Wildfires bring death and destruction to Mediterranean
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[July 25, 2023]
By Fedja Grulovic and Lamine Chikhi
RHODES/ALGIERS (Reuters) - Wildfires killed 34 people in Algeria and
forced the evacuation of thousands of tourists from the Greek island of
Rhodes as an intense summer heatwave scorched large areas of the
Mediterranean.
Another blaze caused the temporary closure of Palermo airport on the
southern Italian island of Sicily on Tuesday, while an overnight storm
tore off roofs and brought down trees in the north of the country,
killing two people.
Extreme weather throughout July has caused havoc across the planet, with
temperatures breaking records in China, the United States and southern
Europe, sparking forest fires, water shortages and a rise in
heat-related hospital admissions.
Without human-induced climate change, the events this month would have
been "extremely rare", according to a study by World Weather
Attribution, a global team of scientists that examines the role played
by climate change in extreme weather.
The heat, with temperatures topping 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), is well
in excess of what usually attracts tourists who flock to southern
European beaches.
In some parts of eastern Sicily, temperatures rose to 47.6 Celsius on
Monday, close to a record European high of 48.8 Celsius recorded on the
island two years ago.
It was even hotter in North Africa, with temperatures of 49 Celsius
recorded in some cities in Tunisia.
Neighbouring Algeria deployed some 8,000 firefighters to bring its
deadly fires under control, authorities said.
MASS EVACUATION
The fires burning on the island of Rhodes for the past week have forced
the Greek authorities to carry out the largest evacuation ever
undertaken in the country, with more than 20,000 people forced to leave
homes and hotels.
"I will state the obvious: in the face of what the entire planet is
facing, especially the Mediterranean which is a climate change hot-spot,
there is no magical defence mechanism, if there was we would have
implemented it," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on
Tuesday.
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Flames rise as a wildfire burns near the
village of Vati, on the island of Rhodes, Greece, July 25, 2023.
REUTERS/Nicolas Economou
The fires will deal a blow to a tourism industry that is a mainstay
of the Greek economy. It accounts for 18% of Greece's GDP and one in
five jobs, with reliance on tourism even greater on islands such as
Rhodes.
"It's very, very bad, the situation. We need help. Send us help from
everywhere," said Lanai Karpataki, a local resident in Kiotari on
the south of Rhodes.
Malta, another major Mediterranean holiday destination, suffered a
raft of power cuts across the country, affecting its largest
hospital, after a week-long heatwave.
'SILENT KILLER'
Scientists have described extreme heat as a "silent killer" taking a
heavy toll on the poor, the elderly and those with existing medical
conditions.
Research published this month said as many as 61,000 people may have
died in Europe's sweltering heatwaves last summer, suggesting
countries' heat preparedness efforts are falling fatally short.
The heat has caused large-scale crop damage and livestock losses,
the World Weather Attribution scientists said, with U.S. corn and
soybean crops, Mexican cattle, southern European olives as well as
Chinese cotton all severely affected.
Responding to the damage caused by the storm in Milan, the mayor of
Italy's financial capital said the cause was clear.
"I have been through 65 summers in my lifetime... and what I am
seeing now is not normal, we can no longer deny it, climate change
is changing our lives," Mayor Giuseppe Sala said on social media.
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou, Renee Maltezou, Federico Maccioni,
Alvise Armellini, Lamine Chikhi, Jana Choukeir, and Nayera Abdalla
and David Stanway; Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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