In photos: Fires rage across the world as new report warns of escalating climate change
09 August 2021
As a new UN-sponsored climate report warned Monday of the "unequivocal" connection between human-caused global warming and extreme weather and climate events, massive wildfires burned across the world.
Why it matters: There appears to be no end in sight. Wildfires are currently devastating large swaths of the U.S., Canada, Russia, and the Mediterranean, and the wildfire season is far from over.
The big picture: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report notes that the world is on track to pass a crucial temperature threshold a decade sooner than expected.
- The report warns of the potential for "compound events," in which various extremes, such as heat waves and drought events, occur simultaneously.
State of play: Even with 107 large wildfires burning across the American West, the region will brace for a new heatwave this week.
- California's Dixie Fire is second-biggest wildfire in the state's history and the largest blaze now burning in the U.S. It remains only 21% contained as of Monday morning, per Cal Fire.
- Dozens of wildfires broke out in Greece last week after the country suffered its worst heatwave in decades, prompting a U.S. senator to appeal to federal government to send aid.
- Wildfires in Turkey forced thousands to evacuate and killed six at the start of the month.
- Intense wildfires burning across Siberia's Sakha Republic have been active for months and their smoke has even reached the North Pole.
In Photos
Firefighters and a volunteer use a water hose near a burning blaze trying to extinguish a fire in the village of Glatsona on Evia (Euboea) island, on Aug. 9. Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images
A ferry hosts people who can't evacuate in the Pefki village, in Evia Island, Greece, on Aug. 8. Photo: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The remnants of a church sign near the burned remains of the church building on Aug. 8, 2021 in Greenville, California, after the Dixie Fire tore through the town. Photo: Maranie R. Staab/Getty Images
A woman covers her face from the smoke as her sister photographs what is left of Hunters Hardware store and the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce on Main St. in Greenville that was destroyed in the Dixie Fire. Photo: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Extinguishing work continues for the wildfire in the village of Kuel in Yakutia, Sakha, Russia on Aug. 8. Photo: Ivan Nikiforov/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
People try to extinguish a wildfire spreading in the village of Akcayaka in the area of Milas in the Mugla province, Turkey, on Aug. 6. Photo: Yasin Akgul/AFP via Getty Images
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.