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Warmer winters, late freezes and wildly variable rainfall have formed a perfect storm to wreck the one of the region’s favorite fruits

Farming is inherently risky, a profession that always involves an expectation of loss and damage. But among many farmers, peaches are considered an unpredictable crop, with high risks and high rewards.

“Farming peaches is like gambling in a casino,” said 44-year-old Robert Jackson II, of Lyman, South Carolina. The fruit bruises easily and is vulnerable to weather changes, but can earn handsome profits.

He and his 70-year-old father, also named Robert Jackson, live and work on a 33-acre farm where peaches are their main revenue stream. “One day, everything could be fine, and then the next day, you could have nothing.”

That’s been the case for many South Carolina growers, who produce more of the fruit than the neighboring “Peach State”, Georgia. This year, a late freeze destroyed about 70% of the state’s harvest. This year’s disaster followed the previous year’s disruption, another freeze that put a major dent in peach growers’ pockets and prospects.

As southern peach season draws to a close, farmers worry that climate change threatens the long-term survival of an industry that is an economic powerhouse and deeply tied to regional identity. What apple pie is to America, the peach has arguably become to many people in the south. From Charleston to Greenville, South Carolina, roadside stands advertise peach ice cream, and small Gaffney, South Carolina, has a 135ft peach-shaped water tower.

But this year, peaches have been scarce. At an Asheville, North Carolina, farmers’ market where most of the peaches come from South Carolina, fewer peaches were on offer. When they were available, they were more expensive: a half-bushel could cost as much as $60. “Still, every peach sold in a blink of an eye,” said Ellerslie McCue, marketing coordinator for the WNC Farmers Market.

In 2022, Jackson Farms picked 2,200 half bushels of peaches. This year, it only yielded 110 half bushels. Typically, the farm would have enough peaches to sell wholesale, as many peach farmers do with excess crop. This year it only produced enough to sell at the family’s roadside stand and local farmers’ markets.

“We didn’t think the temperature was going to drop as cold as it did,” he said. “But 2 or 3 degrees is the difference between success and failure with peaches.”

Peaches are notoriously difficult to farm, both labor-intensive and sensitive to minor fluctuations in weather. During the fall and winter, peach trees enter a dormant period. Depending on the variety, the tree needs a specific number of “chilling” hours during this time – basically, hours spent at temperatures between 32 and 45F. During this season, peach trees are pretty hardy and resilient to freezes. Once the weather warms, the trees begin flowering and eventually producing fruit. But, at that point, the tree and its fruits are a lot more vulnerable to cold and destructive weather, such as hail.

“This year is probably the worst year in my 38 years of working,” said Dr Gregory Rieghard, professor of horticulture and member of the Peach Breeding Lab at Clemson University. He estimated that Georgia lost even more of its crop than South Carolina, keeping only 5% of its peaches.

Rieghard said climate change is jeopardizing peach growing.

“What people don’t realize is that when you have warmer temperatures in the Pacific, that warmth moves towards the Arctic and displaces the cold air that is there and pushes it down into North America. So we have an increased risk of these late freezes due to polar vortexes.”

Frequent late spring freezes combine with warmer winters and irregular rainfall to make a perfect storm for crop destruction. As global temperatures rise, peach trees are not always getting those necessary “chilling” hours. Warmer air also holds more moisture. It might rain less frequently, but when it does rain, there often is a lot more of it. Both drought and torrential downpours can wreck a season.

Rachel McCormick’s family has owned McLeod Farms in McBee, South Carolina, for five generations and currently plants 1,000 acres of peaches. Her father, Kemp McLeod, “calls the National Weather [Service] phone number all the time. I think they have him on caller ID,” she said.

The period of regular freezes this year was a “long three weeks” for the family. But they fared better than many farmers, retaining most of their crop. Some of it was the luck of geography. McBee, situated in the state’s Sandhills region, didn’t get as intense of a freeze as more southern and western parts of the state.

McLeod Farms also invested heavily in protecting its peaches. Workers burned bales of straw around the periphery of the farm at night and ran dozens of wind machines, circulating warm air around the trees.

