Editorial - Make caring about our forests cool again

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There's few pleasures in summer that equal that of lazing in parks – maybe with a book propped up on your knees, a cool refreshment beside you. It's been hot, but we've reached a point at which, to many, anything below 32 degrees feels bearable, especially after the last heatwave that had us sweating in 40 degree weather and avoiding the outside altogether.

You may want to lean back. That's when you'll notice the grass pricking into your palms, as if trying to defend itself. Driving past the Moselle the other day, I noticed clusters of tree crowns in shades of brown, as if autumn was announcing itself, peeking through the supposedly lush forests. We're in the middle of a particularly dry summer, and it barely strikes as a surprise that, as we speak, our forests are burning. Here in Luxembourg, we've so far been lucky enough not to be directly affected (albeit I have to mention the fires in Troine, Pommerloch and Landscheid that followed the thunderstorms on 3 August), but it's getting harder to keep track of what's burning where on the continent.

Here's a very short and incomplete overview: by late July, Europe's forest fire information system EFFIS had logged more than 1.300 major fires and roughly 430.000 hectares burned since January – an area more than one and a half times the size of Luxembourg itself. Near Bordeaux, a fire that broke out at Saumos crept toward the Bassin d'Arcachon and forced some 220.000 people from their homes, not to speak of the animals that must have lost their lives to the fire. It grew large enough to generate its own weather – a pyrocumulonimbus cloud, a thundercloud born from the fire itself, the kind of image so surreal people in comment sections online assumed it was AI-generated (it wasn't). France activated the EU's civil protection mechanism; several countries, including Luxembourg, sent crews and helicopters. Three firefighters died in Greece within days. It's not just the South of Europe that's been feeling the heat: in the Netherlands, a large wildfire has been spreading in the De Rosmolen nature reserve, with up to 300 firefighters tackling the flames. The list goes on.

Wildfires, may, as concerning as it sounds, be in the process of becoming Europe's new normal, and we somehow need to adapt. For civil citizens, that realisation triggers a feeling of helplessness – it truly is not up to us to just get used to it, grow numb to its destructive effects, and move on. Why is all of this happening? Researchers at the European Forest Institute point out that ignition is almost always human, but that climate and landscape conditions decide whether a spark stays small or turns into a catastrophe. A World Weather Attribution study found this summer's heat made wildfire conditions twenty times more likely in Spain and roughly twice as likely in France, compared to a world without human-caused warming. And as of now, we seem to be underprepared for what's coming.

That's not to discredit the EU or suggest nobody is paying attention – awareness is there, and so is some action that goes beyond reaction. Since March 2026, the Commission has pushed an integrated wildfire risk strategy, reframing its approach around prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery as a continuous cycle, backed by new funding and a new operational hub in Cyprus. The EU Civil Protection Mechanism works as a solidarity net: once a fire outgrows a country's own capacity, Brussels matches offers of aircraft, crews, and equipment. Copernicus satellites now map burn zones and infrastructure at risk in real time.

Apropos satellites: on the lookout for potential preventive solutions, it's worth zooming out and looking to Australia. BBC recently profiled Prof Marta Yebra, whose team at Bushfire Research Centre of Excellence investigates how satellites, drones, and AI can help detect fires early alongside firefighter's instincts. As a side note: Notice how we here talk about a technological dual-use suite whose core elements – orbital tracking, drone swarms, predictive analytics – mirror Europe's current defence obsession? A lot more energy needs to be channelled into attracting projects that focus as much on environmental protection as on defence capabilities, because if the land itself burns, environmental security is a question of national security, too.