UK politicians to continue tradition of being on wrong side of history

With devastating consequences for its landscapes, ecosystems and people, the picturesque haven that is Greece has become a battleground for uncontrollable infernos in recent years, at the hands of an undeniable climate emergency.

Over the last year and a half, I’ve become quite a seasoned visitor in Greece. My partner is half Greek, half Scottish and we split our time between our respective countries. I’ve travelled between March and October, have experienced different seasons on the island and have come to know what to expect from each.

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I may have spent a considerable amount of time adapting to the Greek climate, but nothing could have prepared me for the temperatures I experienced this past trip. Thirty-three degrees at half past one in the morning. At its hottest, it hit the mid-40s and it verged on 35 before I even opened my blinds in the morning.

It was so unbearable, there were multiple days that I opted to stay in my air-conditioned room over going outside. Every time I opened my balcony door, my entire body was immediately engulfed in a heat and humidity that I’d never experienced. On one occasion, I dared to venture out from the pleasantries of my air-conditioning at 8pm for dinner – and it was still 40 degrees.

Last July, Zante was hot, but this year was noticeably much hotter. I’ve been lucky enough to experience different climates throughout my life, but I have never experienced heat in the way that I experienced it this month.

It felt palpably terrifying. Like you could feel the earth burning around you – and of course, it quite literally was burning in other parts of the country.

Tuning in to the news over the last couple of weeks has felt like watching a disaster movie play out in real-time. With various different climate catastrophes hitting in various parts of the world, it was almost comical to see headlines in the UK this week about the Tory and Labour leaders ditching their so-called “unpopular” green policies.

Once again the UK remains light years behind reality and wraps itself in its well-identifiable privilege.

Whilst people in Greece and Italy watch their homes and businesses burn, firefighters lose their lives, and tourists are stranded on floors across Europe with little food and water, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer turn a blind eye in their battle for conservative votes.

Even Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (below), hardly one to shy away from a conservative standpoint, declared this week that “the climate crisis is already here, we are at war”.

Is it a case of denial until it hits you between the eyes? Is that what the policy position of the UK is going to consist of?

Until our own country is burning or drowning, we will sit on our hands.

Whilst Sunak and Starmer might be comfortable for now here in the UK, there are thousands of Brits displaced abroad that have a different story to tell. One man detailed how he had to walk 12 hours in 38-degree heat, surrounded by smoke, and with little access to food and water with his children in tow. Some have even had to pack their children onto small boats to escape the dangers.

A somewhat chilling irony given the way Britain treats children in small boats on its own shores.

For some Brits as we speak, the climate crisis is not some obscure, hypothetical, future scenario that they can afford to postpone for electoral success – it’s their current, terrifying reality.

READ MORE: Wildfires ‘will clearly happen again’ and travel industry plans ‘need overhaul’

While every effort is focused on getting the wildfires under control, the long-term impact should not be pushed aside. Besides the obvious and immediate devastation across Greece in particular – its rich biodiversity, and delicate coastal ecosystems have suffered irreparable damage – the loss of wildlife and vegetation will disrupt ecological balances and decimate the opportunity for future generations to enjoy them.

The future of our children is quite literally burning before our eyes.

Whilst Greece burned (followed by Sicily) and Rome hit record temperatures, ice rivers caused by hail storms pounded the north of Italy.

All in the space of a week. There has been no greater example of the climate emergency, than current news cycles across Europe.

And we are already too late to action. This week’s events have sparked a humanitarian crisis, as well as an economic one for countries that rely heavily on summer tourism – and there is plenty more where that came from.

We are years late to the action that could have prevented these very scenarios. And now, even though they have arrived as promised, we remain in denial.

It’s not as if no one has warned that this might happen. In fact, Just Stop Oil hit the headlines every other day in the UK for their disruptive campaign style; it will be interesting to see if the public perception of them changes on the back of these events. We’ve almost been conditioned in the UK to view their tactics as infuriating, to the point that I watched a video just last week of a lorry driver attempting to run over protesters who were staging a sit-in on the road.

That’s where climate politics is in the UK – you can expect to be run over, ridiculed or verbally abused for speaking out, and you best not expect your politicians to take any kind of worthwhile action.

These are not isolated incidents; there is a global pattern of increasingly severe wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and other extreme weather events – and consequences transcend borders. It is the collective responsibility of politicians across the world to work together, and it’s an unforgivable failure of global politics that is to blame for the devastation unravelling around us.

Britain is no stranger to being on the wrong side of history, and it appears our politicians will stay committed to that trend for the foreseeable future.

A marked example of the UK’s failure to lead on virtually anything progressive and further evidence of the stark contrast between Westminster and Holyrood. Whilst Scotland remains in pursuit of ambitious green policy, Westminster trades them in for Tory votes.

When are we going to stop betting our future, and that of our children, on the conservative voter base in England? Hopefully before our entire livelihoods and ecosystems start burning to the ground.