Fires In Ukraine Research Articles

Assessment of carbon emissions due to landscape fires in Ukraine during war in 2022

The russian military aggression and the related socio-economic and environmental consequences have significantly affected the climate and production of ecosystem services through damage to forests, ecosystems, landscape fires and emissions of gases into the atmosphere. The study aims to estimate carbon dioxide emissions due to landscape fires in Ukraine during the year 2022. The OroraTech wildfire monitoring technology was used to detect fires, while perimeters of burned areas were delineated with Sentinel 2 time series. The Copernicus Dynamic Land Cover map was used to extract burned land covers. Emissions were calculated based on the intensity of fires (dNBR) with the share of burned biomass in different types of land cover. Biomass models were selected considering the dominant tree species within a specific region and the species structure of the sown areas of croplands. The volume of biomass losses was estimated as a result of fires of different severities. It was estimated that during in 2022, landscape fires burned 749.5 thousand hectares thereof: croplands – 419.1 thousand hectares; other natural vegetation – 273.8 thousand hectares; conifer forests – 31.1 thousand hectares; other forests – 25.5 thousand hectares. The impact of the war on landscape fires is confirmed by the large proportion of fires in the 60-kilometre buffer zone along the frontline – 68.9% of the total area of fire. Among all fires, 42.5% of fires occurred in the occupied territory. Total CO2 emissions from all types of landscape fires reached 5.20 million tons and other greenhouse gases – 0.28 million tons. It is the first detailed mapping of landscape fires with an analysis of each polygon for the whole territory of Ukraine. The results provide important information for assessing the loss of ecosystem services and estimating carbon dioxide emissions as well as for confirming the impact of hostilities on landscape fires

Fire classification in natural ecosystems by physical and environmental characteristics

To qualitatively and quantitatively characterize and classify the intensity of forest fires and their environmental consequences, it is necessary to develop a special scale similar to the scale of wind strength, sea storms, earthquakes, geomagnetic storms, etc. Purpose. To describe the scales developed for the classification of forest fires according to various parameters characterizing physicochemical processes, environmental consequences and the level of danger from pyrogenic factors. Methods. System analysis, multifactorial analysis, mathematical modeling. Results. A seven-magnitude scale for classifying forest fires by intensity, energy characteristics, mass of emissions of the main combustion products and related chemical elements, as well as by environmental consequences and hazard level is proposed. It is substantiated that with moderate and weak winds, the intensity and energy of forest fires in Ukraine usually do not exceed 4-5 magnitudes, i.e., a moderate or high level. Fires of this level occurred, for example, in the spring, summer, and fall of 2020 in a number of regions of Ukraine. Conclusions. The developed special scales for classifying forest fires according to various parameters are an effective tool for qualitative and quantitative characterization of the intensity of forest fires and their environmental consequences. The obtained results can also be used to assess environmental impacts, material damage and social losses.

ANALYSIS OF INJURIES AND DEATH OF PEOPLE AS A RESULT OF VIOLATION REQUIREMENTS IN UKRAINE

Problem statement. The exploring reseach shaws that physical wear and tear of technological equipment, machines and mechanisms that fail to meet safety requirements causes the main number of injuries at coal, chemical, construction industry, etc. A large share of work- and non-workplace injuries with fatal consequences occur on the wear and tear of buildings and structures that are in an emergency state. The injuries are mostly common caused due to violation of fire safety rules, rules of labor protection, and unappropriate sanitary and hygienic working conditions. Thus, there are more than 50 thousand fires in Ukraine every year, in which people die, and material damage exceeds hundreds of millions of hryvnias, incidental losses are 20 times bigger. The reseach shows that a significant part of accidents happens to whokers who perform one-time jobs working under subcontract, without an employment. An average of 140−180 people in Ukraine are injured at work every day, 20 of them become disabled, 4−5 of those people die. The purpose of the article is to reseach the causes and consequences of violations’ requirements of regulatory and legislative acts, safety, which lead to injuries and deaths. And to analyse the statistics of industrial injuries in Ukraine. Conclusions. The analysis revealed that a significant part of the injuries and deaths of people is caused by the operations and maintenance of buildings and structures, violations by enterprise owners of regulatory and legislative acts on labor protection, safety, and sanitary and hygienic working conditions. Also, at the enterprises of Ukraine, work is carried out on worn-out technological equipment, which leads to serious consequences in the form of fatal injuries.

