As forest fires grow, armies are torn between combat and climate change
Armies around the world are battling a new enemy: forest fires, floods and extreme heat.
During his 30-year career, he was deployed to Bosnia and Kosovo. The enemy this time was the biggest Slovenian fire in the history of the hottest European summer.
“You have different motives,” Ogrinc said. “If you’re in Afghanistan or Iraq, it’s a common goal, but here you’re fighting for your home, for your country.”
Europe’s militaries are battling wildfires that are burning at an ever-increasing scale and intensity this summer, dealing with record fires across a continent also engulfed by the war in Ukraine and the need to defend against an increasingly dangerous Kremlin. From the towering cliffs of Portugal to the rocky mountains of Greece, militaries have been the first responders to wildfires, bringing air resources and logistical capabilities far beyond their civilian counterparts.
The dual problem – the war in Ukraine and natural disasters linked to global warming – highlights how climate change can undermine social stability, even if the challenges seem unrelated at first glance. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is making it harder for European militaries to fight wildfires — and increasingly severe wildfires are making it harder for the military to respond to the Kremlin.
“In this situation with Ukraine and the fires, we are in a dilemma as to how to balance,” said Major General Robert Glavaš, commander of the Slovenian military forces, in an interview. “At some point you have to decide what’s important, this or that.”
The challenge is also mounting in the United States, where National Guard members spent more than 172,000 mandays fighting fires last year, compared with 18,000 in 2019, according to U.S. military data.
But the task is especially pressing in Europe, where the military has been shrinking in the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. They are now scrambling to expand to counter the threat of a possible Russian invasion and to step up aid to Ukraine to keep it fighting. Some generals say that in a warming world, the military will increasingly need to move beyond its traditional combat-focused operations to meet climate demands, such as responding to wildfires and floods.
“The role of the military will not only be to fight against future enemies, but also to support civilian authorities in dealing with the consequences of climate change,” said Tom Middendorp, a former commander-in-chief of the Dutch army who is now president of the International Military Council on Climate and Security, a research group. , which focuses on the security implications of global warming.
Slovenian defense leaders decided this month to cancel the $343 million purchase of armored personnel carriers they are considering buying more planes that could be used to fight fires. The debates are not directly related, but policymakers also say they need to make the most of limited resources. In June, the country donated 35 infantry fighting vehicles from the time of Yugoslavia to Ukraine.
Slovenian leaders say that they must prepare their army for a future in which there will be more intense wildfires. They want to make it easier for the armed forces to be involved in disaster deployments. And they want to invest in military equipment that can also be used for firefighting.
Slovenian defense expenditures are among the lowest in the NATO security alliance, with 1.22 percent of gross domestic product annually. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Slovenian politicians pledged to reach the NATO guideline of two percent by 2030. They say they need to be prepared for wildfires and at the same time increase readiness for conventional combat.
“There will be these disasters of fires or floods. It will be more and more frequent,” Defense Minister Marjan Šarec said in an interview. “We have to spend our money on whatever is necessary. Because safety has no price.”
“It’s not a dilemma of guns or butter,” said Šarec, who was also a volunteer firefighter. “As a serious country, we must do both.”
But military leaders say the dual challenge can be important and even contradictory at times.
“Our training is conducted in a military manner. exercises. How to use military equipment, how to fight, how to protect. How to defend yourself,” said Glavaš, head of the Slovenian military command. “When you stop this training and go to civilian duties, you have to focus from fighting to something else. Sometimes it is very difficult.”
He said fighting the fires “definitely” had an impact on combat readiness.
So far this year, wildfires have consumed nearly 3,000 square miles of land in the 27 countries that make up the European Union, far surpassing the previous high of 2,300 square miles. from September 17. Europe started collecting data on forest fires in 2006.
This year’s forest fires are almost three times larger than the average between 2006 and 2021. In the weeks from June to August, heat domes settled across Europe, breaking temperature records, causing droughts and turning the continent’s forests into boilers.
“This summer we witnessed an alarming acceleration and spread of wildfires,” Janez Lenarčič, the European Union’s top crisis management official, told leading European politicians this month. He worked to expand the range of EU-funded aircraft available to fight fires. “All of these disasters are compounded by the new reality of climate change, and we need to tackle this together.”
