Category: Environment

The fires broke out as the country roasted during the most intense and protracted heat wave experienced since 1987. Hundreds of wildfires erupted across the country, stretching Greece’s firefighting capabilities to the limit and leading the government to appeal for help from abroad. Hundreds of firefighters, along with planes, helicopters and vehicles, arrived from 24 European and Middle Eastern countries to assist.

“We managed to save lives, but we lost forests and property,” Mitsotakis said, describing the wildfires as “the greatest ecological catastrophe of the last few decades.”

Speaking during a news conference in Athens, his first since the fires broke out, Mitsotakis said authorities had faced around 100 active blazes each day. By Thursday, the situation was much improved, with most large wildfires on the wane.

But the prime minister warned the danger of more blazes was still present.

“We are in the middle of August and it’s clear we will have difficult days ahead of us” until the main season during which fires break out is over, he said.

“The climate crisis — I’d like to use this term, and not climate change — the climate crisis is here, and it shows us everything needs to change” he said, adding he was ready to make the “bold changes” needed.

“This is a common crisis for all of us,” he said.

Several Mediterranean countries have suffered intense heat and quickly spreading wildfires in recent weeks, including Turkey, where at least eight people have died, and Italy. In Algeria, wildfires in the mountains have killed at least 65 people.

Worsening drought and heat – both linked to climate change – have also fueled wildfires this summer in the Western United States and in Russia’s northern Siberia region. Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving more extreme events.

Greece’s largest fire broke out on the country’s second-largest island of Evia on Aug. 3 and was still smoldering on Thursday, after having destroyed most of the island’s north.

More than 50,900 hectares were damaged in northern Evia, according to mapping from the European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service. Entire mountains of mainly pine forest have been reduced to wastelands of blackened stumps, while olive and fig tree plantations and vineyards were also destroyed.

More than 850 firefighters, including hundreds from the Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Poland and Moldova, were continuing efforts to prevent flare-ups in the area, assisted by four helicopters and three aircraft, including the massive Ilyushin 11-76 water-dropping planes sent by Russia.

The government prioritized protecting lives in its fire response, issuing dozens of evacuation orders for villages in the path of the flames. In that respect, the policy appears to have worked. One volunteer firefighter died while working in an area north of Athens hit by a major fire, after being hit by a falling electricity pole. Four volunteer firefighters have been hospitalized with burns, including two in critical condition in intensive care.

Greek authorities had been anxious to avoid a repetition of the summer of 2018, when a fast-moving wildfire engulfed a seaside settlement near Athens, killing more than 100 people, including some who drowned trying to escape by sea.

But the current tactic of evacuation orders has come under criticism by many residents and local officials in areas affected by this year’s fires, who have argued the orders were premature. They point to those who ignored the evacuation messages, staying behind to fight the flames and managing to save their homes.

“We managed to protect thousands of people. But we lost forests and property,” Mitsotakis said during his press conference. “And we are here to talk about everything … (including) where nature found us unprepared.”

The government has also come under criticism for not deploying enough firefighting planes and helicopters, and not sending them soon enough, particularly to Evia. Authorities have countered that the aircraft were flying wherever possible, but that the entire firefighting fleet cannot be airborne at the same time, as some need to land for essential servicing.

Asked about the cause of the fires, and whether an organized campaign of arson was suspected, Mitsotakis said it was “certain that some of the fires in the last few days were the result of arson.” Several people have been arrested over the past few days on suspicion of attempting to start fires, including some who are accused of doing so deliberately.

However, he added it was unclear whether this was a result of an organized plan, and noted that the hot, dry conditions had aided the spread of wildfires.

Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate

Heatwaves, deadly floods and wildfires – this summer people are having to confront the link between extreme weather and climate change.

Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels have been trapping heat in the atmosphere since the start of the industrial era. As a consequence, average temperatures have risen by 1.2C.

This additional energy is unevenly distributed and bursts out in extremes like the ones we’ve been seeing this summer. Without reductions in global emissions, this cycle will keep going.

Here are four ways climate change is contributing to extreme weather.

1. Hotter, longer heatwaves

To understand the impact of small changes to average temperatures, you need to to think of them as a bell curve, with extreme cold and hot at either end, and the bulk of temperatures in the middle. A small shift in the centre means that more of the curve touches the the extremes – and so heatwaves become more frequent and extreme.

In the UK, warm spells have more than doubled in length in the past 50 years, according to the Met Office.

But the record heatwaves in Western Canada and the US were made longer and more intense by another weather phenomenon – a heat dome.

Weeks ago, a Pacific storm, fuelled by warmer-than-normal sea temperatures, disrupted the jet stream. When a storm distorts the jet stream, which is made of currents of fast-flowing air, it is a bit like yanking a long skipping rope at one end and seeing the ripples transferring along it.

These waves cause everything to slow drastically and weather systems can become stuck over the same areas for days on end.

In an area of high pressure, hot air is pushed down and trapped in place, causing temperatures to soar over an entire continent.

In Lytton, Western Canada, temperatures hit 49.6C, breaking the previous record by almost 5C. Such an intense heatwave would have been virtually impossible without climate change, according to the World Weather Attribution network.

One theory is higher temperatures in the Arctic are causing the jet stream to slow down, increasing the likelihood of heat domes.

And exceptional heat has not been limited to North America this summer. In Russia, a heatwave sent temperatures soaring – matching a 120-year record. Northern Ireland broke its temperature record three times in the same week, while a new high was set in the Antarctic continent.

2. More persistent droughts

As heatwaves become more intense and longer, droughts can worsen.

Less rain falls between heatwaves, so ground moisture and water supplies run dry more quickly.

And this in turn means the ground heats up more quickly, warming the air above and leading to more intense heat.

Demand for water from humans and farming puts even more stress on water supply, adding to water shortages.

And by mid-July, following the early summer heatwaves, more than a quarter of US land was experiencing “extreme” or “exceptional” drought.

3. More fuel for wildfires

Wildfires can be sparked by direct human involvement – but natural factors can play a huge part.

The cycle of extreme and long-lasting heat caused by climate change draws more and more moisture out of the ground and vegetation.

And these tinder-dry conditions provide fuel for fires, which can spread at an incredible speed.

The impact of the heatwave on fire development was seen in an explosive fashion in western Canada this summer.

Fires developed so rapidly and explosively they created their own weather system, as pyrocumulonimbus clouds formed.

And these colossal clouds produced lightning, igniting more fires.

This same story is being repeated in Siberia.

The frequency of large wildfires has increased dramatically in recent decades.

Compared with the 1970s, fires larger than 10,000 acres (40 sq km) are now seven times more common in western America, according to Climate Central, an independent organization of scientists and journalists.

• Then and now: The burning issue of wildfires
• How do wildfires start?

4. More extreme rainfall events

In the usual weather cycle, hot weather creates moisture and water vapour in the air, which turns into droplets to create rain.

The warmer it becomes, however, the more vapour there is in the atmosphere, resulting in more droplets – and heavier rainfall, sometimes in a shorter space of time and over a smaller area.

Historic flooding in China, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands has shown the devastating impact extreme rainfall events can have.

And these rainfall events are connected to the impacts of climate change elsewhere, according to Peter Gleick, a water specialist from the US National Academy of Sciences.

“When areas of drought grow, like in Siberia and western US, that water falls elsewhere, in a smaller area, worsening flooding, like Germany and Belgium,” he says.

The weather across the globe will always be highly variable – but climate change is making that more extreme.

And the challenge now is not only limiting the further impact people have on the atmosphere but also adapting to and tackling the extremes we are already facing.