Editorial: Eschewing demonisation

Each time they occur, we admit that we must learn from wildfires, yet reality transcends us.

A natural disaster, such as those that we are watching this week in Penteli and Megara, is a multi-faceted phenomenon.

A report in today’s issue of Ta Nea analyses the causes related to the particularity of Mediterranean biome and indicates that the climate crisis is the framework within which we should view such disasters.

With the repercussions of the latest fires still looming over the lives of our fellow-citizens who were hit hard, the state must seek responsibilities wherever they are to be found, without engaging in a witch hunt or a search for scapegoats.

It must also extend and improve the existing system for the emergency notification of residents, tailoring it to the particular regions or areas.

As a society, we must chart out the big picture, which will incorporate events and developments over the last decades.

We must focus on cases where residential areas are adjacent to forestland, and stress the necessary preparations and precautions, albeit belatedly, for a timely clearing of brush from inhabited areas.

The maturity and effectiveness of the system is demonstrated through the perpetual development of its technological means and personnel.

A mature stance of society must include individual responsibility in a rapidly changing era, which is unavoidably being shaped by climate change.