Editorial: The great responsibility for climate change

This past summer, the 10-day heat wave, with temperatures near 45 degrees Celsius, paved the way for a wave of disastrous wildfires all over the country.

Slightly earlier, the well-organised German state faced an unprecedented challenge from unexpected, deadly floods, while in the same period California and northwestern US states saw their forests being ravaged ceaselessly by wildfires for nearly a month.

These are not isolated cases. Every day one sees eerie events, from the rockfalls in Siberia to the melting of glacial ice in Patagonia.

Such climate events are multiplying all over the planet, confirming in the most tragic manner the advance of climate change, which indisputably threatens the human species.

A recent UN report emphatically demonstrated that if we carry on without concrete measures and without checking carbon dioxide emissions, the temperature rise will come much sooner than had been calculated, with dire repercussions for human life and activity.

Scientists' climate simulation maps show that the situation in 2030 may be nightmarish if measures are not taken.

The sea level will continue rising about 15cm annually, the current of the Gulf Stream will lose its force, monsoons will move further north, temperate zones will be confronted with high rain volumes and incredibly intense flooding, and continental regions will have more droughts and difficulties in the production of agricultural products.

Gradually, according to models designed to specify the impact of the climate crisis, the deltas of large rivers will be lost, the Maldives will be submerged, substantial portions of Piraeus and Thessaloniki will be flooded, and Greece's entire coastlines and islands will be threatened.

With these and broader...