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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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Deserts in Europe?Deserts, we usually mean by this sand dunes, no life, and especially no water, the ultimate source of life on earth. Geographically we imagine deserts in almost any place on earth, in Africa and Asia, in Americas and Australia. One continent however doesn't fit well with lifeless terrains, Europe. This climatic exception may be over soon. Some parts of Europe are already showing signs of accelerated desertification. After centuries of extensive land exploitation and decades of neck-breaking industrialization it seems the nature is on its way to take from humans what's its own. Which has direct effect on those planning to relocate to some of these areas, after all nobody wants to live in a waterless desert.
Why Europe is so exceptional?Europe is an exceptional climatic place for many reasons. In Northwestern Europe winters are relatively mild; summers are not very hot. Atlantic Ocean brings enough humidity all year long reaching as far in north as Scandinavia and as far in east as Baltic States and Northern Russia. Other continents on similar latitudes have completely different climates; just look at Canada east of Rockies or at most of Siberia. In Europe the humid weather coming from west and northwest prevents dry and cold air coming from the North Pole. Humans have done basically nothing to deserve this exceptionally friendly environment. What they could do is at least not to destroy what they already have. Many signs show that in some areas they don't even care about perpetuating this benevolent state of nature.
Spain and other new European desertsSpain has always been considered as place with special climatic characteristics within Europe. For some, climatically it should belong more to Northern Africa than Europe. For centuries this country has been in the border zone between European type of agriculture and complete desertification. A bit more or less rains could have made a huge difference between affluence and starvation. With the bulk of population moving to cities and being a EU member these natural anomalies don't play anymore any significant role in Spanish daily life. European partners will always compensate for any food shortages in Spain, and rich Spaniards will almost feel no difference on their tables as the Americans or Canadians don't feel any difference whether or not the weather is good or bad in the prairies. What we say regarding Spain in this matter applies equally to some parts of Italy.The situation is very different in Eastern Europe. Climatically it has never been considered as part of Africa or as a Sahara desert appendix; some parts of Eastern Europe however show remarkable climatic connection with some neighboring areas of Asia. A huge area of grassland, the 'steppes', goes from Central Europe up to Mongolia. This grassland was the highway barbarian horsemen used for attacking Europe since times immemorial. Climatically speaking this grassland is in fact a semi-desert. The water is just enough to keep some seasonal forms of vegetation, but not enough to provide good environment for trees. The dividing line between this grassland and European forests in west and north is sharp. This dividing line follows the scope of active precipitations coming from Atlantic Ocean. Some parts of this East European grassland now show signs of accelerated desertification.
Reasons for and consequences of desertificationOutside Turkey, which is predominantly both geographically and climatically outside Europe, several countries in Eastern Europe show signs of accelerated desertification: Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Southern Russia. They all have experienced exhaustive land exploitation during communism. Traditionally communist economic mismanagement in the agriculture has been compensated usually with developing additional acreages.Second, all above-mentioned communist countries without exception have experienced neck-breaking industrialization on a scale unknown even to the most advanced western societies. In Romania and Bulgaria, for example, two thirds of the entire workforce has been occupied in industry by late 1980s. The preferred industry was heavy, meaning lots of fresh water to run the factories and lots of polluted wastewaters to dump the rivers. All above-mentioned countries as well fall into European areas with less precipitations. Unlike Romania and Bulgaria, which are blessed with mountain ranges and thus are able stocking some amounts of water during springtime, Hungary, Moldova and Ukraine depend almost entirely on rivers. The need to divert rivers for industrial use thus not only affects the agriculture, but also affects the land that becomes less fertile. To sum-up, traditionally low level of precipitations, plus water waste for agriculture and different industries all contribute to desertification. Consequences are several and they are all negative for people living in these areas. Fertile lands will become less available, thus the economic pressure over remaining land will increase, thus accelerating even more the process of desertification. People will move permanently off these areas, thus increasing migration pressure within and out of these countries. Urban population, unlike Spain or Italy, will have to import more expensive food from Europe making local workforce more expensive and thus less competitive, which will increase economic problems. Sand deserts, as the example of Sahara desert shows, tend to reproduce themselves in larger quantities. With the wind borderlands become new deserts and now still fertile lands become new borderlands. 
Map of Europe with zones of desertification in red.
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