RESEARCH OF MODERN EMERGENCY AND RESCUE EQUIPMENT FOR RESCUING PEOPLE FROM UNDER THE COLLAPSES OF BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES

This publication highlights the relevance of the use of modern emergency rescue equipment with the help of which it is possible to more effectively rescue people from under the rubble of buildings and structures. Examples of some emergency situations during which it was possible to use modern emergency rescue equipment for more effective rescue of people from under the rubble of buildings and structures of various purposes are given. It is noted that the elimination of emergency situations and their consequences is one of the main tasks of civil protection and consists in the implementation of a complex of measures, which include emergency rescue and other urgent works, which are carried out in the event of emergency situations of man-made and natural nature and are aimed at stopping the action of dangerous factors, saving lives and preserving people's health, as well as localization of emergency zones. The term emergency rescue and other urgent works is given - these are works aimed at the search, rescue and protection of the population, the occurrence of destruction and material damage, the localization of the zone of influence of dangerous factors, the elimination of factors that make it impossible to carry out such work or threaten the lives of rescuers. Statistical data on fires in Ukraine for the period 2017-2022 are provided, as well as the annual death toll of people and children using the example of 2022. It is noted about the main types of emergency and rescue equipment used during the liquidation of emergency situations, as well as the training and qualification of units that perform such tasks. The main technical characteristics of several types of mobile devices for effective cutting of various types of building structures are analyzed. Several modifications of mobile devices, possible equipment, structure and principle of operation, as well as the functions they can perform during the liquidation of emergency situations are given It is noted that the Institute of State Administration and Scientific Research on Civil Protection conducted testing and research of modern emergency rescue equipment at the fire-testing ground. Several working points are presented regarding the practical operation of the equipment, as well as the possibilities for cutting various types of building structures. It is also determined that the relevant divisions of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine need to be equipped with such equipment. Keywords: emergency and rescue equipment, mobile apparatus, cutting, drilling under water.

Climate change - mediated atmospheric 210Po and 210Pb distribution: How significant can it be for the inhalation dose to humans?

The concentration of 210Po and 210Pb in vegetation, and their transfer from soil to vegetation and via aerosol deposited on foliage are well established. The available data show significantly higher levels of these radionuclides in ash from forest fires and aerosols downwind from industrial sites. The climate change-induced hot and dry conditions promote the spread of forest fires, which burn huge areas. On average, over 10 million hectares are reportedly lost annually. Large-scale forest fires and fossil-fuel and coal-operated Power and Desalination Plants are very likely to result in the dispersion of 210Pb and 210Po into the regional aerosol; such an effect has already been observed due to fires in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, which have led to the dispersion of 137Cs over large parts of Europe. We have measured elevated levels in Kuwait, and similar observations have been reported from Portugal. The higher levels of 210Po in PM2.5 raise a serious concern about an increased inhalation dose humans could receive. Our estimate shows that humans in areas affected by forest fires might receive a dose equivalent to 2 µSv d-1, which is significantly higher than 0.099 µSv d-1, the dose a person gets from smoking a packet of cigarettes daily. We propose that size-fractionated aerosol sampling should be taken up in regions affected by forest fires and industrial activities that add 210Po to the atmosphere in order to obtain a robust inhalation dose assessment and issue informed advisories to the public.

Intelligent on-Board Forest Fire Search System

The paper analyzes the situation with forest fires in Ukraine. It is shown that the situation is deteriorating every year. For forest fire monitoring it is substantiated the need of the integrated use of data from satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles. It has been shown that early detection of a fire before it becomes a disaster is critical to preventing catastrophic fires and saving lives and property. A fire detection approach based on the use of computer vision methods that can work with a non-stationary camera installed on board the unmanned aerial vehicle is substantiated. An approach for detecting a "spot" of fire using convolutional neural networks is proposed. In our task of detecting a forest fire using an unmanned aerial vehicle, tracking based on detection is chosen as the model initialization method, when objects are first detected using the detection method and then linked into tracks (association). The Yolov4-tiny architecture was chosen as the architecture of the neural network detector, which provides high accuracy and speed of binary classification.

