Forest fires pose a threat to human life and property. As we discussed in a previous article, most countries throughout the world, Georgia included, suffered from an unusually high number of forest fires during the summer of 2017. In Georgia, this topic was the subject of a spirited public debate about whether these fires were wild or man-made. In our previous article we discussed how natural causes generate wild forest fires.

In the summer of 2017, Georgia experienced an unusually high number of forest fires across the entire country. 35 forest fires were recorded just in August (official data reporting the size of area burned by these fires is not yet available). In almost all regions of the country, several fires were reported. Among them, the conflagration in the Borjomi gorge had the most dramatic consequences: it lasted for seven days (20-27 August), and more than 100 hectares of forest were destroyed. Many people claim that these cannot be all accidental events.

APRC is working on a research to inform the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection of Georgia on the costs and benefits of climate change adaptation measures in agriculture of Georgia.

On Tuesday, May 24, Dr. David Ubilava from the University of Sidney gave a presentation entitled "The El Niño Southern Oscillation and Economic Growth”. Dr. Ubilava started the presentation with the definitions of such phenomena such as climate anomalies and weather and emphasized the importance of weather as a factor in agricultural production.

Professor Hans Wiesmeth from Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden) visit ISET last Thursday to present one of his recent papers “The Environmental Kuznets Curve”, co-authored with Shlomo Weber from New Economic School.