OLIVE PRESS
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Vol. 5 Issue 111
voice in Spain July 30th - August 12th 2021
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Green Special
Heatwave hell ● Sea rises of up to 8mm leaves Valencia, Cadiz and Huelva in danger ● Six annual heatwaves a year now just two in 1970s ● Maximum temperature readings 3C higher than 60 years ago
DOZENS of Spain’s most beautiful beaches could vanish due to rising sea levels. Hundreds of thousands of coastal homes could also be in danger within decades, as a result of climate change. Key cities such as Valencia, Cadiz and Huelva could lose large areas to rising seas, according to the prediction by
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DRYING OUT: Desert spread map and (below) reservoir
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Global warming and huge increase in temperature is putting 75% of Spain at risk of desertification and the loss of dozens of beaches
FULLY-VACCINATED travellers from the EU will be able to avoid quarantining when they arrive in England, the UK government has announced. EU citizens will need to show the COVID-19 Digital certificate proving their vaccination status to be exempt from isolation upon their arrival. The announcement came after a COVID Operations meeting, attended by senior government ministers. Grant Shapps announced the news which will be welcomed by those in Spain who are longing to be reunited with friends and family. Travellers to the UK will still need a negative PCR test before they fly and another the day after their arrival. US citizens with a vaccine card proving their full vaccination will also be exempt. The quarantine exemption only applies to those returning from amber list countries, of which Spain is one, and puts those who have had approved vaccines abroad in the same category as those vaccinated on the NHS. Until now the exemption from quarantine for those arriving from amber list countries only applied to people who were vaccinated in the UK and have an NHS COVID certificate or digital pass. However, there is some speculation that Spain could follow France onto an ‘amber plus’ category which would remove the quarantine exemption and mean travellers had to self-isolate for 10 days. Organisations representing the travel industry have been lobbying the UK government to exempt fully-vaccinated travellers, regardless of where their jabs were administered.
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the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Some parts of the coast could see predicted rises as high as 8mm a year. It comes as it emerged that 19 of the hottest years on record have been this century, claimed the US space agency NASA. The rapid rise of climate change is putting an alarming 75% of the country at the threat of extreme desertification, according to studies. “Spain is high-risk for climate change impacts,” scientist Francisco Blanco Velazquez told the Olive Press this week. “The frequency of heat waves has increased significantly over the last ten years and we need to adapt to this threat because it is a risk for human health,” added
GREEN SPECIAL By Alex Oscar, Cristina Hodgson and Elena Gocmen Rueda
the climatologist. Maximum temperature readings in Malaga are on average 3C higher than they were 60 years ago. According to meteorologists at the University of Malaga, the maximum heat reached on the hottest days in the 1960s was 42.8C, while last year it was 46C. The ongoing study found an average 1.93 heat waves per year in the 1960s and 1970s, while today there is an average of six heatwaves a year. The rise in heat, which causes an increase in ice melting near the poles, is in turn putting the precious coastlines of Spain at risk. Since 1900, global sea levels have risen between 13cm and See page 11 & 16 20cm; while throughout the previous 2,000 years, sea levels essentially didn’t
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change. The rate of the rise is also increasing: between 1900 and 1990 levels rose by around 1.3mm a year. But since 2000, according to the IPCC, the rate has been 3.6mm a year. By the end of the century some estimates suggest a rise of between 29-59cm.
Swamped
To see how the rise could affect where you live or own property, website Climatecentral.org has constructed a map detailing which parts of the world could be below sea level over the next few decades. It indicates that much of the Spanish coastline and especially its bay towns could be devastated by 2100. However, by 2050 large areas of Cadiz, Huelva and parts of Valencia, which are already struggling with rising sea levels, could be swamped. See Heatwaves, droughts and floods, in Green special starting on page 6, 7 and 8