Wind machines are among a handful of tools that can protect peaches in the face of a freeze. Rieghard’s lab at Clemson is also working on breeding new varieties of peaches that bloom later in the spring at higher temperatures. For the farmers themselves, there is crop insurance, which can provide some financial protection. Jackson didn’t get crop insurance until after the 2017 freeze when the US Department of Agriculture provided disaster relief to peach farmers. That vital cash subsidized the cost of crop insurance, which can be prohibitively expensive.

Despite this, many peach farmers remain steadfast in their commitment to growing peaches. Risk sometimes comes with gain. Rieghard noted peaches often return higher investment than row crops; in South Carolina, 15,500 acres of peaches generate over $98m, to the tune of more than $6,000 an acre.

“Honestly, if 100% of our crop came, we wouldn’t know what to do,” joked McCormick. Her family farm expects to lose at least 20% of its crop per season. As it stands, she’s currently filling out the paperwork to bring the usual cohort of migrant workers over through H-2A visas to work 2024’s crop. She doesn’t expect the more frequent freezes will change her family’s commitment to peaches.

“There’s been a lot of talk about the peach industry this year because we were hit so hard, but I hope it has brought awareness to how this supply chain works and how environmental and economic elements can affect an industry,” she said.

For Jackson, the peach failure is a loss, but his family balances that part of their business with off-farm jobs and other crops.

“We still have the vegetables and watermelon and blackberries to save us. My dad says if you ever lose a blackberry crop, then there’s not gonna be anything because blackberries are the most resilient.” For now, the blackberries are fine.

But as they look ahead to the next year, Jackson said the family will plant more peach trees, as well as looking at investing in a wind machine. They also will prepare to burn frost-preventing “smudge pots” if another freeze occurs. “If you save one crop of peaches, it pays for itself,” Jackson said.

Besides, the work is also a payoff. “I love what I am doing, and I like the lifestyle of farming,” said Jackson.

His father originally owned a farm in South Carolina in the 1980s. After three freezes in a row, the elder Jackson declared bankruptcy and moved to Connecticut to work on an apple orchard, then a vegetable operation. But working for others dissatisfied him, and he returned to South Carolina and bought land to begin farming again.

Today, the younger Jackson’s kids roam the farm and pick fruits at will, just like he did as a youngster. So even if the peach industry is risky, it feels worthwhile to him.

“Everyone needs to taste the fruits grown right next to where they live, then they’ll understand.”

Still, he said, most people would do better putting their money into the stock market instead of a peach farm.

archive link: https://archive.is/7inpA

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said hospitalizations rose yet again last week by another 19%. Deaths from the virus also saw a large jump: 21% in one week.

The summer surge in COVID-19 spread could extend into fall. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said hospitalizations rose yet again last week by another 19%. Deaths from the virus also saw a large jump: 21% in one week.

The spread of the virus appears to be a problem just about everywhere. Only a few states – Alaska, New Hampshire and North Dakota – saw COVID-related hospital admissions drop last week.

The other 47 states saw hospitalizations remain stable or increase. More than half of states – 26 to be exact – experienced a “substantial increase” in people being admitted with COVID-19, the CDC said.

A “substantial” jump, shaded in dark orange on the CDC map below, occurs when new hospital admissions increase by more than 20% in a single week.
https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/ChangeinCOVID19NewHospitalAdmissionsfromPriorWeekbyStateTerritoryUnitedStates.png
Twenty-six states had a 20% or larger increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations week over week, the CDC said on August 28, 2023. (Map: CDC)

The biggest spike was in South Dakota, where hospitalizations increased by more than 127% in a single week, according to CDC tracking.

Help is on the way in the form of a new booster shot targeting a recent strain of the omicron variant – but it’s not expected to be approved until the end of September.

In the meantime, things might get worse as students head back to classrooms and dorm rooms.

“Overall, I would expect cases and hospitalizations to increase – then decrease again before they rise in the late fall and early winter,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, when asked about back-to-school season’s impact on COVID spread.

“This has been the pattern for the past three years and may be where COVID may settle to: a smaller swell in the summer and a larger increase in cases in the late fall and winter,” he said.

Over the next few weeks, the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC are expected to give more information on who can get the new booster shot and when.

archive link: https://archive.is/Xp7gu

Bill Gates discussed the importance of plant-based meat alternatives with Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson on the latest episode of his podcast, "Unconfuse Me."

Bill Gates has spent years, and billions of dollars, working to combat climate change.

