Wildfires have been raging across Rhodes, a popular Greek tourist island in the Mediterranean, for nearly a week, causing the evacuation of 19,000 people from their homes and resorts over the weekend. Another wildfire is spreading across the island of Corfu, forcing officials to declare emergencies.
This all comes as Europe bakes in scorching temperatures as the Northern Hemisphere summer season nears a peak."For the next few weeks, we must be on constant alert. We are at war, we will rebuild what we lost, we will compensate those who were hurt," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told lawmakers in parliament on Monday.
Mitsotakis said, "The climate crisis is already here. It will manifest itself everywhere in the Mediterranean with greater disasters."
The catastrophic fires in #Rhodes are clearly visible from space here, as #MTGI1 observed their resulting large smoke plumes on Saturday.
— EUMETSAT (@eumetsat)
Please note: this is preliminary commissioning data. pic.twitter.com/fY9aJAiWUq
Perhaps someone should remind Mitsotakis that the "climate crisis" is possibly the combination of an El Nino year and peaking Northern Hemisphere summer that tends to bring above-average temperatures.
Ioannis Artopios, a Greek fire service spokesman, stated that about 19,000 locals and tourists, many of whom are Britons -- were evacuated from the islands over the weekend.
British Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell said around 10,000 Britons had been evacuated from the island of Rhodes.
"The fires look terrifying in the darkness," Paul Kalburgi, a British playwright and screenwriter, told NYTimes, who was on vacation on Rhodes during the inferno.
All these people with pics and videos of people cry arsing to jet2 about the fires in Rhodes and then there's my mate with the scousest reaction pic.twitter.com/kVYvPatDO5
— ً (@LittleBlendOne)
greece rhodes island living hell in fire
— Vega (@Vega12991453)
pic.twitter.com/MF1LDyutvP
Stop blaming the climate change!
— Tony (@TonyL_01)
The wildfires in Rhodes and Corfu are caused by people intentionally or unintentionally. Ask anyone in Greece.
A single cigarette on dry grass and you have fire. Helped by the wind and you have the scenes below. pic.twitter.com/q4Snw1XSXM
Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis described the evacuation effort as the largest in the country's history caused by a wildfire.
Fires in Greece are the worst in two decades.
Greece is one of many countries with high fire risk.
Our #EFFIS Fire Danger Forecast for 24 July
— Copernicus EMS (@CopernicusEMS)
Very Extreme Danger in:
➡The #Madrid, #CastillaLaMancha & #Andalucía regions, in #Spain
➡️#Sardegna & #Sicilia islands and in other areas of Central & Southern #Italy
➡️Southern #Greece
➡️#Cyprus https://t.co/2PjdHyXOpI pic.twitter.com/aJB0NpnytI
Some have said the fires were possibly started by "arsonists."
This fire was caused by arsonists. LOL And the temps in Greece are fairly normal for summer. They might be slightly higher due to El Nino which happens every few years. Stop falling for climate hoaxes they are an excuse to tax the Middle Class and transfer wealth. pic.twitter.com/3gMbPVgHEW
— JustAnother Person (@SymbioticEgo)
Arson seems to be quite common in Greece
— Gregory Simon (@5thavenueartist)
2007 - arsonist suspected in Fire attacks, Greece
2018 - Greek fires: Arson suspected in deadly Mati
2021 - 14 year old arrested for setting 9 wildfires in Greece
2022 - 9 arrested for Greek fires
2023 - Greek Firefighters say Arson
LISTEN plank... the Rhodes fire were arson.
— Walker Henry Smith (@WalkerHenrySmi1)
I am Italian and this was normal in Italy they set fires so they got planning permission to build, then Italy changed the law.
For this reason Italy has the largest air force to fight fires. How fires have caused by cigarettes and BBQ pic.twitter.com/P4DuzpFcei
And if we look at Bloomberg weather data, average temperatures in Athens are somewhat in line with a 30-year trend this year despite the surge in July.
The corporate press has conveniently blamed the hot weather on 'climate change' while lecturing plebs on how they need to reduce their carbon emissions but omit reporting on billionaires flying around on private jets and sailing on mega yachts. Maybe climate change warriors who continue to sound the alarm about the world's imminent demise should realize it's just summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and El Nino shifts jets streams that warm the planet.