BRITS FACE HOLS HELL
BRITISH Holidaymakers face travel hell from a mixture of killer heatwaves, airport queue chaos and attacks by anarchists.
Scientists are warning 100,000 Europeans will die each year from searing temperatures, wildfires, storms and floods as the continent hots up. It comes as a deadly heatwave dubbed “Lucifer” makes its way across Europe, with the mercury soaring well above 40C.
And two thirds of Europe’s population will be affected by weather-related disasters by the year 2100 as global warming lays waste to our planet, experts say.
Yearly deaths caused by extreme conditions could soar 50 times from 3,000 between
1981 and 2010 to 152,000 between 2071 and
2100, according to a forecast in the Lancet Planetary Health journal.
A study looked at the impact of the most dangerous climate events – heatwaves, cold snaps, wildfires, droughts, river and coastal floods, plus wind storms in 31 European countries.
Lead scientist Dr Giovanni Forzieri said: “Climate change is one of the biggest global threats to human health of the 21st century and its peril to society will be increasingly connected to weather-driven hazards.” Meanwhile, industrial action at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport, pictured, is set to spark fresh chaos amid already grindingly slow security checks across Europe.
Border control staff have carried out a series of mini hour-long strikes, with more to follow from today, causing queues up to three hours.
Staff will down tools on Sundays, Mondays and Fridays until August 14, when they will go on all-out strike if no agreement with bosses over working conditions is reached.
Families heading for Spain are also at risk from wannabe revolutionaries who are targeting tourists in resorts popular with Brits. Radicals threatened to launch more attacks on Majorca after a terrifying demonstration at a marina-front restaurant.
Catalan anarchist leader Laura Flores, 24, crowed: “We cannot rule out more attacks.”
Plus, Basque separatists are plotting action in San Sebastian, northern Spain, while anti-tourist anger is also rife in Italy.
People travelling within the UK also face a summer of rail hell as month-long works at London’s Waterloo and track upgrades in Manchester and Bristol will trigger overcrowding and queues at stations across the country.