The billionaire’s foundation has invested vast sums in various climate tech solutions while regularly raising the alarm about the leading contributors to climate change, like the greenhouse gas emissions stemming from major energy and manufacturing companies burning fossil fuels at prodigious rates.

But, according to Gates, most people are still unaware of the role played by one of the biggest contributors to climate change: agriculture, specifically methane emissions from livestock and fertilizers.

“Of all the climate areas, the one that people are probably least aware of is all the fertilizer and cows, and that’s a challenge,” Gates recently said on the latest episode of his podcast, “Unconfuse Me.”

The topic came up because Gates was in conversation with musician and director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, who, like Gates, also happens to be an early investor in several plant-based food startups, such as Impossible, NotCo and Neutral Foods.

Thompson, who is from Philadelphia, even recently partnered with Impossible to create a plant-based cheesesteak that counts former president Barack Obama as a fan, he told Gates.

Thompson told Gates he was won over by plant-based foods’ ability to mimic the taste of real meat, among other products: “Something told me plant-based is going to be the future … and I want to be the person that plants the seed,” he said.

While plant-based foods have won support from those looking for alternatives to products made from animals, Gates said that he started backing plant-based food ventures because of their potential to combat climate change.

“I came to it more from that climate angle,” he said.

Gates has pointed out in the past that the agricultural industry contributes roughly 24% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, with much of that stemming from methane emissions from livestock and fertilizer used to cultivate crops, according to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In fact, if cattle “were a country,” Gates wrote in 2018, “they would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases [in the world].”

In his 2021 book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” Gates wrote that effectively combating climate change will take people being willing to commit to new ideas, like switching to electric cars and synthetic meats.

That same year, Gates argued that wealthy countries that have the resources to do so “should move to 100% synthetic beef” in order to meaningfully reduce global emissions from livestock, he told the MIT Technology Review.

“You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time,” he said at the time. “Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the [behavior of] people or use regulation to totally shift the demand.”

Plant-based meat sales still represent just a small percentage of the total meat market, and even Gates admits it will be difficult to convince enough people to stop eating real meat to make a significant difference.

One issue is that the still relatively new products are currently more expensive than real meats. Still, Gates has a positive outlook that plant-based meat companies will continue to improve their products, and reduce their costs, helping them to eventually become more popular.

That’s why Gates and his foundation have financially backed plant-based and lab-grown meat startups such as Impossible, Beyond Meat, Neutral Foods and Upside Foods. Speaking to Thompson about the plant-based meat startups, like Impossible, Gates said that “they’re doing well, but a lot of people want him to make [the product] even slightly better.”

“They have a good roadmap, so I’m optimistic,” he said.

archive link: https://archive.is/wip/F9QpM

Bill Gates discussed the importance of plant-based meat alternatives with Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson on the latest episode of his podcast, "Unconfuse Me."

Bill Gates has spent years, and billions of dollars, working to combat climate change.

The billionaire’s foundation has invested vast sums in various climate tech solutions while regularly raising the alarm about the leading contributors to climate change, like the greenhouse gas emissions stemming from major energy and manufacturing companies burning fossil fuels at prodigious rates.

But, according to Gates, most people are still unaware of the role played by one of the biggest contributors to climate change: agriculture, specifically methane emissions from livestock and fertilizers.

“Of all the climate areas, the one that people are probably least aware of is all the fertilizer and cows, and that’s a challenge,” Gates recently said on the latest episode of his podcast, “Unconfuse Me.”

The topic came up because Gates was in conversation with musician and director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, who, like Gates, also happens to be an early investor in several plant-based food startups, such as Impossible, NotCo and Neutral Foods.

Thompson, who is from Philadelphia, even recently partnered with Impossible to create a plant-based cheesesteak that counts former president Barack Obama as a fan, he told Gates.

Thompson told Gates he was won over by plant-based foods’ ability to mimic the taste of real meat, among other products: “Something told me plant-based is going to be the future … and I want to be the person that plants the seed,” he said.

While plant-based foods have won support from those looking for alternatives to products made from animals, Gates said that he started backing plant-based food ventures because of their potential to combat climate change.

“I came to it more from that climate angle,” he said.

Gates has pointed out in the past that the agricultural industry contributes roughly 24% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, with much of that stemming from methane emissions from livestock and fertilizer used to cultivate crops, according to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In fact, if cattle “were a country,” Gates wrote in 2018, “they would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases [in the world].”

