A sort ofAfter World War II, the Greek countryside experienced two debilitating population surges-the exodus of villagers, and then the strangest human invasion. These two waves, with the help of weak countries and the climate crisis, turned the low-level drama of natural redemption of forest fires into a heart-wrenching disaster this summer.
After experiencing an unprecedented longevity heat wave, wildfires throughout the summer have so far destroyed more than 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of ancient pine forests.they have Attica is dark, The charred part of Ancient Olympia and Obliterate The magnificent forests of Northern Evia-their rural communities have lost their homes, not to mention their livelihoods and landscapes.
In order to understand why this happened, we need to understand the trajectory of urban and rural development in Greece. War and poverty led to a large rural exodus that began in the late 1940s. Villagers who did not migrate to countries such as Germany, Canada, and Australia came to Athens. Coupled with lax urban planning, this rush of people quickly turned the Greater Athens area into a reinforced concrete jungle. Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, the same people dreamed of partly returning to the country, building summer houses in the shade of some pine trees, close to Athens, preferably close to the sea.
By the 1980s, these petty-bourgeois houses were scattered throughout Attica, and middle-class suburbs were added in the mid-1990s. Villas and shopping malls are gradually invading the inland forests bordering Athens, the speed of which reflects economic growth driven by funds borrowed from EU banks or through EU structural funds.
It’s as if we are looking for trouble. Fire is a natural ally of Mediterranean pine forests. It helps to clear the ground of old trees and make young trees flourish. The villagers cut firewood every day and used tactical burning every spring to prevent these fires from spreading. Alas, not only did the environment force the villagers to abandon the forest, but when they and their descendants returned as misted city dwellers to build summer houses in unattended forests, they did so without any traditional public knowledge or practices.
The famous North-South economic divide in Europe is similar to the forests of Greece. In countries such as Sweden or Germany, forests are highly commercialized. Although this means the demise of ancient forests, replaced by arid plantations, farmland or pastures, but at least the countryside has not been abandoned like Greece. In a sense, the regrettable state of the Greek countryside, rapid and unregulated urbanization, and our weak and corrupt country are all reflections of the country’s shrinking capitalism.
Since wildfires began to retaliate against us in the 1970s, the Greek government has realized the unsustainability of our land use patterns. Deep down, they know: We have violated nature collectively, and now nature is undergoing long-term and lasting revenge. However, I believe that if they dare to tell voters that they should abandon their dream of building huts in the forest and abandon the plan to suburban pine forests, their chances of re-election will be doomed. The government chose a simple path: they blamed the warm wind, Vicious arsonists, doom, and even strange Turkish saboteurs.
Collective responsibility is the first victim of every hell. 23rdIn July 2018, in a seaside settlement named Marti in the north of Athens, a Demon Fireball 103 people were burned in a matter of minutes-including a friend. For anyone willing to selflessly observe the way dense settlements are inserted into aging pine forests, the reason is obvious. The narrow alleys cannot provide a realistic opportunity to escape from the inevitable fire.
Alas, neither the government nor the opposition dare to admit the obvious fact: we should not allow the construction of this settlement. On the contrary, they yelled at each other endlessly, playing a game of accusation that disrespect the victim, disrespect the society, and disrespect the nature.
Even when the government tried to modernize their practices, they made things worse. In 1998, in order to realize the professionalization of fire protection, the jungle fire brigade (previously in charge of the forestry committee) was disbanded and merged into the city fire brigade. The resulting economies of scale come at a price: the large-scale forest clearing that the bush fire brigade used to conduct each winter and spring ceased.
Following the urban bureaucracy’s instinct for high-tech solutions and underestimating traditional practices, the unified fire brigade effectively withdrew from the forest and instead focused on setting up firewalls around built-up areas, while bombing forest fires from the air—used often An aircraft that cannot be flown due to adverse conditions.
Then, in early 2010, the Greek government did not declare bankruptcy. Soon, dozens of EU and International Monetary Fund officials-the notorious troika-will arrive in Athens to implement the most severe austerity plan in the world. Every budget has been cut mercilessly, including those designed to protect citizens and nature. Thousands of doctors, nurses, and of course firefighters were fired. The total budget of the fire brigade in 2011 is 20% reduction.
In the spring of 2015, a senior fire brigade official told me that in the following summer, at least 5,000 firefighters would be needed to provide basic protection. As the Greek Minister of Finance at the time, I made a plan to save money from other parts of the budget to re-employ the right number of firefighters and doctors (2,000 in total). Upon hearing this news, the troika immediately condemned me for “retiring” and issued a clear warning that if I persisted, the Eurogroup negotiations would be terminated-this is shorthand for announcing the closure of Greek banks.
Since then, the only real change has been a steady rise in temperature, thanks to the acceleration of the climate collapse. The storms of this summer are completely predictable—and our state cannot respond effectively. What about the European Union? Does it send dozens of employees to micro-manage field activities as it did during the implementation of the austerity policy? Unlike the assistance that Greece receives from individual European governments (including those after Brexit), the absence of EU institutions is notable.
The terrible question is: what happens next? The specter of Greek forests facing new threats looms over this land. Right-wing governments are eager to subcontract reforestation to private multinational companies. In order to earn euros quickly, they sell fast-growing genetically modified trees that have no place in the Mediterranean and are harmful to our flora and fauna and traditional landscapes. Unlike the terrible impact of national bankruptcy on our people, we hope that one day we can reverse this impact, but this attack on our primeval forest will be irreversible.
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Yanis Varoufakis is the co-founder of DiEM25 (European Democracy Movement), the former Greek Minister of Finance and the author of “And the Weak Suffer What They Must?, European Crisis and the American Economic Future”
