European tourist destinations warn of state of emergency

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Tourist destinations in Europe have declared a state of emergency after record-breaking heat.

The Italian island of Sicily is suffering from a severe drought due to a lack of winter rainfall, forcing residents to stock up on drinking water.

The island, which set a European heat record of 48.8 degrees Celsius (119 degrees Fahrenheit) in 2021, has declared a state of emergency and dozens of towns have rationed agricultural and residential water, cutting supplies every other day. Only available.

“Just making herbal tea or cooking pasta can be exhausting work,” said Maria Manelli, a student and waitress in the southern Sicily city of Agrigento. She often has to carry around heavy bags containing plastic bottles of water.

“Water in Agrigento is gold,” said fellow resident Antonio, who declined to give his last name, adding that he regularly refills his tank or bottle at the nearest city fountain.

The world is experiencing the warmest February on record, following consecutive monthly temperature records for August, with devastating effects on access to water around the world.

Agriculture in Sicily, one of Europe’s southernmost regions, was cited as a particular concern by the European Union’s crop monitoring service MARS, which warned of drought in the Mediterranean in December.

The Italian island is not only a producer of wheat, but also citrus fruits and olives.

Water shortages are nothing new for Sicilians, with many residents installing cisterns on their roofs to collect rainwater, but storage systems have proven inadequate in the face of recent long droughts.

Restaurant owner Federico Castronovo said some residents are now filling their bathtubs with hot water when the supply is available so they have it on hand when water is turned off for washing or cooking. .

Southern Italy, Greece, Mediterranean islands and northern Africa are now concerned that rising spring temperatures will further exacerbate agricultural, ecological and drinking water availability problems.

Many Sicilians expect the situation to get even worse.

“Future winters could probably have even less rain,” said Agrigento’s Peppe Riccobene. “We are feeling the devastating effects of climate change every year.”

Since June of last year, the Earth has been setting new heat records every month.

January 2024 broke the record for warmest first month of the year, set in 2020, by 0.22 degrees Fahrenheit (0.12 degrees Celsius) and warmer than the late 1800s, the baseline for temperatures before fossil fuels were burned. It was 3 degrees (1.66 degrees Celsius) warmer. Despite January being the hottest month on record, above-normal levels were lower than in the previous six months, Copernicus data showed.

Climate scientists argue that a combination of anthropogenic warming from fossil fuel burning and natural but temporary El Niño warming in the Pacific are to blame, and that greenhouse gases play a much larger role than nature. are doing.