Climate Change Threatens Greece’s Forestland

(MENAFN) A recent study, published on Monday, reveals that climate change is increasingly threatening Greece’s forestlands.

The research, conducted by a team at the University of Athens and reported by a news agency, found that wildfires in recent years have become more intense and harder to manage.

This rise in wildfire severity has been attributed to the worsening effects of climate change on the region.

Kostas Filippopoulos, one of the researchers, explained that "the effects of a compound event like a heatwave-drought are more severe, as the impact of each phenomenon does not simply add up, but rather intensifies the other, creating feedback cycles that prolong the duration of extreme conditions."

This indicates that the combination of heatwaves and droughts is not just additive but mutually reinforcing, leading to prolonged extreme weather events.

The study further revealed that the number of days experiencing both heatwaves and droughts increased significantly between 2001 and 2023, reaching 152 days, compared to just 45 days between 1974 and 2000.

This sharp rise underscores the growing intensity and frequency of these environmental stressors in recent decades.

Athina Zazani, another researcher taking part in the study, pointed out that the highest occurrence of simultaneous heatwaves and droughts from 1971 to 2023 was observed in several regions, including eastern Crete, the southern and western Peloponnese, Attica, Thessaly, as well as central Macedonia.

Among these, Thessaly and central Macedonia experienced the most extreme conditions, marking them as particularly vulnerable to the worsening climate crisis.

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