S
Sir Jean-Paul Turcaud
Guest
WORLD FACES WATER CRISIS AS GLOBAL WARMING UPSETS DELICATE BALANCE
Source: Copyright 2006, Sydney Morning Herald
Date: March 3, 2006
Byline: Robert Lee Hotz
THE ice sheets of Antarctica - the world's largest reservoir of fresh
water - are shrinking faster than new snow can fall, scientists have
reported in the first comprehensive survey of the continent.
Researchers at the University of Colorado found that between 2002 and 2005
Antarctica lost its ice at a rate of 150 cubic kilometres a year, rather
than growing from heavier snowfalls as previous research had predicted.
At the same time, Africa's rivers face dramatic disruption that will leave a
quarter of the continent severely short of water by the end of the century,
a separate study has found.
An assessment of climate change on Africa's waterways revealed they are
highly sensitive to shifts in rainfall patterns. Even modest decreases in
rain in parts of Africa will mean rivers lose as much as 80 per cent of
their water, triggering a surge of what the scientists call "water
refugees".
Maarten de Wit, a climate expert at the University of Cape Town who led the
study, said the redrawing of Africa's waterways will pose serious political
problems as people displaced by droughts are forced into other countries to
be near water.
Both studies were published in the journal Science on Thursday. The findings
suggest that a century of steady increases in global temperatures has
altered the seasonal balance of the world's water cycle.
Experts say increasing global temperatures - the 10 warmest years on record
all occurred since 1990 - may be hastening the demise of the polar ice caps,
and estimates of the pace of future sea-level rise could be too low.
By previous calculations, Antarctica's coastal glaciers shed enough
meltwater every year to raise world sea levels by half a centimetre, even as
new snow falling in the interior locked up the same amount in the ice cap.
The result was that sea level remained essentially the same from year to
year.
"A little bit of change in one of these things could throw it all out of
balance and, evidently, that is what is going on," said John Wahr, a
University of Colorado geophysicist.
In the African study, scientists found that in 75 per cent of countries that
received between 400mm and 1000mm of rain a year, shifts in rainfall caused
larger than expected rises or falls in river levels.
In Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, a 10 per cent drop in rainfall is expected to
lead to an 81 per cent drop in fresh water from rivers, a situation expected
to be mirrored in Madagascar, eastern Zambia and Angola.
Originally posted at:
http://smh.com.au/news/world/world-faces-water-crisis-as-global-warming-upsets-delicate-balance/2006/03/03/1141191849854.html
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Brought to you out of concern by :
--
Sir Jean-Paul Turcaud
Australia Mining Pioneer
Founder of the True Geology
Exploration Geologist & Offshore Consultant
Mobile +33 650 171 464
mining_pioneer/at/yahoo.com
http://www.tnet.com.au/~warrigal/grule.html
http://users.indigo.net.au/don/tel/index.html
~~ Ignorance Is The Cosmic Sin, The One Never Forgiven ~~
Source: Copyright 2006, Sydney Morning Herald
Date: March 3, 2006
Byline: Robert Lee Hotz
THE ice sheets of Antarctica - the world's largest reservoir of fresh
water - are shrinking faster than new snow can fall, scientists have
reported in the first comprehensive survey of the continent.
Researchers at the University of Colorado found that between 2002 and 2005
Antarctica lost its ice at a rate of 150 cubic kilometres a year, rather
than growing from heavier snowfalls as previous research had predicted.
At the same time, Africa's rivers face dramatic disruption that will leave a
quarter of the continent severely short of water by the end of the century,
a separate study has found.
An assessment of climate change on Africa's waterways revealed they are
highly sensitive to shifts in rainfall patterns. Even modest decreases in
rain in parts of Africa will mean rivers lose as much as 80 per cent of
their water, triggering a surge of what the scientists call "water
refugees".
Maarten de Wit, a climate expert at the University of Cape Town who led the
study, said the redrawing of Africa's waterways will pose serious political
problems as people displaced by droughts are forced into other countries to
be near water.
Both studies were published in the journal Science on Thursday. The findings
suggest that a century of steady increases in global temperatures has
altered the seasonal balance of the world's water cycle.
Experts say increasing global temperatures - the 10 warmest years on record
all occurred since 1990 - may be hastening the demise of the polar ice caps,
and estimates of the pace of future sea-level rise could be too low.
By previous calculations, Antarctica's coastal glaciers shed enough
meltwater every year to raise world sea levels by half a centimetre, even as
new snow falling in the interior locked up the same amount in the ice cap.
The result was that sea level remained essentially the same from year to
year.
"A little bit of change in one of these things could throw it all out of
balance and, evidently, that is what is going on," said John Wahr, a
University of Colorado geophysicist.
In the African study, scientists found that in 75 per cent of countries that
received between 400mm and 1000mm of rain a year, shifts in rainfall caused
larger than expected rises or falls in river levels.
In Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, a 10 per cent drop in rainfall is expected to
lead to an 81 per cent drop in fresh water from rivers, a situation expected
to be mirrored in Madagascar, eastern Zambia and Angola.
Originally posted at:
http://smh.com.au/news/world/world-faces-water-crisis-as-global-warming-upsets-delicate-balance/2006/03/03/1141191849854.html
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Brought to you out of concern by :
--
Sir Jean-Paul Turcaud
Australia Mining Pioneer
Founder of the True Geology
Exploration Geologist & Offshore Consultant
Mobile +33 650 171 464
mining_pioneer/at/yahoo.com
http://www.tnet.com.au/~warrigal/grule.html
http://users.indigo.net.au/don/tel/index.html
~~ Ignorance Is The Cosmic Sin, The One Never Forgiven ~~