Increasingly Early, Rapid Melting Of Snowpack & Glaciers A Problem When Summer Arrives In Force

[hatrack]

VIENNA, April 15 (Reuters) - Glaciers and mountain snow are melting earlier in the year than usual, meaning the water has already gone when millions of people need it during the summer when rainfall is lower, scientists warned on Monday. "This is just a time bomb," said hydrologist Carmen de Jong at a meeting of geoscientists in Vienna.

Those areas most at risk from a lack of water for drinking and agriculture include parts of the Middle East, southern Africa, the United States, South America and the Mediterranean. Rising global temperatures mean the melt water is occurring earlier and faster in the year and the mountains may no longer be able to provide a vital stop gap. "In some areas where the glaciers are small they could be gone in 30 or 50 years time and a very reliable source of water, especially for the summer months, may be gone."

De Jong was referring to parts of the Mediterranean where her research is focussed but she said this threat also applies to the entire Alps region and other global mountain sources.

Daniel Viviroli, from the University of Berne, believes nearly 40 percent of mountainous regions could be at risk, as they provide water to populations which cannot get it elsewhere. He says the earth's sub-tropic zones, which are home to 70 percent of the world's population, are the most vulnerable.

EDIT

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL14573335.html

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. With all the stories about food riots this week,

what will it look like come September, after a dry and barren summer growing season?

The water wars to come will make today's oil wars look like a schoolyard brawl.

[tom_paine]

2. It certainly does appear that way, doesn't it?

We are reduced to praying for a technological deux ex machina to save us.

Which still might happen, though like the other technological deux ex machinas that continue to stave of Malthusian imperatives over the last centuries, it can only have th eeffect of delaying the inevitable (unless humanity can colonize other planets, which seems increasingly unlikely as time goes on, no because it can't be done but because we won't do it and sonn we will lose the capacity to do so).

But overall the chance of such a save is slim, given that we are rapidly pushingthe edge of the population and resource-use envelopes to the point where the environment that sustains us is breaking down.

Yes, in all likelihood you are correct. Hell, it is likely that the Oil Wars and water wars will overlap quite a bit, and shouldn't that be fun!