southern europe

Food, timber, and climate change

October 1, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The sights of coffee plantations in California and vineyards in Britain are becoming more common as the climate changes. But behind what sounds like a success story is a sobering one: climate change is shifting the regions suitable for growing food all around the world.

According to a new study by researchers from the University of Cambridge, as crop growing shifts northwards, a squeeze will be put on the land needed to produce timber. The timber these trees produce is used to make everything from paper and cardboard to furniture and buildings.

According to the study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change, more than 25% of existing forestry land – an area equivalent in size to India – will become more suitable for agriculture by the end of the century if climate change continues unabated. Approximately 90% of this current forestry land is located in Canada, China, Russia, and the United States.

Global timber production is worth more than $1.5 trillion every year. Recent heat waves and wildfires have caused huge losses of timber forests around the world.

According to the World Bank, the value of the global food system is estimated to be roughly $8 trillion annually. Scientists expect climate change to cause some areas to become too hot for growing food, particularly in the tropics and southern Europe.

With the global demand for food and the global demand for wood both projected to double by 2050, the increasing climate change-driven competition between the two is set to be an emerging issue in the coming decades.

**********

Web Links

Global timber supply threatened as climate change pushes cropland northwards

Do the costs of the global food system outweigh its monetary value?

Photo, posted October 24, 2018, courtesy of Bill Smith via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Olive oil and climate change

June 18, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained by mashing whole olives and extracting the oil. A superfood staple of the Mediterranean diet, olive oil is used in kitchens around the world for frying, sauteing, baking, and as a condiment. It can also be widely found in cosmetics, soaps, and pharmaceutical products.

Globally, 2.6 million tons of olive oil were consumed last year. Spain is currently the world’s largest producer of this “liquid gold,” accounting for 44% of global production. The second largest producer of olive oil is Italy, followed by Greece, Tunisia, Turkey, and Morocco.

But recently, the price of olive oil has been rocketing up. Droughts, wildfires, floods, and heat waves, combined with pests, have punished olive-producing regions around the world. The climate-fueled extreme weather has significantly impacted olive oil production in southern Europe. Olive trees are exceedingly vulnerable to climate change.

Spain, for example, typically produces somewhere between 1.3 to 1.5 million metric tons of olive oil each harvest. However, officials expect a production range of only 830,000 to 850,000 metric tons this season.

This shortage has sent prices soaring. According to the International Monetary Fund, the average price of olive oil has doubled over the past two years. In fact, the price is currently hovering at or around $10,000 per metric ton. And there doesn’t seem to be much relief in sight.

The record-breaking price has also unsurprisingly fueled a surge in crime, with criminals targeting supermarkets, oil mills, and olive groves.

The changing climate continues to threaten food security around the world.

**********

Web Links

‘Liquid gold’: An olive oil shortage is fueling record prices and food insecurity fears

Extra virgin olive oil prices tipped to top £16 a litre next month

Photo, posted October 29, 2015, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Phoenix Is Frying | Earth Wise

August 15, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The mythical Phoenix is a bird that repeatedly dies in a fire of its own making. During July, the five million inhabitants of greater Phoenix Arizona may have felt like they were reliving that myth as multiple temperature records were shattered in a massive heatwave.

On June 30, the high temperature in Phoenix was 110 degrees. From then on, the daily highs were relentlessly at or above 110 degrees, topping out at 119 on July 20. The previous record for consecutive days at or above 110 was 18 set in June 1974. The streak continued all the way until July 31, when incoming desert monsoons resulted in the high temperature dropping to 107 degrees – ending the streak at 31 days. Along the way, there were 16 days with temperatures at or above 115 degrees.

During the month, there were 17 consecutive days when the lowest temperature in Phoenix was at least 90 degrees. The previous record for that was 7 days, set in 2020. Because of these lofty low temperatures, July was also the hottest month in terms of average temperature with a reading well above 102 degrees. It was the first time that the average temperature has ever been in three digits. The previous record was 99.1 degrees in 2020.

Phoenix is an extreme case, but it was not alone in having a hot July. Globally, it was the hottest July on record that included major heat waves in the U.S., Mexico, China, southern Europe, and elsewhere. The daily record for the hottest average temperature on Earth ever measured was also broken several times during the month.

**********

Web Links

Phoenix heat wave is shattering temperature records

Photo, posted September 22, 2022, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Solar Parking Lots In France | Earth Wise

January 6, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

France has passed legislation that will require all parking lots with more than 80 spaces to be covered over by solar panels. This is part of a broader effort to put solar panels on vacant lots, empty land alongside roadways and train tracks, and even some farmland. The overall program would add 11 gigawatts of solar power to the French electricity grid.

The legislation applies to both new and existing parking lots. Owners of parking lots with more than 400 spaces would have 3 years to comply, while owners of lots with 80 to 400 spaces would have five years.

To produce 11 gigawatts of solar output, about half a percent of France’s urban land would need to be covered with solar panels. This is quite a bit, but not an insurmountable obstacle. Parking lots, however, could only provide a fraction of what is needed. It would take something like 8 million parking spaces covered with solar panels to produce that much power. That is probably at least twice as many as France has.

Several countries, most notably Germany, already have mandates for new construction to incorporate renewable energy. This includes solar panels, biomass boilers, heat pumps, and wind turbines. Many parking lots in southern Europe already have sunshades over them, which would make it pretty easy to install solar panels. This is much rarer in cooler countries.

France is pursuing this policy to reduce its dependence on nuclear power, which currently provides 70% of the country’s electricity. Apart from the general trend of opposition to nuclear power, reliance upon it during increasingly common droughts is problematic as the power plants require significant amounts of water to operate.

**********

Web Links

France’s plan for solar panels on all car parks is just the start of an urban renewable revolution

Photo, posted February 11, 2008, courtesy of Armando Jimenez / U.S. Army Environmental Command via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Europe Is Warming Faster Than The Rest Of The Planet | Earth Wise

January 3, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A new study by researchers at Stockholm University has found that the warming during the summer months in Europe has been much faster than the global average. The findings, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, are that the climate across the European continent has become drier, particularly in southern Europe, leading to worse heat waves and an increased risk of fires.

Warming over land areas occurs much faster than over oceans. The global average warming to date is 1.6 degrees Celsius over land and 0.9 degrees over oceans. This means that the global emissions budget to keep warming below 1.5 degrees has already been used up over land. The new study in fact shows that the emissions budget to avoid 2 degrees of warming has already been exceeded over large parts of Europe during the summer half-year (April to September).

This accelerated warming in Europe has led to more frequent heat waves. These, in turn, increase the risk of fires, such as the devastating fires in southern Europe this past summer.

Southern Europe has been experiencing a positive feedback situation in which the ongoing warming has been amplified because of drier soil and decreased evaporation. Added to that, there has been less cloud coverage over large parts of Europe, probably as a result of less water vapor in the air.

The study also looked at the impact of aerosol particles on temperatures in Europe. As the amount of relatively short-lived aerosol particles has decreased with the reduction of coal-fired power plants, the temporary cooling effects of those particles partially masking the underlying warming trend have diminished. In contrast, carbon dioxide emissions stay in the atmosphere for centuries.

**********

Web Links

Large parts of Europe are warming twice as fast as the planet on average

Photo, posted April 18, 2020, courtesy of Roman Ranniew via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio