By Athena Papakosta

And while the World Meteorological Organization is talking about the hottest August for Europe – and in fact just one month after the announcement of the hottest July in the history of our planet – Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria are drowning in water and mud. The biggest news networks of the whole planet are covering the devastating floods minute by minute, pointing out – as far as our country is concerned – that they are happening after a summer with record fires.

The climate, climate change or rather the climate crisis marked this summer. According to scientists, it was the hottest summer on record as the climate crisis and El Nino sent temperatures soaring across the planet and brought extreme weather that killed dozens of people across the northern hemisphere. Heatwaves, fires, storms and floods hit North America, Europe and the Asian countries of India, China and Japan.

“The climate collapse has begun” underlines the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, who added that “the climate is collapsing faster than we could deal with, with extreme weather phenomena affecting all corners of the planet”.

The numbers speak for themselves:

August was 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels.

The temperature of the oceans – which cover more than 70% of our planet – touched almost 21 degrees Celsius pushing high temperatures for three months in a row while Arctic sea ice levels are 10% lower than usual.

The year 2023 is the second warmest after 2016.

Scientists are clear: the climate crisis is man-made and is unquestionably responsible for the deadly heatwaves that have ravaged the northern hemisphere this year. As they explain extreme weather events would be almost impossible without the global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

The Associated Press news network broadcasts statements from the head of the European Copernicus Observatory, Carlo Buodebo, who emphasizes that “what we observe is not only extreme weather events but the persistence of extreme conditions that break all records as well as the consequences of these in people’s lives and the planet”.

Last July, over the course of a weekend, we experienced the worst heat wave at a time when Balkan countries were drowning in water and mud due to deadly rains that swept the region in a few 24 hours. At the same time, the city of Milan in northern Italy saw, in the heart of summer, large pieces of ice on its flooded streets while the Scandinavian countries were also at the mercy of rushing waters that carried away – accompanied by strong winds – everything in their path.

In our country for the last 24 hours, the bad weather Daniel has been pouring in, leaving in its wake dead people with the images of destruction succeeding one another. In Turkey, meteorologists are talking about record rainfall with at least five people having lost their lives, while in Istanbul alone more than 1,750 homes and businesses have been affected. However, the situation is nightmarish in Bulgaria as well, with deadly floods hitting the coasts of the Black Sea.

For the scientific community, the consequences of the climate crisis are coming faster and are more intense than the initial forecasts and the hottest summer is being swept away by rapids and mudslides.