FEATURES OF A COMPREHENSIVE FIRE-TECHNICAL STUDY OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF FIRES ON MOTOR-TRACTOR EQUIPMENT EQUIPPED WITH DIESEL INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES WITH A COMMON RAIL INJECTION SYSTEM

In the expert practice of fire research there is an increasing need for forensic complex fire-technical and mechanical engineering examinations. This need is especially relevant against the background of growing fires in Ukraine on modern foreign-made vehicles. In particular, those equipped with internal combustion diesel engines with Common Rail injection system. Key words: forensic fire-technical and mechanical-engineering examination, diesel internal combustion engine, fuel system, Common Rail injection system.

What caused a record high PM<sub>10</sub> episode in northern Europe in October 2020?

Abstract. In early October 2020, northern Europe experienced an episode with poor air quality due to high concentrations of particulate matter (PM). At several sites in Norway, recorded weekly values exceeded historical maximum PM10 concentrations from the past 4 to 10 years. Daily mean PM10 values at Norwegian sites were up to 97 µg m−3 and had a median value of 59 µg m−3. We analysed this severe pollution episode caused by long-range atmospheric transport based on surface and remote sensing observations and transport model simulations to understand its causes. Samples from three sites in mainland Norway and the Arctic remote station Zeppelin (Svalbard) showed strong contributions from mineral dust to PM10 (23 %–36 % as a minimum and 31 %–45 % as a maximum) and biomass burning (8 %–16 % to 19 %–21 %). Atmospheric transport simulations indicate that Central Asia was the main source region for mineral dust observed in this episode. The biomass burning fraction can be attributed to forest fires in Ukraine and southern Russia, but we cannot exclude other sources contributing, like fires elsewhere, because the model underestimates observed concentrations. The combined use of remote sensing, surface measurements, and transport modelling proved effective in describing the episode and distinguishing its causes.

Оцінка поширення ландшафтних пожеж у Чорнобильській зоні відчуження в березні 2022 р. на основі моделі Ротермела і супутникових знімків Sentinel-2

The threat of occurrence and spread of landscape fires in Ukraine increases in the conditions of hostilities, therefore the possibility of terrestrial monitoring and suppression of wildfires is getting worser. The Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (ChEZ) has a special status due to the presence of radioactively contaminated areas that can become a source of dangerous emissions into the atmosphere from fires. Therefore, the implementation of satellite monitoring for active fires and the development of methods for predicting the behavior of fires and their consequences in the ChEZ by the computer modeling using GIS systems is relevant. The aim of this work was to estimate the size of burned areas (BA) due to the spread of fires in March 2022 during the period of its occupation by Russian troops using NRT data on active fires, obtained from the VIIRS and MODIS satellites from the NASA FIRMS as input. Calculations were made in two ways: a) fire propagation was simulated based on the well-known Rothermel model, implemented in the GRASS GIS open source software environment; b) actual BAs were defined using Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and Burned Area Index for Sentinel-2 (BAIS2) spectral indices, based on the involvement of Sentinel-2 bands. A comparison of the simulated areas and perimeters of scarses with the actual Bas, detected from Sentinel-2 satellite images, showed that the relative errors in BAs detection for individual groups of fires do not exceed 15%, which makes it possible to apply this approach for operative or scenario forecasting of the wildfire spread without significant loss in accuracy

The current landscape fire management in Ukraine and strategy for its improvement

Abstract Recurrent wildfires in Ukraine exert severe impacts on the environment, human health and security as well as damage to private and public assets. From 2007 to 2020, the frequency of large wildfires has increased and reached a level that has not occurred previously. The period during April-October 2020 was the worst in modern Ukrainian history for the occurrence of catastrophic fires, e.g. in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (67 000 ha), Zhytomyr oblast (43 000 ha), Lugansk oblast (35 000 ha) and Kharkiv oblast (8 000 ha). In Ukraine there is the additional problem of open burning, mainly burning agriculture residues, which covers two million hectares (ha) annually. State forestry enterprises who are responsible for the management of 71% of the Ukrainian forests (7.6 million ha)and agricultural holdings are also responsible for the management of 41.3 million ha of croplands. The remaining forest users manage forest areas of 3.1 million ha within reserves and national nature parks. This article presents a brief overview of the problem of forest fires as well as of fires in other landscapes in Ukraine, and includes a critical reviews of the current wildfire management system and a description of the main features of the national wildfire management strategy. It also highlights the results of a survey of numerous stakeholders conducted on landscape fires in Ukraine. Based on the review of global and regional experiences, as well as existing fire risks in Ukraine, recommendations were developed for implementing an integrated landscape level national fire management approach.

