“The Spanish Environment Ministry estimates that one-third of the county is at risk of turning into desert from a combination of climate change and poor land use. Still, national officials visibly stiffen when asked about the "Africanization" of Spain’s climate – a term now common among scientists.”
The above quote comes from a must-read article in the New York times. It is the first time I have heard the term "Africanization" applied to the future of the country’s climate, and it does not paint an optimistic picture.
Temperatures are rising, but as the article points out, in areas such as Murcia this also has a lot to do with water management, or mis-management perhaps, where the endless new golf courses are concerned. But then grass, when grown for golf courses, is said to be the most profitable crop on the planet, bringing in top tourist dollar (or euros) for local communities.
One thing is for sure, Marina and I often still dream of moving to the coast one day, but whereas we used to think about setting up long-term in Andalusia, we now think very seriously about making that investment in the north, just in case the worst-case "Africanization" scenarios come true in the next 20 to 30 years. After all, who wants to end up living in a desert?
@Lenox
If there was always enough water, what did they build the desalination plant for?
John, por supuesto que los lectores del NYT no tienen por qué conocer la historia de España, pero creo que no hace falta ser un genio en geografía para saber que la lluvia en los paises mediterráneos sigue patrones irregulares. Ha sido asi desde el principio de la historia, lo que ha cambiado es el uso que los humanos hacemos del agua. Esto es lo que el NYT deberia haber explicado a sus lectores, en mi opinion, Lo siento, pero me parece que el NYT ha hecho en este caso mal periodismo, no me gusta el articulo, lo siento mucho.
Es que el tema no es el cambio climatico, insisto, el tema es el desarrollo insostenible. El NYT pone el acento en el cambio climatico, como si ese fuera el origen de los problemas del sureste de España. Y eso no es cierto. Es falso.
@ Ben,
Marc is right – this picture could have been taken in central Mexico, somewhere in the tequila heartland.
Personally, I love deserts, but I agree the trend is worrying.
To say that the difference between “then” and “now” is only one of the use humans make of water overlooks the pressure of population growth as well as climate change – no-one could say that the problems are caused only one of these factors. The consequences, though are not going to be caused so evenhandedly – if an aquifer dries up because of overexploitation, it can be replenished, though it may take half a century. Desertification is not as easily reversible, and desertification is not caused by golf courses or misuse of resources, it’s a result of higher temperatures and lower rainfall, almost by definition (I was taught that a desert was somewhere with less than 10″ of rain a year, though I know definitions are more complex nowadays). Golf courses don’t cause desertification, they are a barrier against it, it’s one of the few things to be said in their favour in that part of the world. This Africanization we are talking about is climate change including desertification exacerbated by misuse of resources. The unspeficied “problems” you want to talk about may be related with misuse of resources, but frankly that doesn’t really interest me all that much, personally, it’s important to politicians and farmers and those immediately affected, i.e., it’s a short-term thing, petty compared with climate change, and I want a larger picture. The NYT publishes articles which I like and you don’t? Oh dear.
Why did they build the desalination plant in Carboneras?
I think for the plastic farms which have made Nijar and Campo Hermoso so unattractive.
The Americans built the first local desalination plant in Palomares in 1968 after the H-bombs accident there in January 1966. An American engineer became ‘plant manager’ but soon gave up and opened a beach-bar in Mojácar. He had a bottle of water behind the bar and ued to joke ‘ya see that boddle? That cost Uncle Sam thirdy million dollars!’.
The Palomares plant was indeed never in operation and for a while the Americans sent money over to some sharpie in Barcelona to keep it going – until word reached them that it had been bulldozed down.
We have another plant in operation in the same area (Villaricos) which – rather than taking sea-water through its filters – cleans and uses an underground water-course.
In all the time I’ve lived here – we have never had water shortages.
@ Ray: 20 minutos is an editorial rag which tries to pass for journalism in Spain. It’s credibility is quite questionable as it has the tendency to print biased stories based more on opinion than fact. Their demographic target seems to be the lowest common denominator.
@ faemino: da la impresión de que te molesta cualquier mínima crítica a cualquier cosa que tenga algo que ver con España, nuestro amado pais. No tengas la piel tan fina, acostúmbrate, que como decimos en los EEUU, "if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchenâ€. Espero que no me llames anti-español por no estar de acuerdo con 20 minutos. Si sabrias algo de NYT, ni pensarias que seria posible que escriban un articulo sin haber hecho bastante investigacion para tener suficiente informacion necesario para resultar con periodismo responsable.
Valencia Son, tienes razón, es imposible que el NYT haga mal periodismo, son infalibles, es más, son americanos, lo cual es mejor aún. Perdón por opinar y por existir, y perdón por saber tan poco del NYT, el único periódico de la Galaxia que nunca se equivoca ni hace jamás un mal articulo.
20 Minutos es una basurilla, todo el mundo lo sabe, incluso ellos mismos. Si te interesa la prensa española seria, cosa que dudo, hay otros muchos periodicos para elegir.
I re-read the NYT article and in my opinion, it’s very balanced; it also mentions several causes for the current water crisis.
Says here: ‘Southern Spain has long been plagued by cyclical droughts, but the current crisis, scientists say, probably reflects a more permanent climate change brought on by global warming.’
I know that Spain lost most of its deciduous forests during the 16th and 17th centuries as a result of massive demand from the shipping industry. And yes, many parts of Spain became semi-deserts because of this.
But global warming is also a fact which cannot be denied. The current water crisis is also a global phenomenon, and it shouldn’t surprise us that (semi)arid regions are among the hardest hit. It goed without saying, too, that water shortages are exacerbated by poor water management, whether it’s in Spain, in California or elsewhere.
You might be interested in the following link, I think the gist of the article is that Spain’s coastal properties are threatened by global warming:
http://www.greenpeace.org/espana/news/greenpeace-muestra-en-el-libro
Quite some interesting photos here:
http://www.greenpeace.org/espana/photosvideos/slideshows/photoclima
I guess desertification is not the only problem southern Spain has to worry about.
Cheers