Take The Weather With You

There has been yet another report about the potential impact of climate change on Mallorca. In some ways, it's old news but the warning it issues bears repeating. Mallorca, and the Balearics, stand to suffer more than most places because of climate change. The Balearics are at 40 degrees latitude, bang on the line for the most dramatic effects of climate change - apparently.  

That there have been previous periods of warming is not a reason to assume that the current cycle is purely natural. That different camps of scientists attack each other across their learned journals is also not a reason to assume that this current cycle is not man-made. The increases in temperatures locally are already quite significant, and for 40 degrees read 40 years as a kind of ball-park for when the real impact may be felt. Some way away of course, but not so far that it doesn't begin to have an immediate effect, not least on the planning of what goes on around the heavily populated coastlines of Mallorca and on the planning of tourism going deep into this current century.

There are three main points of concern - rising sea-levels, extreme heat and ever more dramatic storms akin to the tornadoes that struck the island in October last year. As far as the sea-levels are concerned, things might not be so bad had natural defences not been destroyed. Take somewhere like Can Picafort where much of the resort is built on what used to be dunes. They were there for a purpose, but now they're not. Can Picafort would be inundated with only a relatively small rise in the sea level.

The recent summers have not been exceptionally hot, save for 2003 which was insufferable in most of Europe. But that year could become the norm, or worse. Some people might like 38 degrees on a regular basis, but it is very draining. Bump that up a couple of degrees and you start to get towards danger levels for a lot of people. Sun and warmth may be the stuff of holidays, but extreme heat is not necessarily what the tourist wants.

There is another issue, and that has to do with housing and all the tourist accommodation near to the water's edge. If the sea really does rise significantly, property values are going to be decimated. The land will become almost worthless, as it once was, back in the old days, when much of the coastal regions were sparsely inhabited. Take Can Picafort as an example again. The town basically grew out of the development on cheap land by a Mr. Picafort, a fairly impecunious individual who could not afford somewhere inland in Santa Margalida. No one much wanted the dunes and sand. It was not much good for farming, and so it was worth little. And that, I'm afraid, is what it might become again.

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