The European continent has recently been experiencing more extreme weather conditions. Floods in Central and Eastern Europe in the summer of 2002 were followed by a heat wave and extensive forest fires in southern Europe in the summer of 2003. In December 2003, France was hit by severe flooding. All these events have resulted in difficult social, economic, and environmental consequences. They have led to loss of life and major costs for national budgets. During the same period, there have been a number of earthquakes and several manmade disasters, some of them at sea such as the Prestige oil spill.

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