The Greek wildfires might have ruined your summer holidays, but what about the residents for whom this tragedy is inescapable?
At the height of summer deadly wildfires engulfed the beautiful Greek island Rhodes, leaving over 10,000 British tourists stranded. For a few weeks, the news was bombarded with mass evacuations and traumatic travel stories, leading to renewed calls for climate action and emergency states of government.
Two months later, the world has moved on: holidays rearranged, flights refunded, reporters finding new stories. But the real tragedy of the Rhodes wildfires, beyond Tui flights and Jet2 holidays, remains. For residents, the impact will be felt for generations, and the rapidity with which the tragedy has been forgotten is emblematic of wider failures to address the climate emergency.
The wildfires in Rhodes destroyed around 50 homes, 1,350 kilometres of land and over 50,000 olive trees. In an economy based on agriculture and tourism, the dual decimation of these sectors has left communities broken. Although tourism is crucial to Rhodes’ economy, the failures to curb overdevelopment and pollution can lead to hugely negative impacts on local communities. Tourism globally is doing nothing to help the climate emergency, accounting for an estimated 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions, leading to global temperature rises, and subsequently increased wildfires. This is not to say that tourism is an inherently negative force (in fact, it is crucial for the stability of the economy in Rhodes) but that better management is necessary to benefit the island’s residents and ensure environmental policies are established. An article from The Mirror which continued to encourage such unsustainable tourism and the rapacious force of airlines such as British Airlines and Ryanair selling tickets whilst the wildfires raged on in late July, only exacerbates the problem.
Locals also criticised the government’s response, claiming the majority of professional firefighting was used to help luxury hotels at the expense of local villages. Emblematic of this is a 5-star hotel in Kiotari, which was saved whilst the surrounding landscape destroyed. A local resident, whose house was reduced to rubble, poignantly explained that ‘people’s livelihoods, they’re literally in ashes… If you have money, you can regain everything. If you don’t have money, I don’t know where you will start.’ It’s easy for us to think of places like Rhodes, and tragedies like the wildfires, through a prism of distance and privilege. However there is nothing isolated about the events of this summer: the Mediterranean is getting hotter at an unprecedented rate. Senior researcher Jesus San Miguel, at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre said, ‘the number of days of high or extreme fire danger in southern Europe is already at levels we thought we wouldn’t see until 2050… because of climate change, we’re going much faster than we thought.’ To protect these places, we will need to see a radical change in government responses, and in the whole culture of tourism. Places like Rhodes are viewed too much as transient summer utopias, rather than as regions with deeply traditional identities to be respected, and above all, protected. As summers get hotter and these concerns become increasingly pertinent, we must look beyond egocentric concerns for our next summer getaway, to consider the impact on individuals and communities at the heart of these tragedies, who we too often chose to forget.
“Rhodes, Greece” by VV Nincic is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Holiday hypocrisy: Rhodes after the fires
The Greek wildfires might have ruined your summer holidays, but what about the residents for whom this tragedy is inescapable?
At the height of summer deadly wildfires engulfed the beautiful Greek island Rhodes, leaving over 10,000 British tourists stranded. For a few weeks, the news was bombarded with mass evacuations and traumatic travel stories, leading to renewed calls for climate action and emergency states of government.
Two months later, the world has moved on: holidays rearranged, flights refunded, reporters finding new stories. But the real tragedy of the Rhodes wildfires, beyond Tui flights and Jet2 holidays, remains. For residents, the impact will be felt for generations, and the rapidity with which the tragedy has been forgotten is emblematic of wider failures to address the climate emergency.
The wildfires in Rhodes destroyed around 50 homes, 1,350 kilometres of land and over 50,000 olive trees. In an economy based on agriculture and tourism, the dual decimation of these sectors has left communities broken. Although tourism is crucial to Rhodes’ economy, the failures to curb overdevelopment and pollution can lead to hugely negative impacts on local communities. Tourism globally is doing nothing to help the climate emergency, accounting for an estimated 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions, leading to global temperature rises, and subsequently increased wildfires. This is not to say that tourism is an inherently negative force (in fact, it is crucial for the stability of the economy in Rhodes) but that better management is necessary to benefit the island’s residents and ensure environmental policies are established. An article from The Mirror which continued to encourage such unsustainable tourism and the rapacious force of airlines such as British Airlines and Ryanair selling tickets whilst the wildfires raged on in late July, only exacerbates the problem.
Locals also criticised the government’s response, claiming the majority of professional firefighting was used to help luxury hotels at the expense of local villages. Emblematic of this is a 5-star hotel in Kiotari, which was saved whilst the surrounding landscape destroyed. A local resident, whose house was reduced to rubble, poignantly explained that ‘people’s livelihoods, they’re literally in ashes… If you have money, you can regain everything. If you don’t have money, I don’t know where you will start.’ It’s easy for us to think of places like Rhodes, and tragedies like the wildfires, through a prism of distance and privilege. However there is nothing isolated about the events of this summer: the Mediterranean is getting hotter at an unprecedented rate. Senior researcher Jesus San Miguel, at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre said, ‘the number of days of high or extreme fire danger in southern Europe is already at levels we thought we wouldn’t see until 2050… because of climate change, we’re going much faster than we thought.’ To protect these places, we will need to see a radical change in government responses, and in the whole culture of tourism. Places like Rhodes are viewed too much as transient summer utopias, rather than as regions with deeply traditional identities to be respected, and above all, protected. As summers get hotter and these concerns become increasingly pertinent, we must look beyond egocentric concerns for our next summer getaway, to consider the impact on individuals and communities at the heart of these tragedies, who we too often chose to forget.
“Rhodes, Greece” by VV Nincic is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Share this:
Like this:
Related