There is a “human hand” in most of the fires that have recently ravaged Greece, according to the Greek government. This means that they are either created or started via “criminal negligence”.
– During these days, 667 fires broke out, that’s almost 60 per day. Also this year, the majority of people were ignited, either due to carelessness or on purpose, said Vasilis Kikilias, Greece’s climate minister, at a press conference, Greek EPT reports.
However, it is not clear what signs he has of this.
Although the weather conditions have been extreme in July, most fires could have been prevented, the government believes. At the same time, the minister says that the difference from previous years has been the extreme heat:
– Climate change, which has caused an unprecedented heat wave, is here. There were very few days where the extreme weather was not combined with strong winds, says Kikilias.
The risk of new fires is still very high, according to the authorities.
According to the UN meteorological agency WMO and the EU’s climate service Copernicus, the first three weeks of July were the warmest three-week period that has so far been measured globally.