Technologies

Greece’s fires: Causes, casualties and everything you need to know

It was the hottest summer in Greece since 1987.

Amid its fiercest heatwave in 30 years, Greece is facing a «natural disaster of unprecedented proportions.» Those are the words of the country’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who said in an address to the nation on Monday that firefighters had battled over 580 fires.

With the blazes well into their second week, at least two people have died, around 10% of the country’s forests have been burned, and the international community is sending supplies. «We may have done what was humanly possible, but sometimes that wasn’t enough in the uneven battle with nature,» Mitsotakis said Monday night.

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Confronting imagery of the flames has spread across social media, showing alarming scenes similar to catastrophic fires seen in Australia and California. It comes less than a month after floods devastated central Europe, and as Siberia, Turkey and Italy too battle intense wildfires.

The wildfires are thought to be a product of climate change, with extreme weather events made more likely by Earth’s warming atmosphere. On Monday the International Panel on Climate Change released its latest report, detailing the path humanity is charting to a potentially uninhabitable world.

When did the fire start?

The fires began in late July, in the city of Petras. As July turned to August, conflagrations occurred mainly in four more regions: Attica, Olympia, Messenia, and Evia. The fires in Attica and Evia are north and northeast of Athens — close enough for suburbs in Athens to literally feel the heat, with the blue summer sky now turned into a smoky grey — while the fires in Olympia and Messenia are in south western, more regional Greece.

The fires are blazing throughout much of the country, with Deputy Civil Protection Minister for Crisis Management Nikos Hardalias saying over 60 fires were active over the weekend. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said firefighters had battled over 560 fires in total.

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Despite the breadth of the wildfires, the northeast island of Evia is the epicenter. The national government has urged residents of Evia to evacuate their homes, though many have defied orders. Boats have been ferrying thousands of Evia residents to safer parts of the country.

With no end immediately in sight, the blazes have already proven to be an ecological disaster. An estimated 10-12% of the country’s forests have been burned, amounting to 93,000 hectares of damage. Two people have died in the fires, including a firefighter, and 20 have been injured.

What caused the fires?

Extreme heat. Greece has experienced a particularly hot European summer, said to be the most sustained heatwave since one in 1987 that killed over 1,000. The heatwave has also affected Italy and Turkey, with wildfires in the latter country having claimed eight lives already.

Potential arson is being investigated as a cause, with at least three people having been arrested for arson thus far. However, the heat conditions that allowed the blazes to spark and blaze are being blamed at least in part by climate change. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was unequivocal on the blaze’s cause: «If there are even few people who have reservations about whether climate change is real, I call on them to come here and see,» he said.

«We have seen devastating fires in Turkey and Greece amid an intense and long-lasting heatwave in the Mediterranean,» said World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. «Siberia — a region traditionally associated with permafrost — has once again seen huge wildfires after exceptional heatwaves, fires and low Arctic sea ice in 2020.»

«The harsh reality of climate change is playing out in real time before our very eyes.»

An IPCC report published Monday contained a staggering amount of data and evidence that human activity is causing the planet to warm, and our window to arrest the process is closing. The report provides the most up-to-date estimates on the increasing likelihood the climate will surpass a 1.5-degree Celsius level of warming in the next decades, and — as IPCC reports have since 1990 — it urges immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Is anyone helping Greece?

Thankfully, yes.

Over 20 countries have contributed to Greece’s battle against the wildfires. Firefighters have been sent by France, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Kuwait, Israel, Kuwait, Maldova, Romania, Qatar, Serbia, Slovakia, the UK and the Ukraine. Others, like Russia, Spain and the US have sent airplanes and other vehicles.

Technologies

Google Is Bringing Gemini AI to Its Smart Home Lineup, Starting Oct. 1

Goodbye, Google Assistant. Hello, Gemini.

It increasingly feels like Google’s AI assistant is omnipresent across our devices and, starting next month, it could also be in your home.

In a post on X on Tuesday, the company teased, «Gemini is coming to Google Home,» and told us to, «Come back October 1.»

At its Made by Google event in August, the company announced Gemini for Home among a slew of other product announcements, so this has been in the works for a while.

