Greece has managed to partially contain wildfires that raged for days in the Athens suburbs. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is under pressure and is trying to reassure citizens. Everything will be done to compensate the victims of the fires, he has said. But his government faces an uphill task. A devastating fire on the island of Euboea off Athens has hit hundreds of farmers hard, destroying their livelihoods. The farmers are furious and feel let down because they say the government is focusing scarce resources on the capital, leaving the island to burn down. But in the suburbs around Athens, too, many have lost everything. They are now waiting in reception camps for the promised aid from the government. The wildfires come at a time when Greece faces a precarious economic situation. The country had just recovered from the aftermath of the financial crisis when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. And now, just as tourism was limping back to business, the fires have dealt another blow to the economy. The government can request emergency aid for natural disasters from Brussels. Beyond that, however, the billions from the coronavirus recovery fund may be the only salvation. These funds are supposed to be used, in particular, for the ecological transition of member countries. But Greece has so far failed to outline an overarching plan to move towards a greener future. There is a lack of environmental awareness, and the country has no “green” party in parliament. Electricity producers have already warned that energy prices will rise by 15% in September. Some 2,000 power poles have burned down and parts of the grid have been destroyed. An old coal-fired power plant had to be restarted to meet demand. Greece, which receives abundant sunshine, is also a laggard when it comes to renewable energies.
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#Wildfires #Greece #Evia
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The firefighters on the thumbnail are from Serbia, i can tell because text
So many countries are facing the worst wildfires ever. Many others have only started to recover from some of the worst floods ever seen. And the IPCC has just warned humanity (one more time), about the consequences of climate change, which threatens everyone´s future, and may become irreversible in the following years. Some five years ago I used to think that the fight against these environmental problems is a technological fight. That we should develop new innovative, cleaner technologies. I have changed my mind. The last decades have seen exponential technological developments in most fields, including energy, production, transportation, etc. Yet, the potential positive impacts of these new technologies have been overshadowed by widespread bad policymaking. Many countries continue to subsidize fossil fuels, which has largely prevented a more widespread use of renewables. Most countries have failed to ban or at least regulate planned obsolescence, a huge problem behind excessive consumption and waste generation, both closely linked to carbon emissions. I could mention tens of examples of damaging environmental policies, which were taken during the last years, not only in developing countries, but in many of the richest and more "developed" too. We know what to do against climate change, we have the technology and the resources. That knowledge has been in the scientific literature for years. But there is simply no political will to take action. Why? Mainly due to a global political unbalance. Ideally, we live in “representative” democracies, where politicians (ideally) represent the will and interests of the majority of people. But more and more people are becoming convinced that this is just a lie. Politicians, all around the world, represent economic interests, some times of their own, most of the times of those who have the money to finance their political campaigns, or simply to make them rich with generous donations. A quick research shows how much money the super-rich (managers and CEOs of oil corporations) have recently put into lobbying against policies to cut carbon emissions. The same problem has stopped many other policies aiming to protect the environment, such as once and for all banning the planned obsolescence widely used in the electronics and software industries, as well as many other industries. In fact, the same political unbalance problem is today preventing poverty reduction. Most researchers believe that we (the global society), do have the means to drastically reduce, if not to eliminate global poverty. Yet there is simply not political will to do so. Moreover, many policies (especially in the context of international commerce), are deliberately designed to increase poverty. Not because of poverty itself, but because more poverty is a side-effect of huge profits for those who control policymaking: the super-rich. May be the best example are the so called "structural adjustment programs", imposed by the IMF in poor countries. These are a set of policies whose adoption is simply forced in most poor countries, and are designed to benefit large corporations and international banks, at the expense of people, who get poorer or simply can’t escape poverty. It is estimated that these policies have put nearly a billion people in poverty during the last decades and, of course, a handful of people (mainly politicians and especially those associated to large corporations), became extremely rich. A good part of this money is today “hidden” in tax havens. The existence of tax havens is another example of a political decision that generates poverty, but also huge profits for a handful of people. And then, some of the richest people in the world decide to become “philanthropists”, and put a bit of “their” money into environmental programs and research and development for poverty reduction. In this crazy world we have philanthropists who lobby against good environmental policies and who don´t pay a cent in taxes in most of the countries where their corporations do business. If the global society cannot overcome the political unbalance problem, which is cause and consequence of the massive economic inequality we see today (a few people making millions every single day while most living in poverty); then there is little or no hope to efficiently tackle the two biggest problems we all face: environmental deterioration and poverty. The core of the problem is the political unbalance that comes with massive economic inequality.
nothing to see here, just mitsotakis expanding athens boundaries and coutryside for developers guerilla style….
serbian firefighters–om video-. i read thath stop to burn 2 villages in evia..
All that ash and soot will go in the sea . toxic pollution posioning next .? Keep strong Greece look after each other ??
Having honeymooned there I'm devastated this beautiful country is being destroyed.They have Got To stop the destruction of the rainforests ..
Dear friend, genuine repentance and recitation of those words will protect you from calamities:
"F a l u n D a f a is Good" and "Truth, Compassion, Forbearance is Good".
F a l u n D a f a is a spiritual self cultivation practice that is based on the principles of the Universe:
真 Truthfulness
善 Compassion
忍 Forbearance
It involves gentle exercises and meditation. Thanks to F a l u n D a f a,
millions of people regain health, peace of mind and obtain spiritual
fulfilment. Since the year 1999 this peaceful practice has been brutally
persecuted by the CCP in China.
This is appalling to be left to escalate into such a phenomenon, my favorite quote is "If we knew what we are doing it wouldn't be called RESEARCH". These events are no able to be related to existing data because of the climatic shift occurring and require research, to create a more current model.
I live in Toronto and the heat is very unusual. It feels like the heat is coming from down below; from the earth itself. Even at night it feels hot and thankfully humid.
Emanuel Macron, are we going to internationalize Greece?
here is from Brazil
Bolsonaro 2022
The Bolsonaro of Greece, Prime minister.
No climate change it is government business work. Many people leaves from villages. The prine minister Mistotakis have shares in 'Terna Energy Company' this is wild energy park. Him and Mr Gerapetritis the general minister the womens father is president and the owner of the company. This is a reason fires is everywhere all of this areas because they want to make business. The situation is tragic the trees of Natura animal and bees burns. The environment in Greece has been destroyed. PLEASE MAKE THIS MESSAGE TO GO IN WHOLE OF THE WORLD. Thank you.
Here's the scenario SSP5-8.5 ?
Serbian firefighters THANK YOU , U DID A JOB THAT NO ONE DID.
Even in this video firefighters are from Serbia as u can see by their uniform.
Thanks to every other country, but Serbs step in fire unlike others
need to blame the government, not climatic change. My relative on Evia lost 200 trees.
People: We won't feel the effects of climate change for another 100 years.
2021: The world is literally on fire.
The whole of the Mediterranean is experiencing an unusually hot summer . The problem it used to get hot here for days and then it's back to normal but this summer it just kept going for weeks . Not only Greece experienced fires
This is what the army should be restrained to specialise in, surely?
Prayers from India… Let us hope there is a great rain there..?
Meanwhile in america : maybe we can stretch our dominance a little and steal some resources from Greece…these incidents around the world are the perfect excuses for doing so.
Pray for Greece from Chile.
Europa help grecee please??
Praying for Greece ?? ♥️?? God be with and watch over the Greeks.