Climate stress and coronavirus gang up on world’s vulnerable
With friends falling ill, another passing away and his movements restricted, coronavirus had already stretched Giordano Alpi physically and mentally when another disaster struck his 30-hectare farm in Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy.
A sudden plunge in night-time temperatures to below zero in late March caused extensive frost, damaging swathes of his fruit trees, including apricots, nectarines and peaches.
“The tendency of these anomalies in the climate is growing,” said the 56-year-old. “We are very worried about these two phenomena,” he said of climate extremes and coronavirus.
The fast-spreading COVID-19 disease has killed more than 13,100 people in Italy, the world’s highest national death toll.
The recent frost damaged 50%-90% of fruit in Emilia-Romagna alone, with Italian agricultural association Confagricoltura estimating losses at 130 million euros ($142 million).
Thin Lei Win and Michael Taylor
