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WILDFIRES

VIDEO: Sicily set for state of emergency as wildfires blaze

Firefighters on Italy's southern island of Sicily have been battling huge wildfires that have left three elderly people dead. Authorities were expected to declare a state of emergency on Wednesday.

Published: 26 July 2023 11:04 CEST
VIDEO: Sicily set for state of emergency as wildfires blaze
Sicily has been hit by devastating wildfires over the past week, fuelled by extreme temperatures and arid conditions. Illustration photo: Federico SCOPPA / AFP

Sicily’s regional president Renato Schifani said he planned to ask the government ahead of a Wednesday ministers’ meeting to declare a state of emergency for the Mediterranean island.

Firefighters on the island spent a night battling wildfires, one of which got so close to Palermo airport that the facility was shut down for several hours Tuesday morning.

Italy’s Civil Protection Department on Tuesday reported “extensive fires” across the south, saying air support had been requested for nine incidents in Sicily, nine in Calabria and another in Sardinia.

AFP news agency reported that the charred bodies of a couple in their 70s were found in their burnt-out home on the outskirts of Palermo and another woman in her late 80s died in the Palermo province after an ambulance was unable to reach her home due to fires in the area.

Some 120 families were evacuated from their homes nearby and power cuts were reported in many parts of Palermo, according to news agency Ansa.

Fires were still burning on the hills around Palermo on Wednesday, with Canadair planes operating in the skies over the island to try and douse the flames.

Italian firefighters said they battled nearly 1,400 fires between Sunday and Tuesday, including 650 in Sicily and 390 in Calabria.

On Tuesday Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci said: “We are experiencing in Italy one of the most complicated days in recent decades — rainstorms, tornadoes and giant hail in the north, and scorching heat and devastating fires in the centre and south.”

There are growing fears the wildfires will ruin threaten the island’s tourist industry at the height of its busiest period.

“I hope that tourist flows in the areas affected by the fires will not suffer losses,” Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci, a Sicilian, told the La Stampa newspaper. “The risk … is there and it is understandable”.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Extreme’ climate blamed for world’s worst wine harvest in 62 years

World wine production dropped 10 percent last year, the biggest fall in more than six decades, because of "extreme" climate changes, the body that monitors the trade said on Thursday.

Published: 26 April 2024 08:48 CEST
'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

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