NICOSIA – Ignoring environmental warning signs means Cyprus’ green will disappear and the island will become a desert in 50 years unless measures to prevent it are put into place, Member of Parliament Christos Orphanides said.

A member of the DIKO centrist-nationalist party, he told a House environment committee that desertification is a “mathematically-proved scenario for Cyprus.”

“Climate change directly affects people’s quality of life and has immeasurable consequences on our health,” he said, the Cyprus Mail reported on the grim prediction and its possibility.

“These are issues which will intensify in the coming years. Reservoirs are ever so depleted, the salinity of our sea water has multiplied and pollution affects our atmosphere in general.”

The panel was talking about dust in the air and pollution and their effects on the environment, health, fertility and more broadly the food chain when he brought up the desert scenario, the report added.

“It is man who is destroying the planet. We all have to listen and wake up if we want to protect the people who will live after us,” Orphanides added.

“Unfortunately, it is not something that we seem to be wanting. Instead of protecting the planet, we are doing the opposite.”