Europe faces drought and flood burden: climate scientist
AFP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110412/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingipcceurope_20110412175632
GENEVA (AFP) – A leading climate scientist warned Tuesday that Europe should take action over increasing drought and floods, stressing that some climate change trends were clear despite variations in predictions.
“There are some robust areas like Siberia, we know what the climate will be, another robust area is the Mediterranean, because the models tell the same story,” said Zbigniew Kundzewicz, review editor of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) chapter on freshwater resources.
“Climate change will pose two major water challenges in Europe: increasing water stress in southern Europe and increasing floods elsewhere,” he added during a workshop organised by the UN Economic Commission on Europe.
“Current water management practices may be inadequate to reduce adverse impacts of climate change.”
The Polish scientist said southern Europe would be more affected than northern Europe, with evidence already of hotter weather and longer drought leading to water shortages, harm to agriculture, a 20 to 50 percent decrease in hydro-electric power and denser water pollution.
People walk on a platform on the flooded Piazza San Marco (St Mark's square) in Venice in 2009. A leading climate scientist warned Tuesday that Europe should take action over increasing drought and floods, stressing that some climate change trends were clear despite variations in predictions. (AFP/File/Andrea Pattaro)
Although the media has done a great job of covering this up, the inconvenient fact is that all seven glaciers on California’s Mount Shasta are growing. This includes Whitney Glacier, the state’s largest.Yes, growing. Not melting.
Not only are Mt. Shasta’s glaciers growing, two have nearly doubled in size.
