06/11/2013 00:00
TW
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DUE to climatic changes, average temperatures on the mainland of Spain and in the Balearics could end up touching 80 degrees by the year 2075.
Scientist Carlos Duarte, who is heading up a newly-established Majorcan Coastal Investigation team based at the Cap Ses Salines lighthouse on the south of the Island, expressed the view in a study published last week in Science magazine where he emphasised the particular vulnerability of the Spanish mainland and the Mediterranean in general to the effects of climatic change. The fragility of the Iberian Peninsula lies in its being “sandwiched” between the searing heat of the Sahara in North Africa and the rest of Europe which is dominated by an Atlantic climate. He said that if the climatic zones such as they are at the moment undergo a northward shift, the mainland of Spain could end up being dominated by Saharan weather patterns. Speaking more broadly on global climatic changes, Duarte said that in a question of decades, the Earth will suffer irreversible harmful effects from climatic change, triggered for the most part by carbon dioxide emissions. “The quantity of CO2 currently being held in ocean depths around the world is practically half of the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted during the industrial revolution” Duarte added. In the Balearics, October has ended with temperatures registering a degree higher over and above the traditional average. The National Institute of Meteorology has confirmed that it has been a surprisingly dry month with temperatures reaching as high as 27 degrees in Sa Pobla last Sunday, October's hottest day. Nevertheless, certain pockets of the Island including Capdepera and Pollensa experienced intense rainfall. In spite of the scarcity of rain, the Institute said there is no need for alarm as Majorca had a surplus of in September.