by In recent weeks southern Europe has been basking in unseasonably warm conditions, with drought in Italy and Spain, wildfires in Cyprus, and the Acropolis in Athens forced due to unsafe temperatures.
Several Telegraph readers have commented on articles about climate change in the Mediterranean. Some say the climate has changed, but question whether the shifts are man-made or part of a natural cycle. Others question the data, arguing that the weather in Europe has not changed much in recent years. They argue that southern Europe’s climate has always been characterized by hot summers, drought and wildfires.
We interviewed five octogenarians who live in Mediterranean countries to ask for their own personal experiences of climate change in Europe, throughout their lives.
“I fear for my children and their children”
89-year-old Giorgos Milonakis grew up in the mountain village of Ziros, on the Greek island of Crete.
“When I was a boy just after the great war we knew what the seasons would be like. We would harvest our olives in early spring and our grapes in September to make wine and racks.
“We had long dry summers. We could go out and have fun and we knew the rain would come in autumn. Last year it was so hot we didn’t have any grapes and because of the terrible heat and winds we didn’t have many olives or olive oil. As for the rain, some years it doesn’t come at all, or it rains so hard that it melts entire towns into mud and water.
“Obviously, we’ve had bad years before, but I don’t remember it being that bad. We are afraid of fires now. Before that, we would party all summer long and make meat on toes. Now barbecues are not allowed in the hot season and we are careful with fireworks or machines that make sparks.
“But it’s also strange that the nights are often cold now, when the days are so warm – maybe that’s why we have so much wind. We also have these big clouds – I don’t remember that before. They settle on the mountains at night, the mountain seems to be in a piece of cotton.
“When I watch TV, I like! (Mother of God!) – it’s about the weather now: storms, floods, people dying of heat. They say here in Greece that we will be in trouble because of this climate change. Ten years ago I would have laughed, but now sometimes I fear for my children and their children.”
Interview by Heidi Fuller-Love
“Now we see huge hailstones weighing half a kilogram”
Gino Cetrini, aged 92, lives on Lake Orta in the northern Italian Lake District with his wife Elisa, aged 85.
“When I moved to Loch Orta from Le Marche in the 1960s, I remember it raining day and night. In the summer, it would rain; in the spring, it rained; in autumn, it rained; although winters were quite dry, with little snow.
“In 2022 and 2023, however, it seemed to be changing. Last summer, the water level in Lake Maggiore dropped so much that boats could no longer navigate safely – and it was the same on the Po River. The drought was terrible. This year, it’s more like the 1960s, although the weather patterns are more extreme.
“Now we get heavy rain – it’s crazy, with six months to one year of rain falling in two days. And all that water has nowhere to go. Our infrastructure – our bridges, riverbanks – cannot cope. In Emilia-Romagna there were floods again a few days ago. When it rains in torrents like that it’s a real mess. It wasn’t like that 20 years ago.
“Now we also see large hailstones raining down, weighing about half a kilogram. And when it comes to heat waves, Italy now seems to be divided in two. From the north down to Rome, it’s almost fine, but further south of Rome, especially in Sicily, the weather is becoming unbearable – it’s almost desert-like there now. I don’t remember it being like that when I was a kid.”
Interview by Kiki Deere
“It’s always been hot, but we haven’t had these intense heat waves”
In Split, Croatia, retired fisherman Frane Dorić (80) and retired actor Boris Ugrin (85) meet every morning for coffee or a cold beer.
Frane Dorić says: “Climate change is difficult to assess. When we were young we didn’t wear shoes, we walked around barefoot in the summer, and the paving stones were always very hot. It’s different when you’re young. My childhood made me so happy.
“We didn’t have air conditioning or heating. Or refrigerators. That started in the 1960s and at first there were only a few of them. Instead we would keep food ia moškadora box made of a wooden frame covered with fine netting, so that flies could not enter, but air could pass through.
“In the 1950s, in the summer we would transport large blocks of one meter of ice, in boxes, by steamboat to the island of Bra&ccaron. People really liked it, when we got there it was like God had come – they would have a party and give us free beer.
“As a fisherman, I would go out to sea every day at 5-6am, regardless of the weather. In those days we didn’t have weather forecasts. We, especially the fishermen, knew how to predict the weather. There were more fish before, that’s for sure. In the summer, the fish market only worked from 7am to 8am. There were inspectors who would close it when they saw that the fish might not be fresh anymore. We also used to dry fish, hanging outside, for example tab (like cod), and we would salt sardines to preserve them in barrels.
“We’ve always had summer thunderstorms that have caused occasional flooding. But we haven’t had droughts like this before.
“There are three mountains supporting a split. Diocletian [Roman Emperor from 284–305AD] he traveled a lot and had many advisers, and he chose this spot [to build his palace]. The climate is good. It was always hot in the summer, but we get a gentle breeze from the sea, “s more” they call it on the islands, which is cool and refreshing. We used to have more snow here in Split in the winter too – in 1956 it was very deep, around 50cm.
“Are humans causing the heat waves we’re seeing? I believe so. Everything that enters the atmosphere, it is toxic. That’s why richer countries are now moving towards solar and wind power, which is cleaner but still expensive. I myself have thought about getting solar panels for the roof, but they cost about €15,000 (to buy and install) and only lasted about ten years.”
Boris Ugrin says: “I believe the experts. It was always hot, but we didn’t have these intense heat waves, like this year and last summer.
“When I was a kid, we didn’t have air conditioning. Mother would cover us with a wet sheet when we went to bed so we could sleep. The roads were tarmac, not asphalt like we have now, and in the summer when it was hot the tarmac would melt and you would stick to it when you walked.”
Interview by Jane Foster
“Council is getting worried about water supplies”
Brian Chatterton, former agriculture minister, moved from Australia to Umbria in 1990
“I did not intend to be a farmer, but residents of the small town where my wife and I made our home refused to allow us to neglect the olive trees on our property. So we rose to the challenge.
“There has been little change, overall, in the amount of rain. What we have are more extremes. Rain comes at unexpected times. There was one terrible Samhain a few years ago when we couldn’t go out to pick the olives. It often comes down with such force that it disappears rather than soaking into the ground.
“These new weather patterns – along with erosion from farming methods and a dangerous disregard for soil needs – are changing the face of Italy. Sunflowers are a big part of the Italian countryside. But they develop in July and August using the moisture from spring showers that hold the soil. No sweet spring rain, no humidity, no sunflowers.
“Up north, in the Po Valley, climate change is changing the landscape in similar ways. One year the river is so low that the sea is flowing back up the river bed; the following year the Po is overflowing and the banks are being washed away. The large green expanses of rice growing along the river are disappearing. And where do northern Italians get their risotto rice from?
“Average temperatures are also rising year on year. Everyone can feel that. And it looks like we’ll all accept the warmer temperatures as normal. My contacts are telling me that the regional council of Umbria is becoming concerned about domestic water supplies. In what is known as the “green heart of Italy”, water is pumped into homes from aquifers: if these are reduced, storage becomes a concern.”
Interview by Anne Hanley
