S. Portugal Ripe For Desertification - 0.5C Rise In Each Of Last 3 Decades

[hatrack]

LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's south risks turning into a desert as temperatures rise, its coasts will erode and droughts will become more frequent, the country's most complete report on the impact of global warming showed on Monday.

The report, which is the result of a research project that started in 1999, concludes that Portugal will be one of the hardest hit by global warming in Europe in coming decades. "I think the biggest impact is the risk of desertification in the interior of the south," Filipe Duarte Santos, a physics professor who oversaw the project, told Reuters. "...The indication is less rainfall, higher temperatures, more frequent extreme events, such as droughts which will become more frequent."

Freak weather has already hit west Europe's poorest country. Last year Portugal recorded its worst drought since 1931 while this weekend snow fell in Lisbon for the first time in decades. Last year's forest fires destroyed 325,226 hectares (803,600 acres), the second worst in history, according to a government report released on Monday. Portugal's average maximum temperature has risen about 0.5 degree Celsius during each of the past three decades, it said.

The report covered the impact of global warming in Portugal on water resources, agriculture, fisheries, human health, energy and coastal regions. During this century, maximum summer temperatures will rise between three and seven degrees, with a "major increase in the frequency and intensity of heat waves", the report said.

EDIT

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-01-30T184612Z_01_L30620342_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-PORTUGAL.xml

[phantom power]

1. Relative humidity is attempting to equalize.

the water is being driven from the ground.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. And so, the Great Iberian Desert was born ...

"... just before the Great Dying, when Mankind, in his myriad population, did destroy the Earth, and did suffer the reduction of his numbers from Seven Thousand Million to a number one ten-thousandth the count, in the span of years which marketh the childbearing years of a woman."

All we need now is an aging producer in an ape costume (Clint Eastwood?) lecturing a bunch of ape and human children, telling them "Ape Shall Not Kill Ape".

--p!

[Dead_Parrot]

3. Have you been watching

Planet of the Apes again? :D

[Boomer]

4. Typical "silver lining" ending

"Consumers worried about heating bills could take some comfort from the report, although they may find themselves instead spending to power their air conditioners."

There is a bizarre predictability to these Corporate Media reports. When they even bother to report the serious consquences of ongoing climate change, they feel compelled to end with some breezy, superficial "benefit" that will supposedly make us smile and forget all the gloomy details.

As if lowered heating bills are something to cheer about when you're in the middle of a drought and a heat wave. By that same reasoning, Hell itself offers an advantage over Heaven.

Sheesh.

[phantom power]

5. It's all about balance and truthiness.

[hatrack]

6. Yes, truthiness is important for fair-minded journalists

Wouldn't want to appear "partisan", now would we?

:puke: