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Vol. 15 Issue 374
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PIANO MAN
Your expat
voice in Spain July 28th - August 10th 2021
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SECRETS TO THE GRAVE! THE infamous son of a British tycoon who killed a woman in a drink drive incident and stood trial accused of kidnapping a model in Marbella has died. Westley Capper (left), who was facing prison over the disappearance of Latvian Agnese Klavina, 30, had a stroke, reportedly brought on by COVID-19. He died on Monday after being admitted to hospital several days earlier, the Olive Press has learnt. A business acquaintance close to the family confirmed he had died after spending ‘a few days at least’ at a hospital understood to be the Quiron in Marbella. “He had definitely been in hospital for a few
By Dilip Kuner and Jon Clarke
days seriously ill having caught COVID,” the businessman, who is close to the Capper family, told the Olive Press. “We are waiting to see what plans his father and the family are going to make in terms of a possible wake and funeral but we are not bothering his father now,” said the estate agent, who asked not to be named. The 44-year-old - who killed a Bolivian mother-of-four while over the limit on drink and drugs - lived in Benahavis. Capper had been spared jail at trial in 2020 after admitting to the manslaughter of Fati-
ma Dorado (above) in San Pedro, in 2016. But in an earlier case Capper and his friend Craig Porter, 38, were handed suspended sentences of two years and six months respectively on charges of coercion after being cleared of the kidnapping of Klavina (right). Continues on Page 2
Global warming and huge increase in temperature is putting 75% of Spain at risk of desertification and the loss of dozens of beaches DRYING OUT: Desert spread map and (below) reservoir
Green Specia
Heatwave hell
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● Sea rises of up to 8mm leaves Valencia, Cadiz and Huelva in danger ● Six annual heatwaves a year now just two in 1970s ● Maximum temperature readings 3C higher than 60 years ago
DOZENS of Spain’s most beautiful beaches could vanish due to rising sea levels. Hundreds of thousands of coastal homes could also be in danger within decades, as a result of climate
change. Key cities such as Valencia, Cadiz and Huelva could lose large areas to rising seas, according to the prediction by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Some parts of the coast could see predicted rises as high as 8mm a year. It comes as it emerged that 19 of the hottest years on record have been this century, claimed ALL AREAS COVERED the US space agency NASA. The rapid rise of 4G UNLIMITED climate change INTERNET is putting an IDEAL FOR alarming 75% STREAMING TV of the country at the threat of ALSO IPTV, extreme desertiSATELLITE TV fication, according to studies. tel: (0034) 952 763 840 “Spain is highinfo@theskydoctor.com risk for climate www.theskydoctor.com change impacts,”
X
GREEN SPECIAL By Alex Oscar, Cristina Hodgson and Elena Gocmen Rueda
SKY + THE DOCTOR +
Tel: 952 147 834
See page 24
TM
scientist Francisco Blanco Velazquez told the Olive Press this week. “The frequency of heat waves has increased significantly over the last ten years and we need to adapt to this threat because it is a risk for human health,” added the climatologist. Maximum temperature readings in Malaga are on average 3C higher than they were 60 years ago. According to meteorologists at the University of Malaga, the maximum heat reached on the hottest days in the 1960s was 42.8C, while last year it was 46C.
Swamped
The ongoing study found an average 1.93 heat waves per year in the 1960s and 1970s, while today there is an average of six heatwaves a year. The rise in heat, which causes an increase in ice melting near the poles, is in turn putting the precious coastlines of Spain at risk. Since 1900, global sea levels have risen between 13cm and 20cm;
while throughout the previous 2,000 years, sea levels essentially didn’t change. The rate of the rise is also increasing: between 1900 and 1990 levels rose by around 1.3mm a year. But since 2000, according to the IPCC, the rate has been 3.6mm a year. By the end of the century some estimates suggest a rise of between 2959cm. To see how the rise could affect where you live or own property, website Climatecentral.org has constructed a map detailing which parts of the world could be below sea level over the next few decades. It indicates that much of the Spanish coastline and especially its bay towns could be devastated by 2100. However, by 2050 large areas of Cadiz, Huelva and parts of Valencia, which are already struggling with rising sea levels, could be swamped. See Heatwaves, droughts and floods, in Green special starting on page 6, 7 and 9