massive, droughts and where the populations are already very poor.
We're seeing those dangers, not as potential threats of the future,
but as already clear and present dangers, because the Sahel
has lived through serious droughts in recent years with very serious
consequences for loss of life and for the onset of conflict.
The Mediterranean Basin, which includes the countries of southern Europe
Spain Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, and the
countries of North Africa Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia,
Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean, this is a
region where the climate science tells us that a relatively
dry region that produces some of the,
the world's most beloved products, whether it's
the olive oils or the great wines of this region, could be devastated by drying.
And so, these are three of many regions
that have been identified as facing profound threats.
Mm, and this is not simply in the imagination of the
climatologists or, or even in the traces of their mathematical models.
This is what we're already observing
even with the limited human-induced climate change
that we've experienced now, which could be a small fraction of what's to come.
Have a look at the changes of of, of
rainfall experienced in the Mediterranean Basin over the last century.
The whole Mediterranean Basin has experienced a significant trend of drying.
And the record shows if we continue with business as usual, that it
could experience further dramatic drying with quite devastating consequences
to the economies, to the nature, to
the ecosystems, to food security even in this region.
The evidence from the mathematical models is that
the trends that we've been experiencing till now, for example, the drying in
the Sahel or the drying in the Mediterranean, foreshadow what
would happen if we continue as we're going, but
with consequences far more severe than what we've seen to date.
You're looking now at a map recently produced by a climate science
group that studies the propensity to drought on the planet.
And the map that you're looking at shows you in the red areas,
places likely to experience significant declines of rainfall
and significant increases of drought intensity and frequency.
