(ORDO NEWS) — In Europe, unbearable heat could be a more difficult test than the upcoming winter. In many countries, extreme temperatures have caused a severe drought – farms are suffering huge losses. How are they trying to save not only people, but the entire European economy from the heat?
Deadly heat
A test of heat for all living things, in Spain there are already more than 2,000 dead. All of Europe has now turned into a real “gas chamber”, the air heated up to a record plus 40. At least fan yourself with a fan, at least wet your cap in water.
There is little that saves from extreme temperatures. In cities, swimming in fountains is officially allowed, beaches and water parks are not overcrowded at all. Although danger may lurk there too – in the UK, thousands of poisonous spider crabs flooded a popular tourist destination in Cornwall due to the heat.
An unprecedented invasion of jellyfish has also been recorded here. You can, of course, simply cool yourself with ice cream, but this is if you are lucky to find a hardy seller behind the counter.
“I have to work, I can’t avoid the heat. It’s 36 degrees here right now. One day is fine, but if it goes on for a week, I need to take breaks, otherwise I just won’t be able to continue,” the salesman Flavius Pikiaka says dejectedly.
How to survive a heat wave
In order to really survive in such conditions, the authorities give recommendations, as during the bombing.
In Berlin, for example, people are offered to go down to the subway and wait out the heat here. It is really cool at the deepest station.
But there are more pleasant life hacks from the Ministry of Health: to visit one of the museums, not only people, but also works of art prefer a comfortable temperature. In galleries, it is always no higher than 20 degrees.
Historic drought in Europe
Bad news for food security. Because of the heat in Europe, there is also a historical drought.
In Italy, according to the Association of Agricultural Producers, the production of corn and animal feed has decreased by 45%, rice by 30%, and fruit harvest by 15%. Almost half of the farms are affected. It is now easier to grow a palm tree here.
“When I designed the first vineyards 20 years ago, I had the opposite problem: I had to push the water out of the vineyards.
Now I have to irrigate both the vineyards and the olive groves if I want to continue to produce high-quality oil,” explains the president of the confederation of Italian farmers Tuscan region Valentino Berni.
And in France, on the contrary, restrictions have been introduced on water consumption both for personal purposes and for the needs of agriculture. The country has an “orange” level of alarm, the energy crisis is intensifying.
French nuclear power plants are working half-heartedly, there is nothing to cool the reactors. Some rivers have become shallow, in others the water has become too warm for this.
Europe kept thinking about how it would spend the winter, but to begin with, the anomalous summer still needs to be experienced.
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