• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20 March 20, 2023
Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action March 20, 2023
Window for 1.5°C ‘Rapidly Closing’, IPCC Warns March 20, 2023
Swift Action, Inclusive Resilience Vital in Face of Overlapping Climate Hazards March 20, 2023
Shift from Fossils to Renewables is Quickest, Cheapest Path to Cut Emissions, IPCC Report Shows March 20, 2023
Next
Prev

Extreme Weather Drives 57% Drop in Italy’s Olive Harvest

March 12, 2019
Reading time: 2 minutes

Bj.schoenmakers/Wikimedia Commons

Bj.schoenmakers/Wikimedia Commons

7
SHARES
 

Italy will be depending on olive imports beginning in April, after a 57% drop in this year’s harvest brought about mostly by extreme weather.

“Olive trees across the Mediterranean have been hit by freak events that mirror climate change predictions—erratic rainfalls, early spring frosts, strong winds, and summer droughts,” The Guardian reports. The worst harvest in 25 years prompted thousands of Italian farmers to don orange vests and participate in protests in Rome in early March.

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe

“There are clear observational patterns that point to these types of weather extremes as the main drivers of [reduced] food productivity,” said Prof. Riccardo Valentini, director of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change. “Freezing temperatures in the Mediterranean are anomalous for us. In any direction the extremes are important and, indeed, they are predicted by climate change scenarios.”

Valentini adds that past reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “all point to these climatic extremes as one of the major impacts of climate change.” So “we know there will be more extremes and anomalies in the future.”

“Average temperatures in the Mediterranean have already risen by 1.4°C above pre-industrial levels—compared with a global average of about 1.0°C—and precipitation has fallen by 2.5%,” The Guardian notes. “Olive trees are weakened by these kinds of weather shocks and, even if they recover, are left more vulnerable to outbreaks of the xylella fastidiosa bacterium and olive fly infestations, which have hit farmers in Italy and Greece.”

Valentini said sudden extremes of any kind have a greater impact on the ground than averages. “Three or four days of 40°C temperatures in summer, or 10 days without rain in spring—even two days of freezing temperatures in spring—are more important than the average for the year.”

Italy’s Coldiretti farmers’ union places the cost of this year’s olive oil collapse at €1 billion and rising. “The government promised a solution but it has not given any more resources for the olive farmers,” a spokesperson said, and has “no plan for [addressing] climate change and olive oil production, either.”

The European Commission is projecting olive harvest losses of 20% in Portugal and 42% in Greece, and industry sources say the final tallies for the year could be “significantly worse”, The Guardian states. Spain is currently the continent’s leading olive producer.



in Climate Impacts & Adaptation, Culture, Food Security & Agriculture, UK & Europe

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Prime Minister's Office/flickr
Energy Politics

Biden’s Ottawa Visit Highlights EVs, Clean Grid, Critical Minerals

March 25, 2023
43
EUMETSAT/wikimedia commons
Severe Storms & Flooding

Cyclone Freddy Leaves Over 500 Dead on Africa’s Southeast Coast

March 23, 2023
45
Kern River Valley Fire Info/Facebook
International Agencies & Studies

SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20

March 20, 2023
297

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

IFRC Intl. Federation:Twitter

Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action

March 21, 2023
910
Prime Minister's Office/flickr

Biden’s Ottawa Visit Highlights EVs, Clean Grid, Critical Minerals

March 25, 2023
43
TruckPR/flickr

Opinion: Hydrogen Hype Sabotages Potential to Decarbonize

March 25, 2023
22
Kenuoene/pixabay

Shift from Fossils to Renewables is Quickest, Cheapest Path to Cut Emissions, IPCC Report Shows

March 20, 2023
253
U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement/flickr

Willow Oil Project in Alaska Faces Legal Challenges, Economic Doubts

March 19, 2023
635
U.S. National Transportation Safety Board/flickr

$30.9B Price Tag Makes Trans Mountain Pipeline a ‘Catastrophic Boondoggle’

March 14, 2023
353

Recent Posts

EUMETSAT/wikimedia commons

Cyclone Freddy Leaves Over 500 Dead on Africa’s Southeast Coast

March 23, 2023
45
Kern River Valley Fire Info/Facebook

SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20

March 20, 2023
297
U.S. National Park Service/rawpixel

Window for 1.5°C ‘Rapidly Closing’, IPCC Warns

March 20, 2023
85
FMSC/Flickr

Swift Action, Inclusive Resilience Vital in Face of Overlapping Climate Hazards

March 20, 2023
77
Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine/Wikimedia Commons

IPCC Report Charts a Course for Ottawa’s ‘Clean Technology’ Budget

March 23, 2023
180
Kiara Worth, UNClimateChange/flickr

Gap Between IPCC’s Science, National Actions Sets Challenge for COP 28

March 21, 2023
91
Next Post
https://pixabay.com/en/plastic-bottles-fishing-net-netting-388679/

NREL Develops Upcycling Process for Single-Use Plastics

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}