Environmental and political implications of underestimated cropland burning in Ukraine

Open burning is illegal in Ukraine, yet Ukraine has, on average, 300 times more fire activity per year (2001–2019) than most European countries. In 2016 and 2017, 47% of Ukraine was identified as cultivated area, with a total of 70% of land area dedicated to agricultural use. Over 57% of all active fires in Ukraine detected using space-borne Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) during 2016 and 2017 were associated with pre-planting field clearing and post-harvest crop residue removal, meaning that the majority of these fires are preventable. Due to the small size and transient nature of cropland burns, satellite-based burned area (BA) estimates are often underestimated. Moreover, traditional spectral-based BA algorithms are not suitable for distinguishing burned from plowed fields, especially in the black soil regions of Ukraine. Therefore, we developed a method to estimate agricultural BA by calibrating VIIRS active fire data with exhaustively mapped cropland reference areas (42 958 fields). Our study found that cropland BA was significantly underestimated (by 30%–63%) in the widely used Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer-based MCD64A1 BA product, and by 95%–99.9% in Ukraine’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory. Although crop residue burns are smaller and emit far less emissions than larger wildfires, reliable monitoring of crop residue burning has a number of important benefits, including (a) improving regional air quality models and the subsequent understanding of human health impacts due to the proximity of crop residue burns to urban locations, (b) ensuring an accurate representation of predominantly smaller fires in regional emission inventories, and (c) increasing awareness of often illegal managed open burning to provide improved decision-making support for policy and resource managers.

АНАЛІЗ СТАНУ З ПОЖЕЖАМИ У ВИСОТНИХ БУДИНКАХ В УКРАЇНІ

Проаналізовано статистичні дані про пожежі у висотних будинках в Україні за період 2010-2019 роки та виявлено залежності їх тенденцій. Проаналізовано розподіл пожеж за об’єктами, причинами, місцями, виробами-ініціаторами виникнення, а також застосування автоматичних систем протипожежного захисту, стан із загибеллю людей внаслідок пожеж і травмуванням людей на пожежах. Визначено основні проблемні питання у забезпеченні пожежної безпеки висотних будинків та запропоновано шляхи їх вирішення.

PROBLEM ISSUES OF EVACUATION TIME CALCULATION DURING FIRES IN PRESCHOOL AND SECONDARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS WITH INCLUSIVE GROUPS

Introduction. In 2015-2020, the number of inclusive groups in preschools and classes in secondary schools of Ukraine increased almost 7 times. For our country, inclusive education is an innovative phenomenon, so its implementation raises many problems. One of the most significant problems is low level of fire safety measures. Сhild death from fires in Ukraine exceeds the European Union numbers by more than 4 times. As children with special needs are more vulnerable during fires, research on fire safety in inclusive groups is an urgent task.The purpose of the article is to identify problematic issues of calculating the time of evacuation in case of fires in educational institutions with inclusive groups based on statistical data, regulatory framework, and modern scientific developments analysis.The current regulations governing the organization of inclusive education in preschool and secondary school have been analyzed. Building codes that set the requirements for inclusive buildings and structures have been analyzed. Standards and methods for calculating the evacuation time from buildings have been also considered. The comparative analysis of the possibilities of the modern application software intended for evacuation time calculation has been carried out. According to the analysis, the main problematic issues have been identified.Conclusion. Currently, some necessary data about children with special needs are not available. That fact doesn't allow calculating with exact accuracy the evacuation time in case of fire in educational institutions with inclusive groups. A comparative analysis of the calculations made with the help of applied computer programs shows that in most of them there is no possibility to take into account the presence of children with special needs on the premises. In some software products, where such a possibility is provided, the movement parameters of children with special needs do not differ from the movement parameters of adults with disabilities. Therefore, determining the values of the horizontal projection area of children with different special needs, as well as the study of their speeds and the influence of their presence on the intensity of the general movements is an urgent technical and scientific task that requires further experimental and theoretical research.

