Holidaymakers planning trips to the Mediterranean must see the Greek wildfires as a “big warning” as there will be more blazes to come.
Sir David King, former UK chief scientific adviser and chairman of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group warned people who are “planning to go overseas for the summer” to be “very careful.”
Sir David told PA news agency that extreme temperatures which we are all seeing globally is due to melting ice in the Arctic which is a direct result of greenhouse gases caused by people heating the Earth’s atmosphere, warning that many will die from heat stress.
Sir David warned, “If you are in one of these very warm areas and you haven’t got air conditioning indoors you could suffer terribly – many people will die from heat stress.
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“You must have moving air – it makes an enormous difference. If there’s a large fan, preferentially a roof fan, that is moving the air in the room… because moving the air helps to remove the perspiration from your body and keeps you cooler.
“I wouldn’t be too dogmatic about advice but, certainly, there’s a big, big warning this summer. To anyone planning to go overseas for the summer, ‘Be very careful’ would be my advice.”
Sir David added, “There’s no coincidence at all that climate change has driven these higher temperatures, and the higher temperatures are causing the fires that are spreading.
“The only way to tackle this is deep and rapid emissions reductions. In terms of greenhouse gases, we have virtually doubled the amount of greenhouse gases compared to the pre-industrial level.”
It is estimated that there is currently around 10,000 Brits stuck on Rhodes and around 20,000 have so far been evacuated.
Wildfires have also struck Corfu and emergency evacuations are underway as airlines have started to repatriate customers back to the UK.
A Foreign Office spokesman said that the British Red Cross have been sent to Rhodes to help Brits.
He added, “They will be based at Rhodes International Airport to assist with travel documents and liaise with Greek authorities and travel operators on the ground.
“British nationals in Rhodes should contact their travel operator in the first instance for any queries regarding the rescheduling of flights and continue to check our updated gov.uk travel advice for information.”
