Hundreds of Greek firefighters tackle raging wildfire threatening Athens
PBS NewsHourAug 19
Thousands Evacuated as Greek Wildfire Spreads
Above: Smoke billows behind the Parthenon ancient temple on the top of the Acropolis hill as a wildfire rages on the outskirts of Athens on Aug. 11, 2024 in Athens. Image copyright: Milos Bicanski/Contributor/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
Thousands of people have been forced out of their homes in the northern suburbs of Athens as firefighters on Tuesday raced to extinguish Greece's worst wildfire in 2024.
The blaze, which broke out on Sunday near Lake Marathon, has expanded further to Mount Pendeli and Athens' northern and northeastern suburbs, triggering massive evacuations.
The Spin
Narrative A
Greece is facing a biblical catastrophe due to its failure to curb human-induced fossil fuel emissions, which worsen the length, frequency, and intensity of heat waves year after year. With over 47K heat-related deaths in Europe last year — with Greece leading at 393 per million — the turbulence that climate change can bring is undeniable. Athens can no longer be complacent and allow these catastrophic wildfires to become a regular occurrence.
Narrative B
Wildfires are often people-made disasters. While wildfires are a natural part of many ecosystems and are common during the summertime in Greece, the most devastating wildfires have been caused by negligence, arson, poor forest management practices, a lack of pre-emptive operations, and the government's piecemeal interventions that don't address the root causes of the country's increased fire risk over the past decade.
Narrative C
While a dispersed archipelago geography makes the Mediterranean country more vulnerable to wildfires, the Greek authorities aren't underestimating the impacts of climate change and have established a credible plan for climate adaptation. Additionally, the government has made causing a forest fire a criminal offense and created the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection to improve forest fire abatement and take preventive measures to tackle intensive wildfires.
