Flooded Greek lake a warning to European farmers battling climate change

Sitting in a small motorboat, farmer Babis Evangelinos glides over land he once cultivated on the Thessaly plain in central Greece, the nearby trunks of his fruitless almond trees submerged by floodwater.

His small plot, near Lake Karla, is among tens of thousands of acres of cotton fields, almond trees and grazing lands that were wiped out by unprecedented flooding last year in one of Greece's key breadbaskets.

Five months on, much of the area - and a lot of expensive equipment - remain underwater. A pumping station meant to stop flooding is marooned in a shallow lake. Pelicans and herons, previously uninterested in the once dry plain, swoop overhead.

"I could never have imagined I would have to board a boat to get to see my land," said Evangelinos as he drifted by his sodden trees. "Work of a lifetime ruined, gone in three, four days of rain."

The...