In his 2021 book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” Gates wrote that effectively combating climate change will take people being willing to commit to new ideas, like switching to electric cars and synthetic meats.

That same year, Gates argued that wealthy countries that have the resources to do so “should move to 100% synthetic beef” in order to meaningfully reduce global emissions from livestock, he told the MIT Technology Review.

“You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time,” he said at the time. “Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the [behavior of] people or use regulation to totally shift the demand.”

Plant-based meat sales still represent just a small percentage of the total meat market, and even Gates admits it will be difficult to convince enough people to stop eating real meat to make a significant difference.

One issue is that the still relatively new products are currently more expensive than real meats. Still, Gates has a positive outlook that plant-based meat companies will continue to improve their products, and reduce their costs, helping them to eventually become more popular.

That’s why Gates and his foundation have financially backed plant-based and lab-grown meat startups such as Impossible, Beyond Meat, Neutral Foods and Upside Foods. Speaking to Thompson about the plant-based meat startups, like Impossible, Gates said that “they’re doing well, but a lot of people want him to make [the product] even slightly better.”

“They have a good roadmap, so I’m optimistic,” he said.

archive link: https://archive.is/wip/F9QpM

A recent study argues that scientists overly reliant on remote sensing and models miss important details about wet weather events, potentially affecting Earth systems models and scientific understanding. They advocate for direct, on-the-ground observations to improve data accuracy, inspire creativity, and enrich environmental education.

To be outstanding in one’s field, one may need to be out standing in one’s field.

An interdisciplinary research team led by John T. Van Stan from Cleveland State University argues that scientists should venture beyond the laboratory to directly observe weather phenomena like rain, snow, or occult deposition. In a paper published in the journal BioScience, the researchers contend that hands-on observation of storm events is crucial for comprehending the complexities of wet weather and its diverse impacts on the environment.

Recently, Van Stan and colleagues noted a trend in the scientific community towards relying on remote sensing to study storms and their consequences: “Natural scientists seem increasingly content to stay dry and rely on remote sensors and samplers, models, and virtual experiments to understand natural systems. Consequently, we can miss important stormy phenomena, imaginative inspirations, and opportunities to build intuition—all of which are critical to scientific progress.”

This type of “umbrella science,” they warn, can miss important localized events. For instance, in describing rainwater’s flow from the forest canopy to the soils, the authors note that “if several branches efficiently capture and drain stormwaters to the stem, rainwater inputs to near-stem soils can be more than 100 times greater.”

The authors also point out that important phenomena like low-lying fog events, vapor trapped beneath forest canopies, and condensate plumes may escape remote detection, yet be sensible to scientists on the ground. At the broader scale, these oversights can affect Earth systems models, which often underestimate canopy water storage. They argue that these errors may represent a “large potential bias in surface temperatures simulated by Earth systems models.”

Direct observation, however, has merits beyond remedying the shortcomings of “umbrella science.” Van Stan and colleagues see intrinsic value in firsthand storm experiences – not only for natural scientists, but also students studying climate change impacts on ecosystems. They claim that this immersive method enhances understanding, incites curiosity, and strengthens bonds with nature, thereby enriching environmental education, inspiring research, and preparing the future scientific community.

archive link: https://archive.is/dMyrZ

A recent study argues that scientists overly reliant on remote sensing and models miss important details about wet weather events, potentially affecting Earth systems models and scientific understanding. They advocate for direct, on-the-ground observations to improve data accuracy, inspire creativity, and enrich environmental education.

To be outstanding in one’s field, one may need to be out standing in one’s field.

An interdisciplinary research team led by John T. Van Stan from Cleveland State University argues that scientists should venture beyond the laboratory to directly observe weather phenomena like rain, snow, or occult deposition. In a paper published in the journal BioScience, the researchers contend that hands-on observation of storm events is crucial for comprehending the complexities of wet weather and its diverse impacts on the environment.

Recently, Van Stan and colleagues noted a trend in the scientific community towards relying on remote sensing to study storms and their consequences: “Natural scientists seem increasingly content to stay dry and rely on remote sensors and samplers, models, and virtual experiments to understand natural systems. Consequently, we can miss important stormy phenomena, imaginative inspirations, and opportunities to build intuition—all of which are critical to scientific progress.”

