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Heat Wave Has Southern Europe in its Jaws, It's Only Going to Get Worse

Hellenic Red Cross workers distribute bottles of water to visitors outside the Acropolis in Athens on July 13, 2023, as Greece hits high temperatures. (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS / AFP)
Hellenic Red Cross workers distribute bottles of water to visitors outside the Acropolis in Athens on July 13, 2023, as Greece hits high temperatures. (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS / AFP)
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Heat Wave Has Southern Europe in its Jaws, It's Only Going to Get Worse

Hellenic Red Cross workers distribute bottles of water to visitors outside the Acropolis in Athens on July 13, 2023, as Greece hits high temperatures. (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS / AFP)
Hellenic Red Cross workers distribute bottles of water to visitors outside the Acropolis in Athens on July 13, 2023, as Greece hits high temperatures. (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS / AFP)

Tourists in central Athens huddled under mist machines, and zoo animals in Madrid were fed fruit popsicles and chunks of frozen food, as southern Europeans braced for a heat wave Thursday, with a warning of severe conditions coming from the European Union’s space agency.
Emergency measures – including staffing changes, cellphone alerts, and intensified forest fire patrols – were readied or put into effect in several countries as temperatures in parts of Mediterranean Europe were set to reach 45 degrees Celsius (113F) Friday and into the weekend.
In Athens and other Greek cities, working hours were changed for the public sector and many businesses to avoid the midday heat, while air-conditioned areas were opened to the public.
“It’s like being in Africa,” 24-year-old tourist Balint Jolan, from Hungary, told the AP. “It’s not that much hotter than it is currently at home, but yes, it is difficult.”
The high-pressure system, which crossed the Mediterranean from north Africa has been named Cerberus, after the three-headed dog in ancient Greek mythology who guarded the gates to the underworld. It is being tracked by the European Space Agency.
“Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Poland are all facing a major heat wave, with temperatures expected to climb to 48 degrees Celsius on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia – potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe” the agency said Thursday.
In the Arctic, a record high temperature of 28.8 degrees Celsius (83.8 degrees F) was measured at Slettness Fyr on the northern tip of the Norway, Norwegian meteorologists said Thursday. This tops a previous record from July 1964 when the thermometer reached 27.6 degrees Celsius (81.7 degrees F).
The United Nation’s World Meteorological Organization on Monday said global temperatures recorded in early July were among the hottest on record.

The impact of extreme summer heat has been brought into focus by research this week that said as many as 61,000 people may have died in Europe's sweltering heatwaves last summer.

"Heat is a silent killer. So this is the main concern that people's lives are at risk," Reuters quoted climate scientist Hannah Cloke, a professor at England's Reading University, as saying.
"Certainly, we should immediately stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere," Cloke added, warning that some changes to the climate were already locked in.

Animals are also feeling the strain.
Italian farmers' lobby group Coldiretti said milk production was down by around 10% because cows eat less in the heat, drink huge quantities of water and make less milk.

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Landmark Nepal Survey Estimates Nearly 400 Elusive Snow Leopards

A snow leopard walks in its enclosure at the RZSS Highland Wildlife Park near Kincraig Scotland, Britain, February 12, 2016. (Reuters)
A snow leopard walks in its enclosure at the RZSS Highland Wildlife Park near Kincraig Scotland, Britain, February 12, 2016. (Reuters)
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Landmark Nepal Survey Estimates Nearly 400 Elusive Snow Leopards

A snow leopard walks in its enclosure at the RZSS Highland Wildlife Park near Kincraig Scotland, Britain, February 12, 2016. (Reuters)
A snow leopard walks in its enclosure at the RZSS Highland Wildlife Park near Kincraig Scotland, Britain, February 12, 2016. (Reuters)

Nepal's first nationwide survey of the threatened snow leopard estimated nearly 400 of the elusive big cats in the Himalayan nation, wildlife officials said Tuesday.

Habitat loss, climate change and poaching have greatly impacted snow leopard populations across Asia, listed as a "vulnerable" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

But the survey offers a rare shot of hope, confirming numbers lie at the upper end of the previous estimates.

With thick grey fur dotted with dark spots, and large paws that act as natural snow shoes, the species are difficult to spot and quick to hide, making field research challenging.

"This is a historic step in Nepal's snow leopard conservation journey," Haribhadra Acharya, senior ecologist at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, told AFP.

"This is the first time we are getting authentic data with the great effort of researchers," he said.

An estimated total of 397 snow leopards were counted, determined through motion-sensor camera and genetic analysis in seven key areas.

It offers the most comprehensive national estimate of snow leopards -- also known as the "ghosts of mountains" -- previously estimated by the IUCN to be in the range of 301-400.

Snow leopards are the least studied of the big cats globally due to their low population density and remote mountain habitats they inhabit.

"Nepal has only two percent of the size of the snow leopard habitats globally, (yet) we host 10 percent of the total estimated population", Ghana S Gurung, country representative of WWF Nepal, told AFP.

"More importantly, we are the second smallest country in terms of snow leopard habitat size after Bhutan, (but) we hold the fourth largest population," he added.

The Snow Leopard Trust, a US-based conservation group, says the exact total number is not known but that "there may be as few as 3,920 and probably no more than 6,390" across 12 countries in Asia.

Although conservationists have welcomed the new population estimate, many remain concerned about the threats posed by climate change and infrastructure development.

"New road construction, installation of transmission lines, and increased human activity in search of herbs are disrupting snow leopards' habitats in the Himalayas," said Acharya, one of the lead researchers.

Experts say the increasing avalanches in the mountains -- where climate change is exacerbating extremes of weather patterns -- are another threat.

Nepal has been praised worldwide for its efforts to protect wildlife which have helped several species, including tigers and rhinos, to return from the brink of local extinction.

The country's conservation efforts have helped to triple its tiger population to 355 since 2010 and to increase one-horned rhinoceros from around 100 in the 1960s to 752 in 2021.