higher temperatures, like are the summer and autumn,

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are the ones where the fire seasons are much higher, and it's more probable to have fires.

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And in this last one, this is the weather conditions that are mostly worsening and as

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I have mentioned before, the worst areas are the south and the east, where there are cities

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like Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, the most common cities of Australia basically.

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in Spain. In Spain, in 2019, Spain was the most affected country by wildfires of the European

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Union and the most affected parts were Galicia, the Canary Islands and

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Catalonia. I'm going to focus on each of them. First, I'm going to talk about Galicia. 2019

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was one of the worst years for Galicia because there were lots of wildfires and they lasted

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too long. The main places where the wildfires took place were from Riancho to Obarco de

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Valdeborral and more than 10,200 hectares were burned and this began the 26th and 27th

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Mars and this was caused by high temperatures, strong winds, humidity

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because there were wind gusts that reached over 30 km per hour but the main

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cause was human activity. In Galicia 80% of the wildfires are done on purpose and

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basically they are done by terrorist groups. This fire I'm talking about had

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more than 10 sets and this is why it is known that it was caused by humans basically and in 2019 uh

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was also or was also very uh was also uh one of the years that had worse temperatures the

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temperatures were extremely high and this was one of the main causes well first in the canary

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islands in the canary islands the one i'm going to talk about took place in valleseco in gran canaria

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And about 10,000 hectares got burned and 10,000 people were evacuated.

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It is unknown why it was caused, but it is probable that it was caused by the action of burning wheat.

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But this was one of the worst wildfires in the Organari Islands.

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The wildfires in Tarragona and Lleida. The one I'm going to talk is one that took place in La Torre del Español, it's in Tarragona, and it began the 26th of June and ended the 29th of June.

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Around 6000 stairs got burned and 350 firefighters and 230 soldiers from the UME were needed in order to control the fire.

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it was basically caused by high temperatures winds and 40 around 40 people were evacuated

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from their houses preventions now i'm going to talk about some preventions that we

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may should that we should take in order to avoid wildfires from happening they may sound really

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obvious but this is that this can this can avoid them from happening it is also true that several

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studies show that 84% of the wildfires are caused by humans, but we should be aware of the

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consequences and also we should know how to act in that situation. So now I'm going to mention some

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of the tips that we should have. So when setting a bonfire on a campfire, it is important to avoid

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areas where there is risk of fires and we should avoid areas that there is a huge amount of wind.

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We shouldn't let the campfire is unattended even if it's at night and when we are making a campfire

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we must have something to like water or something near if we want to to stop it from burning and it

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This is also important to not make fires on windy days, and when you look the fire make

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sure that it is not burning.

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Smoking can also affect this from happening, so we must be careful where we leave the lighters

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matches and we must keep them away from children, and if you are smoking on the countryside

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it's important to do not throw away the bat, and also do not burn highly combustible objects

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that can burn very easy like gasoline or paper and keep with you the rubbish if you're in the

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countryside keep with you the rubbish and then you will throw away fireworks fireworks are quite

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important because they can create a huge impact fireworks it's important to do not

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like fireworks on windy days and it's important to do not let children use fireworks without an

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adult supervision. When there is a firework, we will need water to doze it and so that it slows.

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So it's important to leave water or a fire extinguisher nearby.

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When we go to the countryside, we shouldn't let the car with a hot motor near dry grass

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and we shouldn't let oil or gasoline to spill on the grass.

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As most of the fires are related to droughts, avoid making fires between those months that are hotter

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where the temperatures are really really high, this would reduce the amount of wildfires.

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like for example during november in september july october avoiding

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withdrawing rubbish to the floor especially glass or things that that may burn it is important to

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know how to act if the fire starts and it is a really good way of preventing it from spreading

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being aware of what is happening if you go to the countryside you must be aware of what you

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what you carry with you and be really careful because anything can just make a wildfire

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from happening and if it occurs and you cannot control it by yourself you just have to call

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emergencies and wait for them.

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One of the ways that the firefighters and all these emergencies people who are constantly

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working with wildfires try to use to avoid this from happening or to know when it is going to

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happen are the thermal cameras and this is all here's the bibliography that we have used and

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thanks for listening