Climate change is the biggest threat to the world. The need of the hour is to fight against global warming and save present and coming generations from its disasters (“Greece shuts Acropolis site to protect tourists from heatwave; wildfires hit Croatia,” July 15, Gulf Today website).

According to the report, Greece closed the ancient Acropolis during the hottest part of the day on Friday to protect tourists, while Croatian villagers cleaned up after a wildfire as a fierce heatwave swept across southern Europe.

In Italy, there were fears about the coming days, with the heat expected to intensify and temperatures forecast to climb to above 45˚C next week in the centre and south of the country.

Italian meteorologists are calling the next phase of the heatwave “Charon” — a reference to the ferryman of the souls of the dead in Greek mythology. That succeeds this week’s “Cerberus” named after the three-headed dog of the underworld.

The tourist countries generate a huge amount of revenue from the tourist sites and strengthen their economies. Greece, one of the top tourist countries in the world, has been forced to shut the Acropolis site to protect tourists from the heatwave and I believe it will cost a huge amount of money to Greece’s economy for sure.

Nothing is impossible to achieve in the world. If there’s a will there’s a way. I am really very optimistic that the world will succeed in saving the planet from the disaster of climate change with collective measures.

Yaseem Agha,
By email