Did "globalists" or "occult forces" like the IMF, WHO, CIA, NATO or the EU intentionally set wildfires across Europe, in order to spread lies about climate change? No, that's not true: footage shown in a TikTok video, of people in special equipment setting fire to bushes and portions of vegetation, is consistent with interventions called "prescribed fire," which are beneficial to forests and vegetation.
The claim originated from a video (archived here) published on TikTok by user @deneuitat0, on July 20, 2023, under the title "Wildfires, Heatwaves." It opened:
The world occult IMF, WHO, CIA, NATO, EU and America are destroying the landscape by deepening it with bombings, wildfires, war, pandemics and crimes against humanity.
The caption of the video read:
Stop climate lies.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jul 26 10:39:20 2023 UTC)
The footage in the video isn't clear enough to give a context and establish a source for the material, but online searches revealed similar videos from prescribed fire festivals like Fire Fest in the US, as well as authorities' interventions in areas that are predisposed to wildfires. The US Department of Agriculture confirmed the benefits of prescribed fires and put together a strategy to use them in combatting wildfires, as on June 2023.
At the same time, numerous experts and publications explained that wildfires are indeed the result of global warming, as they are caused by rising temperatures and droughts.
The narrative of wildfires being started intentionally is a recurring one in recent years, since the phenomena took over parts of Europe (currently Greece and Italy) and Canada. Lead Stories has previously debunked these theories.
