Opinion
Forest fires in Greece
We are not entitled to a carefree holiday
The residents of the communities of Embonas and Apollonas on Rhodes are fighting the flames, which are fueled by heat and wind, with buckets of water
© IMAGO/Argyris Mantikos / Eurokinissi
The same dramatic images from southern Europe for years: the forests are burning, people are running for their lives and losing their belongings. We all have our part to play in the misery because we refuse to take climate protection seriously.
We are not entitled to a carefree holiday, with pleasant temperatures and free from forest fires or other inclement weather. Yes, it is tragic what many holidaymakers are experiencing on Rhodes this year: forest fires, fear of death and evacuations from the hotels. And yes, it’s not nice to marvel at the Colosseum and visit the Vatican in Rome when it’s 40 degrees. Incidentally, this does not only apply to people who travel south for a two-week holiday or are only there on a flying visit over the weekend. Rather, it still applies to the people who live where we go on vacation.
The dramatic consequences of global warming are no longer a distant specter of the future. Because what is happening this year on Rhodes, Lesbos and Morocco also happened around the Mediterranean last year and the year before last. Just in a different place, on other islands in other countries. Already in May, the EU’s Copernicus earth observation program registered the highest emissions from forest fires in Spain. So the trend is very clear: It’s getting increasingly uncomfortable in the south. But what do we learn from this? For example, that our flight continues to heat up the atmosphere? That the weekend trip to Barcelona, Rome and Athens not only costs money, but also well-being and security?
Nobody talks about flight shame anymore
The statistics say something else: After the Corona period, we Germans are flying south again and around the world as if there were no tomorrow. Nobody talks about flight shame anymore. And who was Greta Thunberg again? We hijack cruise ships and steam with them to the most remote corners of the sea. We simply don’t care about the consequences of our actions.
It’s as if we simply gave up the annoying daily brushing of our teeth because we don’t want to understand the connection between sweet food and cavities in our teeth. The discussion about the heating law also shows our short-sightedness. Yes, it will cost us all to make our heating systems sustainable. And we will need more wind turbines to provide the electricity for the energy transition – in our own village and in the neighborhood.
We make life a (fire) hell for the people in the south
What’s the alternative? Just carry on as before? Make life in the worst sense of the word a (fire) hell for the people in southern Europe? But not only there it will become more and more difficult to get a tolerable, nice holiday experience, also in this country the carefree holiday becomes an imponderable. Holidays in the Harz Mountains: desolate, in the face of dried up forests and bare mountain ridges. River cruises on the Rhine: where to go when there is no water after weeks of drought? Hiking in the Alps: Beware of increasingly violent thunderstorms!
No, I don’t want to take away the holiday fun from anyone – not even me. But we must finally realize that what we are feeling more and more clearly in more and more places is also a consequence of what we do and, above all, what we don’t do.