The climate abyss is on fire.

I had my first experience of runaway wildfires early in 1981, after I returned to Greece from my studies in the UK.

That summer mountain Penteli, in Athens, was on fire, so much so, that the smoke was covering the northern city areas, where we lived, and so we decided to move my young family to nearby Corinth, to save them from breathing polluted toxic air. However, as I was doing my military service, I had to return to Athens because there was a rumour, my unit would be called to assist in firefighting. It wasn’t.

That was my first experience of a wildfire and unfortunately not the last. For 45 years, wild fires broke out without failure every summer since then, and not only in the Athens area but in the Aegean islands, in Crete, all over Greece.

And of course, not only in Greece, but in Italy, in Turkey, in Morocco, in Portugal, in France, in Spain, anywhere in other words around the Mediterranean where there were trees to be burned.

Wildfires make for heated debate

One could write volumes on the details of each of those fires, the special microclimate created by the fire itself, the 100km/hr northern winds which spread the fire all over the place, the dry hot preceding months which turned everything into cinder, the wrong kind of trees (pines) which burned like fireworks….

And then the “experts” would speculate on the “real” causes, starting with people’s favorite, the arsonists, but also on the indifferent public who ignored warnings and were careless, on the insufficient services, on inept politicians….. anything you can think of, was the subject of heated public debates, with opposition political parties leading the charge…. until they came to power and had to face the same…

The hard facts however, were that every summer, without failure the fires became a feature of the season, with thousands of acres and property destroyed and of course, most importantly people. In the summer of 2018, in Mati very near Athens, 104 people were burned alive, as a result of a combination of the reasons, outlined above, making it one of the deadliest wildfire events in Europe in the 21st century.

Over 160 people were injured, and roughly 4,000 residents were directly affected or left homeless. The worst fire-related disaster in Greek history and the third globally. The wound from this disaster is still oozing. It cannot be forgotten.

This is the new reality, to which some Europeans, wake up to now. And while, it’s true that a combination of reasons makes a fire start and run out of control, the real cause is climate change.

Climate change is not something new, what is new is mankind’s effect on the phenomenon

When the climate changes, living organisms have very limited options, they can:

~adapt

~migrate

~go extinct

These are the forces of evolution in action and they are not impressed by the fiery speeches of presidents of powerful nations or the trillions of oligarchs. These forces are at work, whether we acknowledge it or not.

In response to the climate change, people can adapt or migrate and animals too, but trees cannot: not enough time to develop legs… Hence the specific vegetation of the Mediterranean is going up in smoke because the changing climate dictates so. This is a fact.

As a side note the climate has changed in the past many times. Two notable exceptions from the previous climate changes, make this current climate change unique”

~It is the result of human activity and not evolution forces.

~It is happening in an incredibly short period of time and that’s whyit is violent.

Previously the climate changed over thousands of years and hence it was not noticeable in human time. No other human generation had the dubious privilege of witnessing the change in the climate.

We are witnessing the changing climate in front of our very eyes, sitting comfortably in our sofas and watching it on our screens… until it affects us…

We have brought about the change in the climate, ourselves

This reality is a well-known fact for decades now and science has been repeating this tirelessly year after year, providing more and more data evidence, but unfortunately our response has not been up to the challenge. Actually, quite far from it and more often than not in the opposite direction.

All our responses are inadequate to address this life-threatening issue and when I say all, I mean all: the authorities, the media and of course, us, the public.

I don’t think it’s surprising that the authorities, politicians and high-ranking officials have failed us. They very rarely dare confront the real powers of this world and usually they pay lip service to what is required and then capitulate. Think for a moment that the international body authorised to tackle climate change, the Conference of the Parties, the COPs, have miserably failed in their duty, in spite the often harsh and dramatic rhetoric.

Carbon dioxide levels keep rising

Proof alone is the fact that, carbon dioxide emissions have kept increasing from 1995 (COP31) to 2026 (COP31). No dent at all.

Not to mention the still unbelievable fact that up to COP26, COP decisions didn’t dare mention fossil fuels as the perpetrators of this problem. Therefore, by continuing, in essence they gave us a false sense of security that something good was brewing and it will take shape maybe in the next years…

Politicians, on the other hand, are expected to be wishy-washy. For example, today UK politicians are contemplating (dreaming is maybe a better term) to re-open the North Sea oil fields, while talking about the fires and the drought that is threatening Great Britain, of all places. The new star of British politics, Andy Burnham, is resorting to the term “pragmatism” to explain why he is opting for more North Sea oil, as Trump actually predicted he would, the day he was sworn as Prime minister.

Media, are not faring better. If you watch the news these days with France, Spain and also Greece, going up in smoke, the frequency of reference to climate change, by the reporters or their “learned” guests, is quite limited. You are more likely to hear references to “Mother Nature going crazy” rather than climate change.

Yes, there are still reporters blaming it on Mother Nature!

I suppose is better than attributing it to divine intervention, as punishment for our sins, but it is still light years away from the truth.

We ignore climate change at our peril

And then there is us, the public always shocked and surprised with climate induced disasters, but only when they affect us personally. Because when they occur every summer all over Europe or other faraway exotic places and affect others, we choose to follow our social media influencers and their choices of what is important.

Climate has changed and that is the fact we need to fathom

Every year more wildfires, floods, droughts etc will happen, stronger, longer, with wider more catastrophic impacts. This is what science knows and informs us daily, and choosing to ignore it, is like ignoring gravity…

Our infrastructures are inadequate. They were inadequate for the climate conditions of old. They are almost as non-existent for the new climate. Therefore, we need a complete overhaul of our mindsets, of our actions, of our services, of our infrastructure and that takes time and it takes money.

This is the real defence budget we should be talking about.

A word of advice

And since the battle is ongoing, a word of advice to the fire strategists from a 45-year-old experience from Greece. The fire stops when there’s nothing more to burn or when it reaches the sea shores.

The best way to stop a fire is to prevent it from starting. And this is something that can be done. There are strategies to prevent a fire starting. But that requires everybody behind the ball not only the scientists and a few activists.

And we have to stop blaming others and see our own responsibility in this.

Mind you, somebody is responsible for what’s happening. Climate change is the result of the rise in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, which in turn causes global warming, which in turn causes climate change.

And what is causing the rise in carbon dioxide concentration: The extensive use of fossil fuels In 2025, fossil fuels accounted for approximately 90% of all global carbon dioxide emissions and roughly 75% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The fossil fuel companies responsible for this, are making net profits of hundreds of billions.

So, you can see the problem and you can start thinking about the solution. But, please stop being surprised: We knew this would happen.

And let me tell you another secret. This is not the worst of it.

This is just the beginning

Things are going to get worse, much worse and they’re going to last for decades because climate change cannot stop at the turn of a knob. There is no vaccine for climate change. The climate system has been tampered with, tipping points have been overcome and more are about to collapse.

Ignorant and arrogant, we are playing with the forces of evolution, as if it was an online game. The climate change is going to be with us for decades and things are going to get a lot worse before they start getting better.

The only thing that we can do is to shorten the period in which the climate will be getting worse until it starts getting better. We can only shorten it. We cannot eliminate it.

I am really sorry for all our children and grandchildren will suffer because of our greed and utter stupidity.

This article, first published on ESI Africa, was written by Prof. Ioannis Tsipouridis, a Senior Research Fellow at Strathmore University and a Renewable Energy Consultant Engineer and Climate Action Advocate