On perpetual alert
If something positive can be drawn from the great environmental disaster of the previous week it is the attitude of the largest opposition parties, which refrained from criticizing the government while firefighters were battling the blaze. Their decision to postpone criticism and assigning blame is a sign of political maturity. It is the realization that the people watching their houses burn and Attica running out of trees have no time for petty political squabbles, which, in the end, serve to obfuscate the truth, rather than reveal what and who was to blame for the destruction.
The coming days will show how mature our political system really is. If it realizes that effective firefighting requires everyone sitting around a table, rather than shouting political slogans. It is important that the government undertakes initiatives to tackle the fires, that everyone agrees on a long-term plan, which is a minimum requirement for integrated interventions, instead of piecemeal measures that change every year. They need to find the experts and trust their knowledge, draw know-how from countries that faced similar challenges before us and managed to respond, to close their ears to the keyboard warriors who are unleashing a “war” along party lines, with one side gloating that the government has failed to protect the forests and the other hiding behind past disasters and counterproductive comparisons.
We cannot debate for a few months a year on the issue of cleaning plots and urban forests, on prevention and maintaining vigilance
Finally, they – and we – all need to agree on one thing: that we can no longer operate under the logic of a specific fire season. We cannot debate for a few months a year on the issue of cleaning plots and urban forests, on prevention and maintaining vigilance. The government cannot give extensions until the middle of the summer for fire prevention measures that should have been completed by May at the latest. It is time to make a decision that we are now living in a perpetual fire season.
For years, we’ve been saying that the climate crisis is here, tangible and specific, not a general and vague threat. Large wildfires are the new reality and so is extreme weather and a lack of water – a new menacing reality. These facts won’t change. It is us who will have to change.