The fire in Slovenia it started on July 17 in the mountains that rise towards the village of Kostanjevica in the Karst, a settlement of about 300 people living around a few winding streets. The city is located on the Karst, which borders Italy. The area is restricted. The dry, stony soil makes farming a challenge. The wind blows so hard that locals have to weigh down their clay tile roofs with stones to keep them from collapsing. And the locals know not to stray too far off the beaten track, as the fighting in World War I was so fierce that the hills there are still littered with unexploded ordnance.
“It was obvious that it was going to be a difficult summer, fire-wise, but we weren’t prepared for that,” said Boris Budal, deputy commander of the fire brigade in nearby Sežana, which helped fight the flames. “It was beyond our means.”
This year, the pine forests were dry and the brush was untidy, perfect fuel for the fire, which quickly got out of control. At night, the wind blew the fire in one direction. As the sun rose, the air began to move in another direction, spreading across the mountain slopes. Unripe pine cones were heated and opened with fire. And on the ground, the remains of ammunition kept exploding, making it impossible for firefighters to enter the woods on foot.
The fire had to be fought from the sky – so the army was called in, supplementing civilian firefighting aircraft with helicopters and thermal imaging drones. In the end, seven countries sent their troops to help Slovenia, including three that border Ukraine and are nervous about the war spilling over their borders. Slovakia sent a Black Hawk military helicopter. Romania sent three Air Force planes. Hungary sent two combat helicopters with a crew of 13 people.
The helicopter crew “just traveled to #Slovakia to help our allies and close friends fight the big #forestfires #StrongerTogether #WeAreNato,” Slovak Defense Minister Jaro Nad tweeted at the time.
On the ground, soldiers organized many firefighting logistics, including driving water tankers close to the front lines and cooking meals for civilian firefighters and displaced residents. More than 200 members of the Slovenian Army were deployed in the joint military force approximately 5,900.
“The overall cooperation with the military has been greater than ever before,” said Budal, who has been a firefighter for 40 years.
No one died in the fire, but it consumed 15 square kilometers of forest in Italy and Slovenia. On the Slovenian side, it was three times larger than the previous record.
“A neighbor called me that the fire is approaching the village, come immediately. But I can’t guarantee that your house will still be there,” said Marjana Lavrič, a local journalist who lives in Brestovica pri Komno, a village in the valley, just over a kilometer from the Italian border. From the garden, where he grows grapes, lavender and rosemary, the charred trees are less than a hundred meters up the steep, rocky hills.
She said that even after the immediate danger of the fire had passed, smoldering trees could still be seen as she watched at night from her house, a former seminary dating back to the 19th century. A few weeks later, plants, among them spindly green stalks of wild asparagus, had already begun to sprout among the charred trees.
Residents said they appreciated the military’s help — though some said they were skeptical of military spending more broadly.
“We really thought the village would burn down,” said Maja Visenjak Limon, a freelance translator who lives in Hude Log, a settlement of a few houses at the top of a steep, winding road that was completely engulfed in flames. “They told me they were going to try to wet around the house with the water they had left.”
She and her husband were told to evacuate three times. Each time they thought they might never see their home again. Through the rear windows, they could see a military helicopter fleeing. But in the end, they—and their possessions—survived.
“A lot of people are saying, ‘Do we really need military force? It can’t be big enough to cause damage,” Visenjak Limon said. “People were saying they finally did something.”
Security policymakers say they recognize the growing challenge of responding to both traditional threats like Russia and faceless threats like climate change. Then the climate change increased more and more middle part of his debates in recent years, while at the same time trying to respond to the war in Ukraine.
“Climate change poses a serious risk to nations in the alliance, and we must use our collective power to address that risk,” said Erin Sikorsky, a former top U.S. intelligence official focused on climate change who is now director of the Center for Climate and Security , a research center based in Washington. “I think it’s causing some debate or tension between the countries in NATO as they sort it out.”
This summer, Sikorsky began noting on Twitter countries that have deployed their military to fight fires, floods or other climate-related natural disasters. Her listso far, 49 emergencies have taken place, from Argentina to Pakistan to Bulgaria to Jackson, Miss.
“You’re seeing this more and more in all corners of the world,” Sikorsky said.
Some experts warn that the military needs to plan more if it is increasingly drawn into natural disasters.
“It’s really an organization issue. Will we use the military as a backup? Some people think it’s wise,” said Alice Hill, who worked on climate change and resilience at the National Security Council under Obama and is now at the Council on Foreign Relations. “If you’re using that as a backup, what happens if those needs grow exponentially, as they do?”
Nejc Trušnovec contributed to this report.