Spain is deploying 500 more soldiers to fight wildfires ravaging the country, as southern Europe faces a wave of extreme climate events fueled by heatwaves.
Nearly all of Spain on Sunday was under extreme risk of wildfires, which have burned through around 390,000 acres this year — roughly the size of metropolitan London — as oppressive temperatures have also seen fires break out in Greece, Portugal, and France.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, and scientists have long warned about the worsening severity and scale of climate change-induced extreme weather events.
In Spain, which is especially vulnerable, the wildfires have become politicized, Bloomberg reported: The prime minister on Sunday called for a nationwide pact to combat the accelerating climate emergency.