Left: A boat at the edge of a water reservoir that has dried up near Pueblo de Oranos in eastern Spain. Right: Forest fires on the Spain-Portugal border. 20 people were killed
Photo: Reuters and AP
The series of recent climatic crises in the south of the European continent sometimes looks as if the Sahara is sending a long desert arm, across the Mediterranean Sea, in an attempt to take over the Iberian Peninsula. The water level in the area's rivers is gradually decreasing, the agricultural crops are shrinking, herds are dying of starvation and large-scale fires are raging in southern Europe. These phenomena, accompanied by the most severe drought in the last 60 years in Spain, lead many experts to ask: Will the southern continent of Europe become a desert in the future?
This year fires in Spain and Portugal consumed more than 1.6 million dunams of natural forest. In these fires, 20 people were killed, dozens were injured, houses caught fire and entire villages were evacuated of their inhabitants. All in all, the experts point out, that in the last thirty years the burned areas have increased by hundreds of percent. Thus, in the early 70s, about 60 dunams were burned in Spain per year - but in 1985, 1978 and 1994, about 400 dunams were burned per year. In the most severe fires remembered in Portugal, in 2003 forest areas were consumed to the extent of 423 million dunams, which is about 8% of the country's natural forest areas.
"In the coming years, Portugal could become an arid desert," warns biologist Jorge Paiva. Although almost all the fires were caused by human negligence or arson, they ignite easily due to drought conditions, such as the one afflicting the region this year, which sometimes makes part of the Iberian Peninsula look like one of the driest regions of Africa.
The drought severely damaged the crops and reduced by 35% the expected income from agriculture in Portugal, while in Spain the losses are estimated at 1.6 billion euros. Dozens of villages where the water sources have dried up had to rely on water supplies by trucks. The animals also suffer from severe hardship, and wild boars in the Guadarrama mountains near Madrid quench their thirst in municipal swimming pools. Experts warn that the drought could be just the first of a five-year cycle.
In the entire region of southern Europe, in recent years, signs indicating climatic changes have been recorded, including, among other things, an increase in temperatures and early ripening of flowers or fruits. According to the researcher Francisco Ayala, in most of the territory of Spain, the average rainfall decreased in the last half century by more than 10%.
The phenomenon of desertification is particularly severe in the south and along the coast, but is also felt in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. "In the past the soil was extremely fertile, but it has been drying out faster for a few years now. It needs to be watered and fertilized more often, and the plants are weaker," said Emilio, a 35-year-old farmer who lives near the city of Ortanza in the northwest of the country. Like Emilio, many farmers in Spain and Portugal are moving to the cities, and the agricultural areas are being abandoned.
And so, the consequences of global warming are revealed each time in a different place. Last summer, doctors in Puerto Segonto, near Valencia, Spain, treated patients suffering from muscle pain caused by a mosquito native to Africa that found the area's climate hospitable. Diseases such as malaria may also migrate from North Africa, as can locust swarms. In addition, the experts warn against the intensification of the flooding phenomenon, which they say will occur when the rains become rarer but also stronger, and against ecological disasters in areas such as the delta of the Ebro River, which is rich in bird and fish species.
Spain and Portugal cannot deal with these threats alone, and in the meantime they are focusing on taking urgent steps to stop the desertification phenomenon. Spain has indeed established new regulations, including a ban on lighting fires in forests in the summer, but according to experts, the governments are still not taking the matter seriously enough.
Shaped
The fires raging in recent weeks in Spain and Portugal have consumed 1.6 million dunams of natural forest. These phenomena, accompanied by the most severe drought in the last 60 years in Spain, increased the fear that Southern Europe is undergoing a desertification process due to global warming
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