Satellite pictures of the Greek island of Evia reveal in stark reduction the devastation wrought by local weather change-fueled wildfires which have ripped via the Mediterranian in latest days, abandoning tons of of 1000’s of acres of decimated forests and communities pressured to rebuild their lives in a warming world.

The pictures of Evia, Greece’s second-largest island and the worst-hit by wildfires, had been captured by the European Union’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite tv for pc on August 1, earlier than the wildfires started, and on August 11. Over that 10-day interval, thousands evacuated the island whereas numerous others reportedly remained to combat the infernos. Side-by-side, the photographs present yet one more wake-up name reminding us that the local weather disaster isn’t a future drawback, however a present and ongoing catastrophe.

As of Thursday, firefighters in Greece had begun to include the nation’s wildfires, as thunderstorms doused the area. However, as EuroNews reports, robust winds are anticipated this weekend, which can reintensify blazes within the nation, which has misplaced 100,874 hectares of forest and olive farms, in accordance with the European Forest Fire Information System. Unnumbered properties and companies additionally vanished within the flames.

Amid the worst warmth wave to hit the Mediterranian in a long time, wildfires have torn throughout multiple countries, together with North Macedonia, Albania, Italy, and Turkey, the place temperatures hit 127 levels Fahrenheit (53 levels Celsius) on August 3. On Wednesday, the temperature in Sicily peaked at 119.8 levels Fahrenheit (48.8 levels Celsius), probably the very best temperature ever recorded in Europe.

The latest wildfires and warmth waves in Europe are amongst a seemingly neverending sequence of examples of the toll the local weather disaster will tackle humanity and Earth’s ecosystems if we fail to curb emissions. The calamities which are already right here embrace ongoing megadrought and wildfires within the western United States, lethal floods in Germany, wildfires in Siberia, and historic ice loss in Greenland—the listing goes on and on.

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These disasters will solely change into extra frequent and intense, with a few of the results of local weather change already locked in, in accordance with a serious report the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued Monday. Failure to drastically and instantly scale back our consumption of oil and output of greenhouse gasses will solely speed up and intensify local weather change, and thus the destruction of a liveable planet.

“It is still possible to forestall many of the most dire impacts, but it really requires unprecedented transformational change—the rapid and immediate reduction of greenhouse gases,” Ko Barrett, vice-chair of the IPCC, informed reporters forward of this week’s report.

At a press convention on Thursday, Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, echoed the IPCC’s warnings. “The climate crisis—I’d like to use this term, and not climate change— the climate crisis is here, and it shows us everything needs to change,” he said whereas promising to enact “bold changes.”

“This is a common crisis for all of us.”