Sicily is in danger of drying up as global temperatures soar, a report on the effects of climate change in Italy revealed Tuesday.
The study, prepared by the Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment (ENEA), showed that 20% of this famously beautiful region is now semi-arid land.
ENEA said the region's humid areas, on the other hand, have fallen to 30% of the total as global warming has hit rainfall levels.
The agency said these indicators suggests desertification is taking hold on the island.
The experts stressed that the risks for the region's agriculture are grave. Soil erosion threatens to make it impossible to grow crops in many parts of the island.
The report said that Sicily is the Italian region that is most exposed to the threat of desertification. But it is not the only one.
Indeed, almost a third of Italian territory is vulnerable to desertification (32%), according to the report, while 3.7% is classified as highly vulnerable.
Other parts of southern Italy and Sardinia are especially at risk.
It is possible to combat desertification with good soil fertilization, tree-planting programmes and the construction of barriers to stop the advance of sand dunes.
But the effectiveness of these efforts will inevitably be undermined by climate change, which United Nations scientists say could cause average temperature to rise by as much as five degrees Celsius this century.
Italy has just had one of its mildest winters on record and the country is bracing itself for a blazing summer.
Global warming is battering southern Italy's biodiversity too, the ENEA report said.
As a result, 357 of Sicilian species are in danger of extinction, it reported. Sardinia has 181 endangered species, Calabria 94, Puglia 84, Basilicata 65 and Campania 64.
On Tuesday Premier Romano Prodi spoke about this problem, which is taking up more and more space on Italy's public agenda.
He called on European governments to act decisively to "put into practise" the climate-change package adopted by the European Union earlier this month. The package included the ambitious target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020.
Europe must "prepare a future that is compatible with the wellbeing of our planet and avoid natural degradation," Prodi said.
Economy Ministry Undersecretary Paolo Cento, however, warned that Italy's recently announced national energy plan to bring down Italy's greenhouse gas emissions needs beefing up.
"In my opinion the plan needs to be revised because it is not up to bringing about the 20% reduction in emissions Europe has asked for," said the Green Party MP.
