Droughts, desertification, heatwaves: the climate crisis hits Sicily hard
Sicily is one of Europe’s regions most impacted by global warming. From droughts that devastate local agriculture to punishing heatwaves and more, Euronews travelled around the Italian island to witness first hand what it is like to live on the frontlines of the climate crisis.
“Climate is impacting the life of Sicily very strongly,” says Gerardo Diana, a Sicilian farmer, as he gazes at his fields of wheat and beans, which have been completely decimated by a two-year drought. His pride harvest, blood oranges, is also in serious jeopardy, despite Gerardo’s efforts to pump water from underground or from nearby lakes.
“This is just survival! Unfortunately, with this long summer, we are also scared of the possibility of the plants to die,” he says.
Enduring drought
This persistent drought is just one of the signs of Sicily’s struggle against the climate crisis, that Euronews witnessed while travelling around the Italian island.
Sicily has also been ravaged these past years by wildfires, flash floods and heat waves. In the summer of 2021, the Sicilian town of Syracuse recorded a scorching 48.8° Celsius. It was the highest temperature in European history and, to many, underscored the reality of global warming.
The Mediterranean basin, of which Sicily is the largest island, is warming 20% faster than the global average. This region has already reached the 1.5° Celsius increase in average temperature since the pre-industrial era: the threshold set by the 2015 Paris Climate agreement to mitigate extreme weather events.
According to Christian Mulder, an ecology professor at the University of Catania, this phenomenon could spread to one-third of Sicily’s territory by 2030 and two-thirds by 2050.
Decades of desertification
Further inland, in central Sicily, the once blooming fields around Salvatore Morreale's farm are now arid and showing clear signs of desertification.
But Morreale does not just blame the weather. He also criticises authorities for not having reacted sooner: “When I was in school, there were already talks about the desertification of Sicily. So it's not something that started today or yesterday. Politicians hold some responsibility because they could have thought about it before and tackle the problem.”
His feeling echoes the analysis ofGiuseppe Cirelli, an agricultural hydraulics professor at the University of Catania. His research indicates that some areas of Sicily have experienced a 70% drop in rainfall over the last year compared to the previous twenty years. Despite what he calls an “unprecedented drought”, Cirelli stresses that many of the pipes and systems used to irrigate fields or distribute water to households are old and have not been modernised, resulting in important volumes of water being lost.
Sicilians struggling
Earlier this year, local authorities imposed water restrictions on one million people across nearly 100 municipalities. In the southern city of Gela, Euronews spoke to a family that can only access water every three days. Floriana Callea explained that the water is stored in tanks, but is insufficient for her family’s needs.
“With the other residents of our neighbourhood, we are all exasperated because this situation is truly frustrating and stressful,” she says.
How long Sicily will endure this drought remains uncertain. However, many locals believe their island’s ordeal should serve as a wake-up call for the rest of Europe.
“Some people deny climate change,” said the farmer Gerardo, adding: “I think we cannot deny this anymore.”
Click on the video above to watch Bryan Carter's report in full.
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