The Mediterranean might soon no longer be the ideal for swimming and relaxing. In the spring of 2025, the water in some coastal areas exceeded the air temperature.

“This is new”, says Michael Wickham, who has written and taught in Spain about climate issues for many years.

As we explained in this first article, the radical changes in the Mare Nostrum have led to more and more 'torrid or equatorial nights' (those in which the minimum temperature does not fall below 25ºC), a growing loss of biodiversity and to devastating floods such as those in Valencia last autumn. 

And yet, the scientific data and patterns that repeat themselves summer after summer in Europe do not seem to elicit much of a reaction from many of us who live on the Mediterranean coast, beyond a few resigned complaints about how “it looks like this summer will be even worse than the last”.

The reality does not belie the mood on the street. “Longer and warmer summers with unpleasant humid air in coastal areas” will be the norm, explains Wickham. The “increasing number and length of heat waves” will specifically affect “outdoor workers, local authority workers on roads and public services, and those in the building industry”.

But people's daily lives will be affected in many other ways too. “Greater incidence of dehydration and mosquito bites, the effect on viruses, water shortages” are just a few examples. Doctors expect new diseases and the worsening of existing conditions in many people.

The rising water temperatures will also impact on families' pockets. An “increased use of electricity for air conditioning” not only means higher bills, but also more “power outages” in Southern Europe.

A real threat to tourism and the life of locals

Also the Mediterranean's great appeal to tourists from all over the world could be eroded.

Wickham points to a “decline in demand for high season tourism on the coast” as “already now people are looking for climate refuge areas such as hill areas inland and cooler coastal regions”.

In Spain, data point to a strong rise in holiday bookings in northern areas of the Atlantic such as Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria.

Gianluca Piccirillo, from Italy, also sees more people “planning their holidays to more distant (and more expensive) places perceived as cooler”.

Purchasing air conditioners for every house will be deemed “indispensable”, but the “byproduct will be that external temperatures will rise even further”.

This whole “vicious circle” of warming could have a major impact on “the house, which has a high cultural significance in Italy”, explains Piccirillo. When one's own home “is no longer deemed one's safe and resting place, since it is more at risk of flooding, landslides, fires, etc”.

Christian faith in the face of the sustainability crisis

Asked about his evangelical faith and whether it has anything to say about the climate crisis in the Mediterranean, Gianluca Piccirillo, who, like Wickham in Spain, is part of networks for dialogue on faith and the environment, says there ae many connections.

“Science, however useful and helpful, only describes reality (or at least tries to), and even in identifying mankind's role (claiming it's a human-induced climate change) it completely misses the root cause”, he reasons. “Also, it shares many hopeful solutions but completely misses the true hope for a long-lasting solution”.

Furthermore, he adds, “if climate change is indeed human-induced, then it is a problem of the human heart, and more efficient technology will not make us less hungry, less energy-intensive, less consumerist or less selfish: only the gospel of Jesus can produce the necessary sobriety to be able to counteract the consumerist and selfish drive that has caused the abuse of creation that has contributed to the current climate change crisis”.

Neither apathy nor anxiety: a gospel approach

Michael Wickham is convinced that a solid Christian worldview helps us not to lose touch with reality.

“We need to avoid on the one hand the extremes of panic and extreme anxiety, increasingly evident in our society, and on the other the other extreme of inaction due to apathy, self-interest, disbelief or ignorance”.

One of the key teachings in the Bible is that “God is in control of His world. The Bible indicates a more responsible relationship with the world and its resources: to administer God’s earth and its resources responsibly, showing compassion for those who suffer the effects of man’s ravenous consumption of resources for personal enrichment and comfort”.

Read the first article of this series on high temperatures in the Mediterranean. A third part with more theological issues will be published soon.