The fires sweeping through the Greek islands of Rhodes and Corfu are showing us that our favourite holiday destinations are no longer safe from climate change.
Local residents and tourists have been trying to extinguish the fires that have been raging for over a week on the island of Rhodes, in Greece.Thousands of people on the beach. Children reportedly falling off evacuation boats. Panic. People fleeing with the clothes on their backs. It felt like "the end of the world", according to one tourist.
For decades, tourists have flocked to the Mediterranean for the northern summer. Australians, Scandinavians, Brits, Russians all arrive seeking warmer weather. After COVID, many of us have been keen to travel once again. But this year, the intense heatwaves have claimed hundreds of lives in Spain alone. Major tourist drawcards such as the Acropolis have been closed. Climate scientists are "stunned by the ferocity" of the heat.
For emergency services, tourists pose a particular challenge. Locals have a better understanding than tourists of risks and escape routes. Plus tourists don't speak the language. That makes them much harder to help compared to locals. So does this spell the end of mass tourism? Not entirely. But it will certainly accelerate the trend in countries like Spain away from mass tourism, or "overtourism". In super-popular tourist destinations like Spain's Balearic Islands, there's been an increasing pushback from locals againstIs this year a wake-up call? Yes. The intensifying climate crisis means many of us are now more focused on what we can do to stave off the worst of it by, say, avoiding flights.
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