Ecological Consequences of Large-Scale Forest Fires in Ukraine in Spring – Summer – Autumn 2020

Purpose of the study is analysis and assessment of quantitative indexes of the environmental consequences of large-scale forest fires in Ukraine in spring – summer – autumn 2020, which took place mainly in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Lugansk and Kharkiv regions. Methods. Information analysis, theoretical and computational, numerical simulation, system analysis. Results. The large-scale forest fires in Ukraine in spring – summer – autumn 2020 had very significant environmental consequences was demonstrated. Ecosystems on an area of more than 23,200 hectares have been significantly affected. About 2 Mt of timber was lost. It was found that up to 1 Mt of smoke and about 7 kt of soot was emitted into the atmosphere, which is 15,5 times higher and more than 10 times higher than its average background content in the atmosphere over the entire territory of Ukraine. The emissions of carbon monoxide (over 230 kt), hydrocarbons (up to 0,1 Mt), and carbon dioxide (5,2 Mt) were significant. Emissions of other chemical elements (from tens and hundreds kilotons for nitrogen to tens and hundreds of kilograms for heavy chemical elements) were significant. More than 20 PJ of thermal energy entered the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the explosion energy of a 5-megaton bomb. The average combustion power exceeded 46 GW, which is comparable to the power of all types of energy consumed by Ukraine (about 150 GW). About 70 TJ of acoustic radiation energy entered the atmosphere, which doubled its average background content in the atmosphere over the entire territory of Ukraine. A significant part of this energy fell on the infrasonic range, which was harmful to the biosphere (man). The ecological consequences of large-scale forest fires in 2020 for Ukraine have become record-breaking. More precisely, we are talking about a kind of anti-record. Conclusions. The environmental consequences were record-breaking, or rather anti-record, is shown. Full restoration of forest areas requires a time interval equal of 10 to 100 years.

Investigation of fire evacuation measures

Fires are the most common cause of emergencies at crowded sites. Therefore, there is an urgent need to introduce new tools and methods to ensure fire safety, aimed at saving lives and health in case of possible fires in buildings.Purpose. Analysis of evacuation measures in case of fire in educational institutions and determination of ways to optimize them.Methods. Application of theoretical and calculation research methods, normative-legal documents. Results. It is theoretically determined that the growth of fire hazards to values that can harm human life and health is a matter of minutes. The main causes of death during fires were poisoning by toxic combustion products 67 %, exposure to high temperature 23 %, suffocation in case of low oxygen concentration during a fire 10 %.It is established that the problem of reducing the evacuation time in case of fires in Ukraine is solved by conducting exercises in the organization of evacuation, depends on the number and composition of the contingent in the building, the speed of their movement. It is determined that the total evacuation time in case of fire from the training premises of the three-storey building of the II degree of fire resistance is twice the normative value, according to SBC B.1.1-7:2016. Scientific novelty.Implementation of organizational fire safety measures in educational institutions aimed at saving lives and health in case of possible fires in buildings. Practical significance.As a planning of evacuation measures, proposals were made to unify the schedule of classes in the buildings of the educational institution in order to avoid the negative consequences of the fire.

The analysis of methods of investigation of negative impact on mesofauna and microbiology of soils of contaminated solutions for foam makers

Nowdays the problem of fires is becoming more widespread and global in scale. According to statistics published by the Ukrainian Research Institute of Civil Protection obtained as a result of analysis of the fire registration cards of the SES of Ukraine – for 11 months of 2019 the number of fires in Ukraine increased by 23.1% compared to the same period last year. The most common extinguishing agent being used by fire and rescue units today is а foam. The main component of different foaming agents are surfactants. Their excessive emission into the environment leads to pollution of the surrounding areas. The constant increasing of the land areas affected by the effects of firefighting influence both the state of the environment in the region as a whole and the level of soil fertility. Microbiological indicators and the content of harmful substances in crops are increasing and thus the negative impact on public health grows. The analysis of microbiological monitoring methods with the aim of the contaminated solutions foam makers impact on the nearby territories’ soils estimation has been carried out. The pros and cons of modern physical and chemical methods of soils quality estimation have been defined. The necessity of microbiological methods usage which allow to get full and sufficient information not only about the pollution volume, but also to rate the results of such pollution has been justified. It is determined that in order to obtain the most complete and objective information about the microbiological condition of soils contaminated with foaming agents for fire extinguishing, a complex of bioindication methods should be used. It should include a growth test and a chromosome aberration test, with the use of test organisms that are most sensitive to the chemical composition of the test solution for firefighting.

