Create A Forum Installed
And the timing couldn't be worse.
China's #Taiwan region is facing the worst #water #crisis in 56 years. The historic drought is putting pressure on crucial semiconductor manufacturing at a time when global companies are clamoring for chips, and the local authorities are taking criticism for their drought alleviation approach. How serious is it? Will it pose a threat to the global supply of semiconductors? And what are the political ramifications?
A H6 days agoJapan has some a lot of water that they want to dump into Pacific Ocean. China and Korea protest and Taiwan is ok with it. Taiwan can import this Japanese water, Im sure Japan would be happy to share.
The world faces a looming water crisis, and it's getting worse every year. With a number of large cities facing Day Zero, and just a handful of heavily contested water sources providing freshwater for millions of people, the possibility of water wars is very real. In this episode we'll look at the current state of water insecurity and speculate about the future of water-based conflicts, including whether they will replace those fought over oil.
Pakistan is one of 43 countries deemed most at risk from a lack of fresh water. Obaida Hitto has this report on how one Karachi suburb is working to keep the vital resource flowing.#WaterCrisis
Taps have run dry in Monterrey, Mexico, where there is water for factories but not for residents...Drought has drained the three reservoirs that provide about 60% of the water for the regions 5 million residents. Most homes now receive water for only a few hours each morning. And on the citys periphery, many taps have run dry....Many are angry at government officials and also the regions mega-factories, which have largely continued work as usual thanks to federal concessions that allow them to suck water from the strained aquifer via private wells.Experts say the crisis unfolding here is a stark warning for the rest of Mexico as well as the American West....Monterrey sits at the semiarid tail of the Rio Grande basin, which stretches 1,800 miles from the snowcapped Colorado Rockies to the Gulf of Mexico and is fed by tributaries from both sides of the border. The reservoirs behind two of the three dams that serve it are nearly empty....Along with the southwestern United States, nearly 60% of Mexico is in drought. Climatologists say it is linked to the weather event known as La Nia, whose effects are intensifying with climate change...But the fact that the region's biggest factories have seen no cuts to their water supplies doesnt sit well with many...In San Pedro Garza Garcia, a Monterrey suburb that is the wealthiest area in Mexico, some houses have green lawns and brimming swimming pools....Vivienne Bennett, a professor emerita at Cal State San Marcos who wrote a book about a previous water crisis in Monterrey during the 1970s and 1980s, said the industrialists who helped establish the city as a manufacturing powerhouse ensured that factories and wealthy neighborhoods had the best water infrastructure....On the factory floor, she and her friends talked about how it was possible that the plant had water to flush toilets and cool down machines when its workers didn't have enough water at home to prepare beans.The plants in her beloved garden herbs, flowers, a peach tree were drooping a little in the heat. But how could she give them water when she and her family didn't have enough to drink?On her $10-a-day salary, she didn't have money to waste on bottled water. "Sometimes when you're thirsty, you just suck on your own saliva," Diaz said.Im mad, she continued. But I dont know who to be mad at.
Japan regulators approve release of Fukushima water into sea
Studies by scientists around the world show that the water cycle has been intensifying and will continue to intensify as the planet warms. An international climate assessment I coauthored in 2021 for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lays out the details.It documented an increase in both wet extremes, including more intense rainfall over most regions, and dry extremes, including drying in the Mediterranean, southwestern Australia, southwestern South America, South Africa and western North America. It also shows that both wet and dry extremes will continue to increase with future warming.Why is the water cycle intensifying?Water cycles through the environment, moving between the atmosphere, ocean, land and reservoirs of frozen water. It might fall as rain or snow, seep into the ground, run into a waterway, join the ocean, freeze or evaporate back into the atmosphere. Plants also take up water from the ground and release it through transpiration from their leaves. In recent decades, there has been an overall increase in the rates of precipitation and evaporation.A number of factors are intensifying the water cycle, but one of the most important is that warming temperatures raise the upper limit on the amount of moisture in the air. That increases the potential for more rain....Understanding this and other changes in the water cycle is important for more than preparing for disasters. Water is an essential resource for all ecosystems and human societies, and particularly agriculture.What does this mean for the future?An intensifying water cycle means that both wet and dry extremes and the general variability of the water cycle will increase, although not uniformly around the globe....Globally, daily extreme precipitation events will likely intensify by about 7% for every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) that global temperatures rise.Many other important aspects of the water cycle will also change in addition to extremes as global temperatures increase, the report shows, including reductions in mountain glaciers, decreasing duration of seasonal snow cover, earlier snowmelt and contrasting changes in monsoon rains across different regions, which will impact the water resources of billions of people.
