BRUSSELS (AP) — Devastating floods through much of Central Europe and deadly wildfires in Portugal are joint proof of a “climate breakdown” that will become the norm unless drastic action is taken, the European Union's head office said Wednesday.
“Make no mistake. This tragedy is not an anomaly. This is fast becoming the norm for our shared future,” said EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic.
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BRUSSELS (AP) — Devastating floods through much of Central Europe and deadly wildfires in Portugal are joint proof of a “climate breakdown” that will become the norm unless drastic action is taken, the European Union's head office said Wednesday.
River Wien floods its banks next to tracks and a closed subway station in the west of Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Heinz-Peter Bader)
Wildfire advances near Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by forest fires, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
An aerial picture taken with a drone shows the flooded resort village of Venek and the swollen Danube River near Gyor, Hungary, Tuesday, September 17, 2024. (Gergely Janossy/MTI via AP)
A man carries a fire extinguisher as he speaks on the phone while a metalworking warehouse burns in Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by wildfires, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
A view of the Terrassenufer in the Old Town is flooded by the high water of the Elbe in the morning fog, in Dresden, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (Robert Michael/dpa via AP)
The worst flooding in years moved Tuesday across a broad swath of Central Europe, taking lives and destroying homes. At the other end of the 27-nation EU, raging fires through northern Portugal have killed at last six people.
“Europe is the fastest warming continent globally and is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events like the one we are discussing today. We could not return to a safer past,” Lenarcic told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France.
He warned that beyond the human cost, nations are also struggling to cope with mounting bills for repairing the damage from emergencies and the lengthy recovery from disaster.
“The average cost of disasters in the 1980s was 8 billion euros per year. More recently in 2021 and in 2022, the damage is surpassed 50 billion euros per year, meaning the cost of inaction is far greater than the cost of action,” he said.
Terry Reintke, president of the Greens group in the European Parliament, said the cost for the EU since the 1980s was estimated at 650 billion euros.
The EU is struggling to move quickly with measures to counter climate change and has run into political opposition in many member states, where the political climate is turning against environmental issues and measures ranging from home heating to farm pollution.
“Our success will depend on how determined we are to combat climate change together in order to reduce emissions,” Reintke said, adding that EU members must back its Green Deal.
The vast EU plan to become climate neutral by 2050 has come under increasing pressure from critics who call it unrealistic and too expensive. Populist and far-right parties have made it a key point of attack on the bloc's institutions.
Lenarcic said people only needed to follow the daily news to understand the urgency of the issue.
“We face a Europe that is simultaneously flooding and burning. These extreme weather events ... are now an almost annual occurrence,” he said. “The global reality of the climate breakdown has moved into the everyday lives of Europeans.”
A woman tries to extinguish the flames near Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by forest fires, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
River Wien floods its banks next to tracks and a closed subway station in the west of Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Heinz-Peter Bader)
Wildfire advances near Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by forest fires, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
An aerial picture taken with a drone shows the flooded resort village of Venek and the swollen Danube River near Gyor, Hungary, Tuesday, September 17, 2024. (Gergely Janossy/MTI via AP)
A man carries a fire extinguisher as he speaks on the phone while a metalworking warehouse burns in Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by wildfires, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
A view of the Terrassenufer in the Old Town is flooded by the high water of the Elbe in the morning fog, in Dresden, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (Robert Michael/dpa via AP)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Defenseman Sean Durzi got a taste of the NHL in Salt Lake City when he and the Kings played the Golden Knights in a 2022 preseason game.
Durzi had a goal and two assists in Los Angeles' 6-4 loss to Vegas, but more than his play on the ice, what stuck with him was the fans' passion that night even though they didn't have a home team to cheer on.
That will soon change. Delta Center now is the home to the Utah Hockey Club, which opens its first training camp Thursday after 28 seasons in the Phoenix area as the Coyotes.
“You come here on the road in the ‘Frozen Fury,' you get a great atmosphere," Durzi said. "But to know this is our home now, this is where we're going to be playing in front of such passionate fans, it's special.”
The club had its first media day Wednesday, another step in the process of completing the move from Arizona. Because there could be another form of the Coyotes in the future, Utah is calling itself as much of an expansion team as a relocated franchise, so all the club records and statistics begin anew.
In practical terms, though, this is mostly Arizona's old club that even general manager Bill Armstrong refers to as “the fourth year of the rebuild.”
In addition to the players, the front office also made the move from the triple-digit-degree days in the Valley of the Sun to the snowcapped mountains overlooking Salt Lake City thanks to Wednesday's fresh powder dump. The Jazz staff is handling the business side, such as marketing and ticket sales, with about 90 people being brought onboard to assist in those efforts.
There is renewed hope that maybe the franchise is — at long last — trending in the right direction. The Coyotes made the playoffs just once in their final 12 seasons. Perhaps more egregious, they spent their final two years playing in Arizona State University's rink as management tried in vain to get a deal done for a new arena to keep the team in the state.
Then Jazz owners Ryan and Ashley Smith bought the club, moved it to Salt Lake and poured resources into making sure what the team lacked in Arizona it had in Utah. That included putting money into a top-level temporary practice facility rather than piecing one together until a permanent structure is completed in about a year.
Renovations were made to Delta Center with more planned later to improve all the sight lines and create a better overall fan experience. Capacity this season will be 11,131 with obstructed-view seats added for select games, and that baseline seating number will increase in future years.
“There's very clearly a buzz around our team, as there should be, and we're looking forward to jumping on that opportunity” forward Lawson Crouse said. “In the past in Arizona, a lot of things were up in the air with the arena situation. It's clear we now have a home, so we can move on from all those distractions and just go play hockey, and we're really looking forward to doing that.”
Forward Clayton Keller, who led the club in goals (33) assists (43) and points (78) last season, is the top returning player and at 26 is part of the young core that the club is building around. To supplement the players that have been homegrown through the draft, Utah also upgraded its defense by acquiring Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino within 10 minutes of each other at the NHL draft and later signing veteran Robert Bortuzzo.
Goalie Connor Ingram, who won the Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy for perseverance and sportsmanship last season, comes off a campaign in which he had a .907 save percentage with a 2.91 goals-against average.
Players and management speak in cautiously optimistic tones about what to expect this season, and Armstrong didn't shoot down the question whether Utah could be buyers at the trade deadline. After pointing out there's a lot of work to do between now and then, Armstrong added, "If that moment presents itself, we do have the assets to make things happen.”
Being in playoff contention would be quite an initial season for a franchise just entering the honeymoon phase with its new fan base.
Even before the club put season tickets up for sale, 34,000 deposits were placed. The team has sold just short of 4,500 season tickets that covers all 41 home games and another 8,000 half-season packages.
On a more anecdotal and personal level, there's the in-person feedback those on the team have received as they've started to become more involved in the community.
“The way we've been received by people, by people inside the organization of the Jazz, they show their excitement to all of us,” coach André Tourigny said. “From everybody, it's been really, really welcoming.”
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Utah Hockey Club's Clayton Keller speaks during NHL hockey media day Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Utah Hockey Club general manager Bill Armstrong speaks during NHL hockey media day Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Utah Hockey Club coach Andre Tourigny speaks during NHL hockey media day Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Utah Hockey Club's Sean Durzi speaks during NHL hockey media day Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