This type of “umbrella science,” they warn, can miss important localized events. For instance, in describing rainwater’s flow from the forest canopy to the soils, the authors note that “if several branches efficiently capture and drain stormwaters to the stem, rainwater inputs to near-stem soils can be more than 100 times greater.”

The authors also point out that important phenomena like low-lying fog events, vapor trapped beneath forest canopies, and condensate plumes may escape remote detection, yet be sensible to scientists on the ground. At the broader scale, these oversights can affect Earth systems models, which often underestimate canopy water storage. They argue that these errors may represent a “large potential bias in surface temperatures simulated by Earth systems models.”

Direct observation, however, has merits beyond remedying the shortcomings of “umbrella science.” Van Stan and colleagues see intrinsic value in firsthand storm experiences – not only for natural scientists, but also students studying climate change impacts on ecosystems. They claim that this immersive method enhances understanding, incites curiosity, and strengthens bonds with nature, thereby enriching environmental education, inspiring research, and preparing the future scientific community.

archive link: https://archive.is/dMyrZ

The agency finalized the new regulation to reflect a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year

The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it has revised a key rule to comply with a sweeping U.S. Supreme Court ruling from earlier this year, which could strip federal protections from up to 63 percent of the nation’s wetlands.

In a final rule issued Tuesday, the EPA and the Department of the Army changed parts of the previous definition of “waters of the United States” to align with the Supreme Court’s decision, which weakened the federal agency’s power to regulate the nation’s waterways.

“While I am disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision in the Sackett case, EPA and Army have an obligation to apply this decision alongside our state co-regulators, Tribes, and partners,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a news release Tuesday.

As a result of the decision, several types of waters will no longer be under federal protection, an EPA official said. Up to 63 percent of wetlands by acreage could be affected in addition to an estimated 1.2 million to 4.9 million miles of ephemeral streams, the official said.

The issue Sackett v. EPA brought before the Supreme Court was the scope of the Clean Water Act’s reach and how courts should determine what counts as “waters of the United States” under protection of the law. Nearly two decades ago, the court ruled that wetlands are protected if they have a “significant nexus” to nearby regulated waters.

In May, however, the court decided that rule no longer applies and said the EPA’s interpretation of its powers went too far, giving it regulatory power beyond what Congress had authorized.

Writing for five justices of the court, Justice Samuel A. Alito ruled that the Clean Water Act extends only to “those wetlands with a continuous surface connection to bodies that are ‘waters of the United States’ in their own right, so that they are ‘indistinguishable’ from those waters.” He was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.

The EPA said the amendments announced Tuesday are limited and only change the parts of the previous rule that are invalid under the court’s decision. For example, the final rule removes the significant nexus test from consideration when identifying tributaries and other waters as federally protected, according to the agency.

“The exclusive purpose of the 2023 Rule was to define ‘waters of the United States,’ and this rule simply conforms that definition to Sackett,” the text of the final rule states.

archive link: https://archive.is/BJhpj

The agency finalized the new regulation to reflect a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year

The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it has revised a key rule to comply with a sweeping U.S. Supreme Court ruling from earlier this year, which could strip federal protections from up to 63 percent of the nation’s wetlands.

In a final rule issued Tuesday, the EPA and the Department of the Army changed parts of the previous definition of “waters of the United States” to align with the Supreme Court’s decision, which weakened the federal agency’s power to regulate the nation’s waterways.

“While I am disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision in the Sackett case, EPA and Army have an obligation to apply this decision alongside our state co-regulators, Tribes, and partners,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a news release Tuesday.

As a result of the decision, several types of waters will no longer be under federal protection, an EPA official said. Up to 63 percent of wetlands by acreage could be affected in addition to an estimated 1.2 million to 4.9 million miles of ephemeral streams, the official said.

The issue Sackett v. EPA brought before the Supreme Court was the scope of the Clean Water Act’s reach and how courts should determine what counts as “waters of the United States” under protection of the law. Nearly two decades ago, the court ruled that wetlands are protected if they have a “significant nexus” to nearby regulated waters.

In May, however, the court decided that rule no longer applies and said the EPA’s interpretation of its powers went too far, giving it regulatory power beyond what Congress had authorized.

