The Mediterranean rains: Experts at COP29 knock on the alarm – “Heals faster than the rest of the planet”

Drying, violent rainfall, rising sea level and pollution will increasingly affect its basin, which is heated 20% faster than the rest of the world, according to two experts in this year’s survey. On this point, the experts Piero Leonello, from the University of Saledo, and the climate and rural development consultant Abdel Montem, presented two reports, for which they coordinated the contributions of fifty-five scientists from seventeen countries, following an invitation from the Union for the Mediterranean, namely the European Union Conference with 16 Mediterranean basin countries. Referring to the main conclusions of these two reports, the French newspaper Le Monde emphasises that they are striking the alarm of the danger to the Mediterranean basin, and the 540 million people in its region, noting that if there is no reduction in the so-called greenhouse gases, capable of reducing the average increase in temperature over the next two decades, then I considered extreme weather phenomena, such as the recent ‘apocalyptic rainfall’ in the Valencia region of Spain, will become increasingly dense. At the same time, the two experts envisage that key infrastructure projects in the European Mediterranean will be threatened by floods. The two scientists are also talking about general environmental deterioration in the Mediterranean basin by pointing out that due to the increase in temperature there will be widespread droughts and a reduction in freshwater reserves. They also refer to plastic waste by noting that it is 100% of floaters and 50% of submerged. They also note that during the last two decades heat has increased in the Mediterranean by 40% and that 15% has been long lasting. Something that results, among other things, in the death of corals, sponges, molluscs, echinoderms, etc., but also in the proliferation of jellyfish. Finally, the impact on agricultural production, where there are already problems in olives, grapes, cereals, fruit and vegetables. Something, as the two scientists say, will also have an impact on the food security of the inhabitants of the Mediterranean.