From inaction to panic

Can we get accustomed to the unpredictable? Can we prepare ourselves for something that wreaks havoc with plans and daily rituals? The truth is that we have to start coming to terms with the fact that extreme weather phenomena will not be an occasional occurrence from now on, that it will hit us with increasing intensity and that its impact will become all the harder to calculate. July 2023 is on course to becoming the hottest recorded in hundreds if not thousands of years on planet Earth as a whole, according to a leading NASA climate expert.

It takes quite a lot of psychological strength to absorb such dystopian forecasts without being shaken to your core, both as an individual and as a society. Scientists agree that this dystopia is no longer in the future; it is here, today. The debate about the causes, the preventive actions that were never taken, the measures that if implemented even now would take years to reverse or even mitigate the climate crisis, seem to be at the top of every news outlet in the world. So, how can all this “enhanced anxiety” help without greater vigilance?

The role of governments is also becoming more demanding and complex in this light. Properly buttressing countries and preparing them for “extreme” anything is one side of the coin. The other – an equally important part – is educating citizens and keeping them informed. This includes encouraging them to volunteer, running information campaigns, helping them identify the dangers in their own backyards that can lead to an environmental disaster. Cooperation between citizens, local authorities, central government and the state is not just necessary – it is crucial.

In Greece especially, where notions like civil society, volunteerism and cooperation between the grassroots and the state have yet to take root (to put it elegantly), there needs to be a serious readjustment of the national priorities. Compensation after the fact is not the only answer and it will soon be so insufficient as to be negligible. Natural disasters are becoming so widespread and so frequent that putting a band-aid on the wound will not be a viable solution for much longer.

Without active and steadfast central control (including discovering what local authorities did with all the money they were given for fire prevention measures), without a sense of individual care and responsibility for the basics (how hard is it to clean your garden or field of dry grass and debris), high temperatures will provide the spark – but we will have planted the fuse.

Disasters are the extension of inaction and panic; these may seem like opposites, but they lead to the same thing.