Tuesday’s X post teaser appears to show an image of a Nest camera, which Google last upgraded four years ago, suggesting the security camera could be set for a refresh. An upgraded Nest speaker and doorbell, both with 2K camera support, could also be part of the Oct. 1 unveiling.

Google did not immediately respond to CNET’s request for comment.

Android Faithful podcast co-host (and former CNET staffer) Jason Howell is «optimistic» about Gemini replacing Assistant in Google’s smart home products.

«In recent years, I have witnessed my Google Home devices degrading in quality and becoming far less useful for even simple tasks and questions,» Howell tells CNET. «They’ve become buggy and unreliable to the point where I’ve stopped interacting with them for most things.»

Gemini catches dog red-handed

At the Mobile World Congress tech show in Barcelona earlier this year, Howell was impressed by Gemini’s performance with a smart home camera.

«A smart home camera detected a dog that came into the kitchen to steal a cookie off the counter,» Howell recalls. «Through voice interaction, the homeowner could ask the system what happened to the cookie, and, given the video context from the camera and an understanding of what it saw, the system could tell the homeowner that the dog was the culprit.

«This sort of example empowers users to spend less time looking for answers in lieu of simple voice queries that serve them the answer they are looking for with less effort and less time spent.»

Google announced last month that Gemini for Home will eventually replace Google Assistant in its smart home devices. You’ll still activate Gemini with, «Hey Google,» but the advanced AI tech will be able to better interpret more complex and nuanced instructions and questions.

Maybe you’re stumped as to what to make for dinner, so it could be: «Hey Google, what quick pasta dish can I cook in less than an hour?» or, «Give me a recipe for Caesar salad.» Gemini is also designed to work with thermostats and smart lights, so you might tell it to «turn the temp to 68 degrees» and «turn off all the lights except in the kitchen.»

The market for smart home technology is expected to grow by 23% over the next five years, according to Grand View Research.

Technologies

Polar Introduces Loop, a $200 Screenless Wearable

Polar’s first fitness tracker with no screen tracks activity, sleep and overall health, the company says.

Fitness tracking company Polar has launched Loop, a $200 screenless wearable that it says will have no subscription fees. Preorders opened on Sept. 3, and the Polar Loop will start shipping on Sept. 10.

Like other fitness trackers, the Polar Loop will log steps, sleep patterns and daily activity patterns but Polar is touting the lack of a screen as «unobtrusive» and «discreet.» The Loop, which is a wearable band for your wrist, has eight days of battery life with continuous use and stores four weeks’ worth of data. It syncs with the Polar Flow app to view stats and analyze sleep and training data, among other information.

Because it has no buttons, activities can be started in the app or passively with what the company calls «automatic training detection.»

It’s available in the colors Greige Sand, Night Black and Brown Copper. Additional band colors are offered for $20 each.

There’s already a market of no-screen wearables, including the Whoop 5.0 wristband and smart rings such as the Oura Ring 3.

Will the Loop measure up?

Whether the Polar Loop’s attempt at simplifying a fitness wearable works out will largely depend on how well it runs and what it offers compared to other devices.

«The company is clearly tapping into the growing demand for screen-free wearables,» says CNET’s lead writer for wearables, Vanessa Hand Orellana. «It feels like a direct answer to the athlete-favorite Whoop band and even the Oura Ring, both of which collect similar health metrics to display and analyze in their respective apps.»

Hand Orellana says Polar has a good reputation, with its signature heart-rate chest straps, and may win over fans by eschewing the subscription fee that the Oura and Whoop require.

«That said, as with most devices in this space, the real differentiator often comes down to execution… specifically, how well the data translates into clear, actionable insights. Personally, I’m curious to see how the Loop integrates with Polar’s app, which, at least in my experience with their HR straps, hasn’t always been the most intuitive to navigate,» she said.

Technologies

Waymo Is Expanding to Denver and Seattle. Everything to Know About the Robotaxi

The company has also been granted a permit to test its self-driving vehicles in New York City. Here’s everywhere Waymo operates now, and where it’s set to arrive soon.