The year 2023 broke all records as Europe experienced one of the largest forest fires ever recorded, marking one of the worst wildfire seasons in the history of the European Union.
North America was also severely impacted by forest fires, as were many countries in South America.
Lives were lost, properties and livelihoods were destroyed, and countless acres of land were burned worldwide.
As summer draws to a close, the radio show “Unguarded Passage” delves into the issue of forest fires, attempting to answer some of the most pressing questions on the minds of the public. On Friday, August 30, forest ecologist and environmentalist Stylianos Karapournalidis, who holds a master’s degree from the Polytechnic School of the University of Thessaly and has served for many years as a senior executive in the Decentralized Administration of the Aegean, was present in the studio of Voice of Greece.
From 2007 to 2023, over 16% of all requests for assistance through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism were related to tackling forest fires. In recent years, forest fires have become a growing concern across Europe. In 2022, although France, Spain, and Portugal were particularly affected, major fires also broke out in Germany, Greece, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and other countries. That year, 20 EU member states recorded more burned areas than the average of previous years. The risk of forest fires expanded to areas that had not previously been affected by this phenomenon and spread over a much broader region beyond the Mediterranean zone. The social, environmental, climatic, and economic costs are enormous for all of Europe.
Produced and presented by Thomas Sideris