Fires have engulfed not only Greece.
Forest fires cover more and more areas in different parts of the world. According to experts, the end of the edge of the destructive element is not visible, because the season of fires is still far from its end. At the moment, the regions of the USA, Canada, Russia and the countries of the Mediterranean Sea are covered by fires, reports with reference to.
In Greece, the area of fires already exceeds 65 thousand hectares. Many people are forced to literally flee from the regions engulfed in flames, and resort villages, in the midst of the season, burn out to the ground.
There are currently 3 Greek regions affected by the disaster:
- Ebway Island;
- Attica and Laconia in the Peloponnese.
The area most affected by the fires is Ebweya Island, where active fires have been raging for more than 5 days. Ebweya is a popular resort and the second largest Greek island after Crete.
Fires on the island of Abway / Photo L-Team
Thousands of houses on the island are either completely destroyed or severely damaged by fire. Due to the large-scale fire, more than 2,500 inhabitants of the island were forced to flee, leaving their homes.
The biggest tragedy in the last 10 years
Earlier, terrible fires raged in the suburbs of Athens. There, too, flames engulfed homes, cars and businesses. Greek officials estimate that 70% of the Mani Peninsula was burned down. The fire even approached Olympia, the place where the Olympic Games were held for the first time in history. But some of the religious shrines of Greece, unfortunately, were nevertheless destroyed.
Flames in Greece are extinguished by thousands of rescuers. Firefighting planes and crews from virtually all of Europe and the Middle East are still involved in pacifying the elements. Rescuers from France, Ukraine, Cyprus, Croatia, Sweden, Israel, Romania, Britain, Egypt and a number of other countries came to the aid of the Greeks.
But taking control of forest fires is difficult due to strong winds and an abnormal heat of 45 degrees, which has been in Greece for many days. Fires in Greece broke out on July 29, and today there are almost 600 fires.
Climatologists unanimously declare that the current fires are a clear echo of climate change. Indeed, in just a few days, about 65 thousand hectares burned out, while the average annual area of fires over the past 12 years was only 1700.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called this tragedy the worst for the country in the past 10 years. In addition, Greece's neighbors, Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria and North Macedonia, are on fire.
Climate is not the cause of fires
Fires are raging in American California. There are 10 active fires in the state, but the most dangerous one is raging in the north of California. The fire started on July 13th and they still cannot cope with it.
This is the second largest fire in the history of the state. Fire destroyed almost 200 thousand hectares — this is more than the legendary city of Los Angeles.
3 people are listed as missing, thousands have left their homes. 3 firefighters were injured. About 400 houses were burned down. The sky over vast areas is covered with smoke. But despite warnings from the authorities, many residents refuse to leave in the hope of defending their property themselves from the fire.
About 5 thousand firefighters are fighting the fire, but their forces are still not enough. According to the most optimistic forecasts, the final victory over the fire will take at least another 2 weeks. And that is due to the fact that forecasters promise a decrease in temperature and an increase in air humidity.
Still, the main cause of the California fires is not the climate. According to the preliminary investigation, Dixie caught fire after a tree fell on a high-voltage line owned by one of the energy companies.
However, it should not be denied that all 8 of the largest fires in the history of California happened in the last 4 years. In addition, the scale of the current fires has grown 3.5 times compared to 2020.
Smoke from Yakutia covered the North Pole
Russian Yakutia is also on fire, as a result of which, for the first time in history, the North Pole was covered with smoke. That is, the smoke traveled 3 thousand kilometers.
Is it any wonder, because the fires have already covered 6 million hectares of forest. For comparison, this is territory 2 Belgium. At the same time, according to the estimates of the Russian Greenpeace expert Alexei Yaroshenko, since the beginning of 2021, forest fires throughout Russia have already devastated an area of almost 15 million hectares.
There is no exact information about how many houses burned down and how many Russians had to be evacuated. The Kremlin prefers to remain silent about this.
But one point is important here — officially there are about 160 fires in Yakutia, but only 72 have decided to extinguish. This is due to the fact that the Russian government adopted a decree back in 2015 that allows local authorities not to extinguish fires if the costs are exceed the estimated damage.
That is, the fact that people's homes are burning down is of no particular interest to anyone. They don't worry about ecology and climate change in Russia at all. And it would be worth it, they are sure of the UN.
Is it possible to change something
On the eve of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published the results of research over the past 7 years. Experts note that during this time, the average temperature in the world has risen by 1.1 degrees Celsius.
According to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, politicians agreed to keep temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees. After passing this threshold, it will inevitably lead to a decrease in plant productivity and, accordingly, to changes in the ecosystems of the world.
Such climate transformations lead to the current weather changes — if earlier abnormally heavy precipitation fell once every 10 years, then over the past 7 years their frequency has increased by 30%, and drought occurs 70% more often. Hence the devastating floods and forest fires.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that this report should be a signal — it's time to change something. But climatologists are extremely pessimistic and say that, unfortunately, we seem to have passed the point of no return. After all, that same increase in average temperature to 1.5 degrees will inevitably occur until 2040 at the most.