Pine-cone grenades and planet-baking carbon: the French fires 170 years in the making – a visual guide
This article examines the historical and environmental factors that contributed to the devastating wildfires in France's Gironde region. It highlights how 19th-century land management policies created a vulnerable monoculture of pine trees that now fuels extreme fire conditions.
Why it matters
It illustrates the long-term consequences of human-altered landscapes and how historical land-use decisions can exacerbate modern climate-driven disasters.
An image of a firefighting vehicle taking part in efforts to contain the Gironde fire, overlain with a map of the area burned. Composite: Prina Shah for the Guardian / EPA / Getty Images An 1857 decree to drain swamps and plant a monoculture, detritus from the trees and global heating combined to produce the conditions for the Gironde inferno
Prefer the Guardian on Google T he ruinous fires that overran parts of France this summer have burned more land than ever recorded, forced more people from their homes than at any point since the second world war and caused what scientists suspect is the country’s first firestorm thundercloud. The smoke from France’s biggest inferno in nearly 80 years choked Limoges, a city 125 miles (200km) from the flames, with more toxic dust than Delhi residents inhaled on the city’s worst day of smog last year.
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