PENINSULA EUROPE IV

By 2060, scientists expect a 20% decrease in river flows throughout Southern Europe due to climate changes. Combined with increased food demand, which is expected to double by 2050, Europe’s ability to produce its own food could face significant challenges & the probability of civil strife is high. 

Where the forests and grasslands are

The decision is taken to reject the Alpine treeline definition of the high ground, instead locating where rivers begin to define the high ground, discovering that rivers begin mostly at 1200 feet and above. Lifting the shape off of the map, we discover an area of 1.46 million sq. km at the 1200 feet level that if rehabilitated according to the concept of the upward movement of species, will dramatically reduce the impact of the predicted tempera ture rise, flood and drought. 

Movement of Drought

The decision is taken to reject the Alpine treeline definition of the high ground, instead locating where rivers begin to define the high ground, discovering that rivers begin mostly at 1200 feet and above. Lifting the shape off of the map, we discover an area of 1.46 million sq. km at the 1200 feet level that if rehabilitated according to the concept of the upward movement of species, will dramatically reduce the impact of the predicted temperature rise, flood and drought. 

This prediction of drought has the follow associated consequences:

• One third of 2.3 million sq km of farming becomes minimally productive. 

• 1/3 of 340 thousand sq km of meadowlands become minimally productive. 

• Most of the 560,000 sq km of high ground forest succumbs to insects, disease, drought and fire. 

• The outcome to civil society if business as usual practice continues is unfortunate in the extreme. We predict food rationing at best. At the worst, perturbation and collapse of society as we know it. 

A Proposal for transforming the peninsula into a vast water holding landscape

Over more than a thousand years, farming practice on the Peninsula has basically terraformed this land – flattening it, tipping it for drainage and removing wetlands.  We suggest that mediating this crisis will require re-terraforming one million square kilometers to create water-holding landscapes that will turn into a series of oasis-like food production sites centered around a biodiverse wetlands. Around each oasis a new form of circular farming will need to be invented, that accounts for greater availability of water towards the center and far less at the perimeter.  Peninsula Europe IV addresses the question of how to confront and mediate this one million–square kilometer drought, moving from Portugal to Mid-Europe. 

Peninsula Europe IV was initially supported by the EU Cultural Fund and the German Environmental Ministry as well as four museums in three countries.

We suggested a water tax to the E.U. representative who posed the money question of “ how much will it cost and where will money be found?” We suggested that rehabilitating 1.4 million sq. km. would cost well over a trillion dollars to be spent over 50 years. It appears that if water is generated and saved then valued at one euro per cubic meter, then hundreds of millions of cubic meters created would be an economic generator. This would more than cover these costs over a 50-year period. Thereafter the cost would go down and the profit would go up, and a virtuous cycle would be put in place by the processes of rehabilitation.