Writing for five justices of the court, Justice Samuel A. Alito ruled that the Clean Water Act extends only to “those wetlands with a continuous surface connection to bodies that are ‘waters of the United States’ in their own right, so that they are ‘indistinguishable’ from those waters.” He was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.

The EPA said the amendments announced Tuesday are limited and only change the parts of the previous rule that are invalid under the court’s decision. For example, the final rule removes the significant nexus test from consideration when identifying tributaries and other waters as federally protected, according to the agency.

“The exclusive purpose of the 2023 Rule was to define ‘waters of the United States,’ and this rule simply conforms that definition to Sackett,” the text of the final rule states.

archive link: https://archive.is/BJhpj

Storm expected to strengthen to category 3 before it makes landfall on Florida’s Gulf coast on Wednesday

Live updates at link.

Storm expected to strengthen to category 3 before it makes landfall on Florida’s Gulf coast on Wednesday

Live updates at link.

Eleven planes and helicopter from bloc sent to tackle fire that has burned more than 300 sq miles of land

A forest blaze in Greece is the largest wildfire ever recorded in the EU and the bloc is mobilising nearly half its firefighting air wing to tackle it, a European Commission spokesperson has said.

Eleven planes and a helicopter from the EU fleet have been sent to help extinguish the fire north of the city of Alexandroupoli, along with 407 firefighters, Balazs Ujvari said on Tuesday.

The EU’s civil protection service said the fire had burned more than 310 sq miles (810 sq km) – an area bigger than New York City.

“This wildfire is the largest in the EU since 2000, when the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis) began recording data,” the service said.

Greece’s fire service said the blaze was “still out of control” in the north-east region’s Dadia national park, a vital sanctuary for birds of prey.

Since it began on 19 August, the blaze has killed 20 people, 18 of them migrants whose bodies were found in a region that is often used as an entry point from neighbouring Turkey.

The EU calls on a fleet of 28 aircraft – 24 water-dumping planes and four helicopters – supplied by member countries to help battle blazes in the bloc and in neighbouring territories.

It is working on creating a standalone, EU-funded air wing of 12 aircraft that will be fully in place by 2030.

“We do know that fires are getting more severe,” Ujvari said. “If you look at the figures every year in the past years, we are seeing trends which are not necessarily favourable, and that calls for of course more capacities at the member states’ level.”

Greece has been ravaged by numerous fires this summer, which the government and experts attribute to the climate crisis.

Janez Lenarčič, the EU’s commissioner for crisis management, said the air deployment underscore the bloc’s commitment to swift and effective collective action in times of crisis.

archive link: https://archive.is/6Lewf

Eleven planes and helicopter from bloc sent to tackle fire that has burned more than 300 sq miles of land

A forest blaze in Greece is the largest wildfire ever recorded in the EU and the bloc is mobilising nearly half its firefighting air wing to tackle it, a European Commission spokesperson has said.

Eleven planes and a helicopter from the EU fleet have been sent to help extinguish the fire north of the city of Alexandroupoli, along with 407 firefighters, Balazs Ujvari said on Tuesday.

The EU’s civil protection service said the fire had burned more than 310 sq miles (810 sq km) – an area bigger than New York City.

“This wildfire is the largest in the EU since 2000, when the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis) began recording data,” the service said.

Greece’s fire service said the blaze was “still out of control” in the north-east region’s Dadia national park, a vital sanctuary for birds of prey.

Since it began on 19 August, the blaze has killed 20 people, 18 of them migrants whose bodies were found in a region that is often used as an entry point from neighbouring Turkey.

The EU calls on a fleet of 28 aircraft – 24 water-dumping planes and four helicopters – supplied by member countries to help battle blazes in the bloc and in neighbouring territories.

It is working on creating a standalone, EU-funded air wing of 12 aircraft that will be fully in place by 2030.

“We do know that fires are getting more severe,” Ujvari said. “If you look at the figures every year in the past years, we are seeing trends which are not necessarily favourable, and that calls for of course more capacities at the member states’ level.”

Greece has been ravaged by numerous fires this summer, which the government and experts attribute to the climate crisis.

Janez Lenarčič, the EU’s commissioner for crisis management, said the air deployment underscore the bloc’s commitment to swift and effective collective action in times of crisis.

archive link: https://archive.is/6Lewf