He greek summer It is longed for year after year by tourists from all over the world, but, increasingly, the idylls on the shores of the Aegean become tragedies because of the greatest threat of our time: the climate disaster. This week, Greece is experiencing a heat wave scorching heat that reached its peak on Thursday, when Athens thermometers indicated 43 degrees. These temperatures in June, before summer has even arrived, are brought by southern winds with hot air and dust from North Africa.
The Hellenic National Weather Service has issued an orange heat alert, the second most serious designation. However, the crises suffered by tourists in the country deserve greater precautions. In one week, three people have disappeared in different parts of the Hellenic geography. One of them, the famous British presenter Michael Mosleywas found dead last Sunday on the island of Symi.
This week, the intensification of the heat wave led the country to take drastic measures on Wednesday, when the Government of Kiriakos Mitsotakis announced the closure of the Acropolis tourist site At noon, he suspended classes and sent medical personnel throughout Athens to deal with the first heat wave of the summer. At the main tourist spots, there are Red Cross personnel in red vests distributing bottles of cold water to overheated tourists. Another of the Government’s provisions has been close primary schools and daycares in all the country.
[Hallan muerto a Michael Mosley, el presentador de la BBC que había desaparecido en Grecia]
The crisis has already wreaked havoc. In addition to Mosley, who died of fainting while hiking in scorching temperatures on the Aegean island of Symi, two other foreign tourists are now involved in the same story: an American and a Dutchman have disappeared separately while hiking on two different islands. Albert Calibet, from the US, disappeared on Tuesday on the island of Amorgos while following a route towards the town of Katapola, as reported by the municipality of Amorgos on its official social networks. Popi Despotidi, the island’s deputy mayor for tourism, told the cnn that Calibet has been coming “to Amorgos almost every year” for a decade.
On the island of Samos, a 74-year-old Dutchman has been missing since Sunday, with an extensive search and rescue operation underway, according to authorities. The man had gone hiking in the Marathokampou area of the island, the Samos Hellenic Rescue Team said in a Facebook post on Wednesday. Local residents are assisting in the search.
After the increase in temperatures this Thursday, they have closed more ancient tourist sites and air-conditioned shelters have been set up for the elderly. The mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, has tried to create more shade by planting 2,000 trees in neighborhoods. In a city with hardly any green spaces, residents appreciate these efforts: the temperature is 15 or 20 times higher on cement than under the shade of a tree. Although scientists warn that summer temperatures could increase an average of 2 degrees between now and 2050. “Our first objective will be to reduce the average temperature, the air temperature,” he told Reuters.
Seven Junes ago, Athens became the first capital in Europe to name a council for Heat. Your manager, Eleni Myrivili, developed an integrated Climate action plan for both mitigation and adaptation, following the example of other megacities in the world. A year and a half after her appointment in the Greek capital, the UN appointed Myrivili as Global Heat Director.
[El ingenioso invento de los antiguos romanos para combatir las olas de calor]
But these efforts do not yet seem to have yielded appreciable results. On Wednesday, the same day that the orange alert was issued, firefighters put out several forest fires in various parts of the country. This is the new story of the Greek summer: the Mediterranean country is one of the most affected by global warming in all of Europe. Last year, rising temperatures caused deadly wildfires and the erratic rains caused some of the worst flooding on record. Last winter was the warmest on record and rainfall was low, creating the conditions for more fires to break out, according to scientists.
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