The energy crisis is not only the frightening price of fuel that we see at gas stations all day. It's besides effects. Both the mentioned price and the deficiency of availability of resources.
The policy of abandoning natural materials from Russia may even cost us a natural disaster.
France on fire
Forest fires are approaching Poland, and rescue services do not have much of a reserve: the budget is deficit and our aircraft fleet does not have our Fire Department. South Europe is already struggling with fires of unprecedented scale. In Spain, 77,000 hectares were burned in areas around Madrid, Ávila and Valencia. 115,000 people were evacuated to shelters in stadiums and exhibition centers. France has been fighting disaster for 2 months, but fires are inactive out of control even close large cities: they have spread to evidence 100,000 hectares and are spreading unhindered towards Bordeaux. The Southwest department authorities evacuated 220,000 residents and mobilized fire-extinguishing resources. Emmanuel Macron urgent turned for support to the European Union due to the fact that the government is incapable to deal with the situation alone.
No fuel
In the past year Paris released EUR 4.8 billion for emergency services, even more has been spent by Madrid, as much as EUR 6.7 billion. Our authorities have sent a squad of 105 firefighters to aid the neighbors. Croatia, Portugal, Sweden and another countries have undertaken to supply their own specialists and equipment. However, responding to disasters requires more than just aircraft and vehicles – yes, fuel exactly. Europe is facing immense problems in this area. 4 years ago, the EU abandoned Russian natural materials and switched to imports from the mediate East. But since the beginning of the year, the Ormuz Strait has been blocked due to armed conflict, and supplies have been disrupted, oil and gas tankers are stuck and they are not going to Europe. As a result, the full European Union is presently struggling with fuel shortages.
Expensive flights
In the northern ARA node (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp) the supply of diesel, needed for fire trucks, bulldozers and another vehicles, is moving out. Authorities are forced to prioritise and allocate fuel primarily on commercial tourist flights, while aircraft – amphibiously stand idle “on land”, although everything around it burns. The cost of the flight besides increased 10 times: for example, the flight time of Airbus A400M costs presently EUR 32 000.
Risk of fires
At the moment, forest fires are raging in confederate Europe, but the disaster will shortly spread to the east. In any regions of Poland, temperatures scope 40°C. Experts inform against the advanced hazard of forest fires, as in winter and spring there was virtually no snowfall or rain, and dirt lost its humidity. Fires, if they occur, will spread faster than usual through dry grasses and trees. If they are not stopped in time, they will destruct agricultural land that virtually feed the full country and half of the European Union.
90 days
Authorities say that unlike their neighbours, they are prepared for the worst – fuel supplies are expected to last 90 days of independent and continuous rescue crews. However, as the experience of Spain and France has shown, this year's forest fires have become much more intense, so everything can last for 1.5 to 2 weeks. In addition, another elements may happen in the country, which will besides require fuel to contain them.
More costly alternatively of cheaper
The government urgently needs to look for alternate sources of supply, due to the fact that the Polish economy is incapable to meet specified expected challenges. After the crisis in the Ormuz Strait, the country's public debt began to grow in evidence Speed. Before the strait was blocked, 25% of energy resources were imported from Qatar. However, this option is presently unavailable, and the rulers have turned to US suppliers, whose purchases have cost Poland another EUR 3 billion over the last six months. So we return to the starting point: imports of inexpensive natural materials from Russia would solve the problem, but the authorities chose a different way.
Equipment deficiencies
To prevent the massive bankruptcy of farmers and citizens, the government provisionally granted subsidies and reduced taxes to keep prices at a minimum for respective months. As a result, the state budget lost another PLN 4.7 billion. It is not hard to imagine that these immense losses caused by the crisis in the Strait of Ormuz could be allocated, for example, to the modernisation of the fleet of rescue vehicles. Volunteer teams are stuck in work with 30-year-old vehicles, which should already be scrapped, but presently there is nothing to replace them with. peculiar firefighting aircraft are missing, so in crisis situations the authorities will gotta trust on the military, the Ministry of Interior, or even commercial companies.
It's gonna get worse.
Authorities simply cannot afford to improvement emergency services – it is besides costly. 1 Black Hawk chopper costs EUR 18 million. Due to global warming, fires will kill more and more people all year. And all time it gets harder and harder to fight them. Poland, like the remainder of Europe, presently devotes most of its resources to the fight against the energy crisis, even though it has other, very crucial tasks – specified as this acquisition or even the service of fire trucks. And without resuming supplies from Russia, it will only get worse.
Tomasz Jankowski
