Many coastal areas in Greece are at risk form rising sea levels due to climate change and global warning, a leading Greek scientist has warned. The climate change will have direct and indirect impact on Greece, Professor at the Department of Physics at the University of Patras, Athanasios Argyriou, has warned.
Speaking to athensnewsagency, Argyriou said that “because of the extensive coast line many areas are at risk form the rising sea levels that could reach between 0.2 and 2 meters.”
The climate change will decrease rainfall by 5% to 9% and temperatures will rise 3 to 4.5 degrees Celsius, Argyriou added.
Solar radiation and South winds (meltemia) intensity will rise as well, however, he explained that these may have a positive effect in the production of solar and wind energy.
Argyriou urged that necessary measures should be taken in order to protect human life but also properties from extreme weather phenomena. global warming.
On national level, measures should be implemented to limit the effect of climate change. At the same time, Greece should increase political pressure on international organizations so that they implement environmental protection policies.
No worries, Gibraltar strait can be closed off.
Excuse the long post but… I’m triggered! 🙂
There’s an area in the western Peloponnese, beginning approximately at the Alfeios river and heading south, where I expect the sea will move inland by a couple of KILOMETERS this century.
The thing is, this area is *supposed* to be under water. In ancient times the coastline was much more inland than today. In more recent centuries there was a shallow salt-water lake (Agoulinitsa) which connected with the sea. The lake was dried out by the government in the 1960s to create farm land. Now that whole area (including the disused Epitalio airport) is about 3 m below sea level, and the sea has been steadily moving in since the 1980s (taking out illegally built summer homes along the way!).
Part of the problem here is that humans thought they could impose their will on the sea without too much difficulty. Dry out the lake and farmers will become wealthy! Another part of the problem is that companies are dredging the Alfeios river for gravel (for construction purposes), and farmers are siphoning its water without any oversight. These activities are prevention the river from reinforcing the shoreline with new sand deposits.
People in the area have known about these problems for a long time but, as usual, no one does anything. There’s talk of re-creating the lake in one part of the overall area, though I see no movement even on this relatively simple idea.
Up to now the shoreline has been eroding at a rate of tens of meters each winter. But one of these days the sea will reach a critical point and then the entire area will be flooded virtually overnight.
(Off topic: the Meltemi is a northerly wind, not southerly. You got it backwards in the article.)