Their unequivocally positive answer to the question of whether the climate crisis and natural disasters are ultimately related, was given by the presenters who framed a relevant section at the Economist conference, even saying that “now there are those evidences that demonstrate it and prove it clearly ».

The theme of the conference is “Managing Natural Disasters: Protecting Life – Building Resilience”, while this is being held in the context of the 87th International Exhibition of Thessaloniki, in collaboration with TIF-HELEXPO.

“In the last six years, there has been a huge increase in natural disasters and we need to deal with them urgently, smartly and seriously if we want to be effective“, the director and chairman of the board of directors of the National Observatory of Athens, Manolis Pleionis, pointed out from the stage of the conference, pointing out that the data and scientific analyzes that are now available also allow the formulation of policies.

Saying that “there is no room for petty interests“, Mr. Pleionis said that from 1990 to 2006 the number of natural disasters has increased significantly, mainly with the occurrence of floods and storms and not so much with geological changes and earthquakes. He indicated that the cost of natural disasters from 135 billion dollars in 2017, reached 280 billion dollars last year.

According to him, until 2019 due to the occurrence of natural disasters 1.65 billion people were displaced by floods and 1.43 billion people due to drought and as he said indicatively, “people displaced by natural disasters are more than those who left their areas due to conflicts».

For Greece, he said that by 2021 the last 15 years “we saw displacements inside the country due to a fire in Evia last year and we expect others due to the recent natural disasters in Northern Greece and especially in Thessaly».

On the subject of population displacements due to natural disastersMr. Pleionis underlined the need for an international binding legal system to protect these people, as it applies to other immigrants.

The need in the future to consider the issue of preventing and dealing with natural disasters not only with piecemeal practices, but by setting medium and long-term goals for the restoration of natural infrastructures that are critical for ecological balance and for sustainable development, was underlined by the the ND Member of Parliament, president of the Special Standing Committee for the Protection of the Environment of the Parliament, Dionysia -Theodora Avgrinopoulou, noting that the need for the reconstruction of the forests, marsh shores, but also the marine ecosystem is imperative.

He underlined the importance of faster action towards the adoption of the European package of measures in order to achieve faster the mitigation of the effects of climate change that threatens ecosystems and noted that “those of us dealing with the issues of prevention, response and recovery of natural disasters must work with a leader the scientific community, to re-educate ourselves, and to move towards a holistic approach to things”.

According to her, restoration is the key word for dealing with climate change and reducing the intensity of natural and man-made phenomena in the direction of dealing with their effects, while as she added “dplays an important role in the prevention of natural disasters, while it is one way to create the resilience of ecosystems»,

Among other things, she recognized that the ecosystems created through natural processes of up to millions of years, have their own logic and balance and noted that with excessive anthropogenic excess “these are disrupted and do not have the sufficient time and ability to adapt to the new data we create for them, as a result of which they contribute either to the creation or to the increased intensity of natural disasters».

In this context, as he said, it becomes clear that it is of the utmost importance to respect the ecological functions, in order to reduce the intensity of the phenomena and to arrest the climate crisis.

After all, as he said, in relation to the restoration and prevention of natural disasters, the example in which an ecologically balanced forest absorbs rainwater more easily and either prevents or reduces floods is very familiar.”

Regarding the recent floods in the Thessalian plain, she emphasized that it seems that one of the points of vulnerability that led to the greatest destruction than that which would have been caused by the arrival of bad weather Daniel, is the long-term disruption of the hydrological potential of the wider region, with the drying up of Lake Karlas many 10 years ago, the long irrigation and the reduction of underground water. “The anthropogenic interventions made all these 10 years in Thessaly seem to have now exceeded the so-called carrying capacity of the ecosystem and it cannot adapt smoothly with man, and so, with the strong pressure it received from bad weather, it returned by itself to its previous state».

The organization’s director of research, Fai Makandasi, focused on the role of diaNEosis and referred to the research that was carried out, which essentially constituted a panoramic x-ray of Greek society around the issue of the effects of climate change. Among other things, he said that just as a reconstruction plan was drawn up for the area of ​​Ilia after the fires of 2007 and 2021, so it will be done by the organization for Evros and Thessaly.