Where are we heading?
When the place doesn't match the weather
It is the end of July and yesterday in Athens there was raining. Unusually heavily. Moving some weeks back, at the end of June, much of Europe was in the middle of a heatwave. News reports spoke about record temperatures in cities that aren’t used to such extreme heat, and about increased number of deaths because of this. I read the news and posts by my friends and colleagues in different affected countries, but I thought they were overreacting, as for me in Greece such temperatures are not that special. It wasn’t until I experienced it myself that it really got it.
I went to Vienna at the end of June. Leaving the traditionally warm Athens (but this time totally ok temperature-wise) I expected to cool down in Vienna, finding maybe the ideal summer conditions. The reality, though, was totally different. Every time I went outside during the day, it felt as if I was rolling into a wall of heat. From my wheelchair, being closer to the ground, it felt like a giant hot pan radiating warmth upwards. Even Egypt last August seemed easier to tolerate.
One day after Vienna I travelled to Málaga. Strangely, I found the heat there easier to handle. Now I’m back home in Athens, and I already told you about the rain (though we had some days of heatwave too). And if I want to go back to Vienna, this time when I visited it in February, if I tell you that it snowed you will tell me that this is not that unusual. But it snowed so much that even locals said they hadn’t seen that much snow in the city for decades.
The above made me wonder where are we heading…
I know that weather is not the same as climate. One hot or cold week doesn’t explain everything. But nowadays, these unusual weather-related phenomena seem to be happening more and more often. Places that were once known for mild summers are experiencing temperatures that would have been hard to imagine just a few decades ago, and winters are heavier too.
What will Europe (and our planet in general) feel like in let’s say another twenty years? How many places that we used to visit in the summer will become difficult (or even unsafe) to enjoy? Will people switch from Mediterranean vacations to Scandinavian ones because of the heat (if this is not happening already to some extent)?
I have said it in numerous occasions, travelling has helped me understand the world, but also myself, a little better. This time, it left me with more questions than answers, but at the same time I got at least one clear answer: Climate change is real and it is happening, now.
As disabled travellers, we usually think about accessibility in terms of ramps, transport, hotels etc. Soon, we might have to include climate needs to that conversation too. Usually the heat doesn’t really stop me from exploring, but it affects the people travelling with me, the programme of our days, and how long we can stay outside.
When someone asks me what is the biggest problem in the world, I say climate change. The rest may be important, but in a way they are secondary issues. Climate change worries me a lot. Not because of one unusually hot day in Vienna or a chill summer day in Athens, but because these experiences feel like small pieces of a much bigger picture.
I hope I’m wrong about where we’re heading, but I also hope we’re not becoming so used to these phenomena that we don’t care and don’t act. Because we can act. And we have to.
