The wildfire smoke from a pine forest near Korinth that reached Athens today afternoon reached also the N Cyclades, as it is clearly visible on the PurpleAir map here below.
Yet, as tragic as it is to see yet another natural forest burnt down, I want to be the devil’s advocate and remind that in winter we are forced to breathe this kind of air EVERY NIGHT.
In fact the smoke of today was not so much worse than the smoke we create ourselves with our thousands of stoves and fireplaces that burn wood in our city EVERY NIGHT.
The only big difference is that today’s smoke was visible because it happened during the day and it was higher in the sky and thus covered the sun for several hours. If by any miracle in winter we had the chance to have the sun during the night too, we would see the same thing, EVERY NIGHT!
Why should we be disgusted and angry when we see today’s smoke over the city, but we remain silent and do as nothing happened in winter EVERY NIGHT? Both these smokes are coming from burning wood, both are as dangerous for our health.
Think about it!
We must stop burning wood in winter in our cities.
And of course we must stop burning our forests, because we can’t live without them.
WE MUST STOP BURNING STUFF IN GENERAL!
Today I saw kids and families playing on Mt. Filopappou like nothing was happening. That’s not right. The air was dangerous, but no one cared to let the population know. That’s not acceptable.
CleanAir in Greece 