Ландшафтні пожежі в Україні: поточна ситуація та аналіз чинної системи охорони природних територій від пожеж

In the last decade, the problem of fires in the natural landscapes of Ukraine has aggravated due to climate change, changes in society and land use. Catastrophic wildfires in 2014, 2015 and 2020 indicate that Ukraine is now in the new climate conditions in terms of the level of fire danger. It is clear that in such conditions departmental forest and landscapes fire protection system is incapable of control over the situation. Such situation requires an analysis of the effectiveness of the existing forest and landscapes fire protection system and its improvement in accordance with new risks and challenges. Based on the methods of RS with the help of modern software products, it was established that in Ukraine over the past 19 years wildfires have damaged 38.4 million hectares of natural areas, an average of 2.0 million hectares annually. The most severe problem of wildfires is observed in the southern and eastern parts of Ukraine, where forest cover is low, part of agricultural lands is large (over 70%), which indicates, first of all, a problem of agricultural fires. In comparison to fires (burnings) on agricultural lands, the problem of forest fires does not seem very significant. Yet, taking into the account especially large forest fires in Ukraine during 2007 – 2020 that have led to human deaths, destruction of residential buildings, manufacture and social infrastructure, which has resulted in enormous ecological and economical losses, it is clear that forest fire protection system requires deep analysis and appropriate decisions for its improvement. The article is devoted to the study of fires in the natural landscapes of Ukraine, analysis of the current forest and landscapes fire protection system and ways to improve it. The first step towards establishing a modern fire management system in Ukraine should aim at establishing a reliable national fire statistics system, which would highlight the real problem and include all type of landscape fires - in open lands and in forests. The scientific article represents analyzes the landscape fires for the period 2001-2019 according to the global products of the MODIS system. Also in the article, performed the analysis of the components of the current fire management system and the main shortcomings and key recommendations for its improvement are formulated.

Вивчення міжнародного досвіду забезпечення цивільного захисту під час ліквідації наслідків надзвичайних ситуацій

Over the past 10 years, there have been 730,456 fires in Ukraine, which is an average of more than 73,000 cases a year. As a result of these fires 28 thousand 220 people perished and injured 16 thousand 884 people. The direct damage caused by the fires amounted to over UAH 12 billion and the total material losses amounted to about UAH 50 billion. [1]. At the present stage of civilization development, the level of protection of the population and territories from emergencies is one of the basic indicators of sustainable development of the state. Negative trends related to the permanent increase of the risks of emergencies, significant potential and real economic losses, irreparable social losses related to the increase in the number of emergencies and their scale, pose a significant threat to national safety in economic, social and environmental spheres. The dynamics of the development of man-made accidents, disasters and natural disasters and the forecast of possible dangers indicate that in Ukraine there is a significant level of risk of large-scale man-made and natural emergencies. [2] Analysis of the statistics has shown that emergencies can lead to different consequences, depending on their scope, type and characteristics. By studying the directions of emergencies in different countries of the world, the greatest emergencies of man-made character were characterized. In particular, the characteristic concerned the type of man-made situation, its environmental and economic consequences. Having analyzed the occurrence of man-made disasters in the world for the years 2000-2013, we can draw the following conclusion. Man-made disasters were caused by various factors that caused significant financial and human losses. An explosion occurred in Rio de Janeiro, which caused pollution of drinking water, losses amounted to $ 86 million, damage to buildings and structures occurred at the AZF Chemical Plant in France, damages amounted to 3 billion euros, in Spain 6300 oil from Prestige oil tanker damage amounted to $ 12 million, in Germany, an explosion caused a blast that damaged the bridge, damages amounted to $ 358 million, an explosion in Russia at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric station, which has disrupted electricity supply, damages amounted to 7.3 billion rubles, explosion in Mexico, causing Deepwater Horizon oil platform to ignite, damages amounted to $ 3 billion 719 million, the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant crash in Japan, and damages amounted more than $ 74 billion. One of the most tragic man-made disasters is considered to be an explosion at the Ulyanovskaya mine, whose economic losses cannot be estimated. As a result of the explosion more than a hundred employees perished, including all management and chief engineer. These man-made disasters have had a significant impact on the ecological situation, namely the pollution of the marine landscape, which, according to ecologists, the complete purification of the waters of the seas is impossible, which affects both the state of the water and the marine fauna in general. [3].

