Temperatures in Greece are expected to rise by 5°C by the end of the century, scientists warn based on climate model projections.
“Climate models tell us that, depending on the measures we take, we will have a temperature increase that will reach levels of the order of 4.5 to 5 degrees Celsius, which is an extremely difficult condition,” said Professor Nikos Michalopoulos, director Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development (IERSD) of the National Observatory of Athens.
Speaking at an event for the National Climate Change Network Climpact, Michalopoulos stressed that “the intermediate scenario could achieve an increase of 2-2.5°C, but in Athens we already have an average annual temperature of almost 2°C above the middle of the last century.”
Various climate forecasting models, and depending on the measures that are taken to mitigate the effects of climate change, show that average temperatures for the period 2071-2100 in Greece could rise by 4.5-5 degrees compared to the period 1961-1990.
Presenting the results of the White Paper and the first phase of the Climpact program, Michalopoulos stressed that the Mediterranean is moving at full speed towards a warmer, drier future climate that will also have a significant impact on agriculture.
Eastern Mediterranean is one of the hotspots of climate change: while at the global level the temperature rose by 0.7°C from 1980 to 2010, in this area it increased by 1.5 degrees.
In addition, over the past 30 years there has been a significant an increase in the number of days with a heat wave, and at present, periods of hot weather are estimated to be about 35 days a year, with sub-zero days significantly reduced. At the same time, precipitation has become more intense, and the number of intense weather events associated with precipitation has nearly tripled in the last 20 years.
The number of days with extreme temperatures (above 37°C) has increased significantly since the 1960s, and while rainfall in Greece may have been stable or even increased slightly, it falls on fewer days, meaning more extreme precipitation and an inability of the soil to absorb these volumes of water, having a negative impact on agriculture.
Michalopoulos warned that areas where water is already scarce, such as Eastern Peloponnese and Eastern Crete, will experience even less rain in the coming decades.
Edition ethnos.gr notes that the full results of the Climpact White Paper will be published at the end of 2022. This is not the first nor the last time that scientists warn of the vulnerability of the eastern Mediterranean in general and Greece in particular.
In September 2021, at the EUMed9 climate change and environment summit in the Mediterranean, leaders EU signed Athens Declarationin which they expressed their commitment to the implementation of the Paris Agreement and to reduce the increase in global temperature by 1.5°C relative to pre-industrial levels.
It is worth noting that the supporters of global warming have their opponents. Now many have forgotten the fact of fraud, which was revealed in 2009 after hackers published the correspondence of scientists who, in order to obtain generous funding for their programs, entered into a collusion, which resulted in the publication of a significant (10 times) overestimation of the rate of global warming. How many people remember this fact 13 years later?
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