Deserts spread in Mediterranean
2007-03-22 13:50
Athens - Parched land could trigger a
mass exodus north from the Mediterranean if the long-term
effects of climate change, construction and farming are not
checked, a Greek environmental official warned on Tuesday.
Swathes of Greece are also in immediate danger of becoming
permanent desert, said Professor Costas Kosmas, head of a
government committee set up to battle desertification.
"Desertification is a slow-moving process and once we
realise it is happening it will be too late to go back," Kosmas
said in an interview.
Desertification is being fuelled by a reduction in average
rainfall coupled with higher temperatures, deforestation and
human activities such as farming, construction and tourism.
Kosmas said long-term environmental changes meant all
countries across the Mediterranean basin would eventually be
affected - and that populations would drift to cooler north
European latitudes.
"Desertification means that people cannot earn a living off
the land so they move. They become migrants, flocking to urban
areas," he said.
"Northern European countries have accepted this, though we
(in the region) need to start taking specific measures
immediately because we have done little until now."
Changing landscapes
Greece, which is the committee's main focus, has been
experiencing one of its worst droughts in 20 years and its
landscape will change substantially within the next decade,
Kosmas said.
Greece's average rainfall has fallen by about 30%
since the mid 1970s, and last January was the driest in half a
century.
"About 34 or 35% of the country has been highlighted
by us as extreme danger areas that face desertification, with
great repercussions for humans and the economy," Kosmas said.
Parts of the southern Peloponnese region, many of the Aegean
islands popular with tourists, as well as northern, central
Greece and the wider Athens region are at high risk.
Greece, one of the fastest growing economies in the euro
zone, is experiencing a construction boom and a sharp rise in
tourism that has strained natural resources.
Tens of thousands of holiday homes are being built this year
alone to meet the demand from foreigners, and the construction
industry has been growing by a third every year since 2000.
But Kosmas said the economic benefits could soon be
outweighed by long-term environmental damage.
"The areas in danger have seen a large part of the earth
disappearing, leaving maybe 30 or 40cm of top layer
earth. They are unfit for farming, forests will not be able to
grow back, rain does not trickle down."