The Global Politics of the Climate Emergency

Irish Studies in International Affairs, Vol. 31 (2020), 5–11 doi: https://doi.org/10.3318/ISIA.2020.31.13 Members1 of the Royal Irish Academy, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. It is a pleasure, though to be honest also somewhat strange, to speak to you this morning. Over recent weeks I have got used to communicating across many different technology platforms. So often these days I participate in meetings by video conference. This morning I’m delighted to give my first keynote speech on Microsoft Teams! And I hope the technology allows us to manage a good Q and A at the end, as I will be very interested in hearing from this audience today. Greta Thunberg has challenged us. She said: I want you to act as if the house is on fire. Because it is. When Greta spoke those words—in Davos in January last year—it was before the fires in Australia and Brazil, or the fires in Ukraine this month that remind us that, 34 years on, we still live with the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. Last year, the world had yet to experience Covid-19, a terrible reminder of our global inter-connectedness and fragility. Those countries which climate change has made more vulnerable will be the worst affected by this crisis. And as we in Europe move to define our new normal after these horrible times, we have an opportunity to dampen the flames and rebuild the house. Covid-19 makes the theme of this year’s conference, ‘The global politics of the climate emergency’, particularly relevant. The tensions between national and international actions, which the Covid-19 response reveals, remind us of how difficult global challenges impact on the way in which the business of international relations is conducted. *Opening address to the annual conference of the International Affairs Standing Committee of the Royal Irish Academy, titled ‘The global politics of climate emergency’, which took place online on 29 April 2020. The Global Politics of the Climate Emergency* Simon Coveney, TD Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade 6 Irish Studies in International Affairs Let me start by saying that I am an optimist—and as the American thinker, Alex Steffen, says, ‘optimism is a political act.’ We can achieve the change we want. We will not, of course, achieve global change on our own. Change requires friends and allies, a critical mass of countries to come together. That is why I am a passionate advocate for multilateralism, and for Ireland’s leadership role within the international system. That is why Ireland is a candidate for membership of the UN Security Council. That is why I want to build on Ireland’s reputation for excellence in international development, addressing issues of global concern and global security in our wider neighbourhood. That vision drives the government’s Global Ireland strategy, which aims to double Ireland’s global influence by 2025. To be optimistic is not to be naïve. It is important that, in advocating change, we recognise the highly complex challenges that we will have to overcome. These include reorienting our economies, protecting the most vulnerable, and ensuring the transition is as fair as it can be. It means that we must be particularly sensitive to the needs of those of whom we will be asking the most—those whose current jobs will maybe disappear, or who will have to change practices deeply embedded in their culture. This will be hard, and our responses will require real political leadership and pragmatism. Those of us in leadership positions must articulate a clear vision of the future—disruption today to mitigate climate change is an investment in a better future. Warren Buffett, hardly a utopian, argues for taking a long-term perspective on any investment. He says of a good investment ‘our favourite holding period is forever.’ He also reminds us that ‘someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.’ We must be climate mindful in our investments today if we are to ensure our long-term prosperity. And recognise too that if we do not move to actively manage our future...

ВИЗНАЧЕННЯ НАПРЯМІВ ДЕРЖАВНОГО РЕГУЛЮВАННЯ У СФЕРІ ПОЖЕЖНОЇ БЕЗПЕКИ НА ОСНОВІ РОЗГЛЯДУ ДАНИХ СТАТИСТИКИ ПОЖЕЖ

Детально проаналізовано статистичні дані щодо виникнення пожеж і загибелі на них людей в Україні за останні десять років, виокремлено негативні аспекти в організації діяльності із забезпечення пожежної безпеки в частині захисту населення від пожеж, обліку пожеж і сформовано відповідні напрями та заходи державного регулювання, спрямовані на підвищення рівня пожежної безпеки в Україні.