Dead fish litter the **** dirt of what was once a pond beside the Trinity River, their bodies mummified by the Texas sun, video shows.
the two biggest water reservoirs in the United States have dwindled to dangerously low levels due to the impacts of climate change.The situation has become so severe that these reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are on the verge of reaching dead pool status the point at which water levels drop so low that downstream flow ceases...The Colorado River system supplies water to more than 40 million people and irrigates about 5.7 million acres of agriculture. The system serves seven states Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada and California as well as Mexico.Scientists have already estimated that Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which are fed by the river, will plunge to 25 percent of their capacity by the end of this year.Meanwhile, only about 10 percent of the Colorado Rivers natural flow, which has been heavily diverted throughout history along its 1,400-mile course, now reaches Mexico.In the long term we need to address the root causes of climate change as well as water demands, Morgado added.The combined impacts of climate change and overconsumption have exacerbated the crisis, as frequent droughts and temperature rises confront an expanding population, the UNEP statement said.While the situation may be dire in the American West, the agency stressed that what is happening in the region is indicative of a wider global trend.Across the world, hundreds of millions of people are impacted by climate change as drought and desertification become the new normal, according to UNEP.We are talking about a 20-year period of drought-like conditions with an ever-increasing demand on water, Bernhardt said. These conditions are alarming, and particularly in the Lake Powell and Lake Mead region, it is the perfect storm.
The Yangtze's middle and lower reaches have faced temperatures in excess of 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) over the past month, with experts blaming climate change-induced variations in the western Pacific subtropical high, a major determinant of summer weather throughout east Asia.With the autumn harvest under threat, the agriculture ministry has deployed 25 teams to key regions to take action to protect crops, the Shanghai government's Guangming Daily newspaper reported.The heatwave is likely to last for another two weeks, making it the longest sustained period of extreme temperatures since records began in 1961, experts with China's National Climate Center told the official Science and Technology Daily on Monday.Rainfall in the Yangtze river drainage area fell about 30% in July and is 60% lower than normal in August, with the river's tributaries "significantly lower" than historical levels, according to the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission.The Poyang lake in central China's Jiangxi province, which plays a major role in regulating Yangtze water flows in the summer, has shrunk to levels normally seen during the winter dry season after a 50% decline in rain in July.Villages relying on water from the lake have been forced to deploy pumps to irrigate rice fields, media reported.
Southwestern China is facing an unprecedented drought amid a monthslong heat wave that is causing the Yangtze River to dry up. The Yangtze River normally supports about a third of the countrys population through hydropower and crop irrigation.
Much of Europe and the Northern Hemisphere is battling either wildfires, low water levels, harvest warnings, water use restrictions or a mixture of all these. In Germany, one core focus of the drought is the Rhine River, which ultimately connects the Alps with the North Sea. Europe's second-longest river after the Danube, it is also a core shipping lane for western Germany. It is still open to freight traffic for now, but already boats are unable to run fully laden. Germany's Federal Institute of Hydrology warned on Thursday that without rain, one notorious shallow point on the river could become completely impassable next week.
Much of Europe has suffered through repeated heat-waves in recent weeks. And that's hit economies hard, whether through reduced river-traffic, dried-up farm fields or destructive wildfires. It's a taste of what warming temperatures could bring the continent in the years ahead. Southern Europe in particular is vulnerable to climate change. A map from the World Wildlife Fund shows the water scarcity risk across Europe over the next 30 years. According to the WWF, the number of Euoropeans living in regions of water scarcity will gradually increase. In Spain, Italy and elsewhere across the Mediterranean, that's a problem.According to the WWF, the number of people living in water-scarce regions in Europe will increase by 50 percent by 2050.The threat of drought is likely to grow, along with its impact. That's bad news for farmers. Here in Germany they are eyeing a poorer harvest than usual. High temperatures and low rain levels are only part of the problem.
The Colorado River is a 1,400-mile, life-sustaining artery for the American West supplying water for seven states while generating hydroelectric power for millions. Experts tell NBC News Steve Patterson that the rivers power is shrinking, thanks to heavy demand, combined with rapid climate change and a decades-long megadrought. Steve gets exclusive access inside the Glen Canyon Dam as the crisis leads to historic water rationing. Levels at Lake Powell and higher water temperatures are changing the ecosystem inside the Grand Canyon.
Home
Search
Login
Register