France, Spain Deeply Concerned About Continuing Drought, Climate Shift

[hatrack]

PARIS, Jan 10 (Reuters) - France and Spain are ringing alarm bells over the climate, fearing a repeat of last year's drought that sparked deadly forest fires, costly crop failures and widespread water rationing in southern Europe. France's environment minister has said three dry years in a row have left the country facing possibly record water shortages this year. "This could be a very difficult year, and perhaps a record in terms of drought," Nelly Olin said.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) says water shortages and soaring temperatures in southern Europe are becoming the norm, and its climate models suggest much of the continent may start to become drier as deserts advance. "Across Europe, climate change already appears to be impacting many sectors of society," the EEA said in its latest outlook report. "Higher temperatures and more intense droughts are producing a rising trend in the number and severity of forest fires in the Mediterranean," it added.

EDIT

Olin said France's water table was now seriously low after a heatwave in 2003 that killed thousands of people, a dry 2004/05 winter and low rainfall for much of last year. Autumn 2005 rainfall was 50 percent of the average in some parts of the country. "Even if it rains heavily in the next two and a half months, the water table will not be fully replenished," she said. France imposed water rationing across the country in 2005, slapping irrigation curbs on farmers and hosepipe bans on the public. Olin said even harsher curbs would be enforced this summer if water levels remained unchanged by the end of March.

EDIT

http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=nL0959967

[brokensymmetry]

1. I don't blame them...

I'm becoming frightened, too...

I live in Texas, and this past January has been like no other. We've gotten into the eighties - right now, it's 64. Some are, no doubt, jealous - but we've only had a half inch of rain in the past 6 months. We're below normal for 2005 by 16 inches. What happens when a city of a million people runs out of water? I hope I don't find out!

I suspect climate change is going to be a very big, very dangerous problem.

[NMDemDist2]

3. we haven't had any rain in PHX for 8 months

we normally get two "rainy" seasons a year but this summer? bupkus

and here it is Jan and we haven't gotten any rain from California storms yet

:scared:

[phantom power]

5. Or snow. That's really gonna leave a mark come spring.

[Odin2005]

4. This is the warmest winter I rember.

It's unreal.

[Grover_Cleveland]

9. Over in Ashkelon, Israel......

.... they just opened up a new desalination plant. It set two world records.

First, at 320,000 cubic meters of water per day, it's the world's biggest.

Secondly, at only 53 cents per cubic meter, it's also the world's cheapest. That's about 1/5 penny per gallon.

This particular plant has its own 80 MW gas power plant.

There's no reason why Texas couldn't open a much larger plant with its own 1,000 MW nuclear power plant. Or 10 such plants.

Here's one article on it:

http://www.ejpress.org/article/4873

Here's another article:

http://www.water-technology.net/projects/israel

And here are the technical specifications:

http://www.water-technology.net/projects/israel/specs.html

The plant was designed and built by a French company.

[philb]

12. It already is having huge effects

http://www.flcv.com/green.html

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Oh, those cheese-eating, climate-surrender monkeys!

Real men don't fret about the climate, they stand up to it and spit in its eye. Then they climb onto their hoss and clippity clop away in search of varmints.

[philb]

6. Oklahoma is also very concerned about continuing drought, fires,etc.

[amandabeech]

7. Crop failures causing rising food prices may be the only thing

that gets people in the U.S. concerned about global warming, er, climate change.

In addition to the drought in the southwest, the drought in northern Illinois and surrounding areas continues. This is real corn and soybeans country that ordinarily receives sufficient precipitation to produce good crops without irrigation. This year other regions produced bumper crops of corn and prices are low, but future years may not be so good.

Admittedly, the U.S. probably still has enough purchasing power to import food from elsewhere, but what if everyone, including the Chinese, the Indians and the southern Europeans, are trying to do the same?

The belly may be even more important to Americans than the fuel tank.

[NNadir]

8. In the words of Frank Zappa and some others...

... "It can't happen here."

[Grover_Cleveland]

10. Most of that corn and soybean is fed to livestock.

If everyone became a vegetarian the earth could feed many times its present population.

[amandabeech]

13. What you say is true.

But it will take very, very serious problems to get to that, I think.

[Pooka Fey]

11. I have a good friend who lives in France

The last 2 winters in France have been extraordinarily cold - he lives near the Southern border, and it's even very cold there where the winter is normally mild. In his opinion and the opinion of other French people that I know, there is no question that the slowdown of the North Atlantic current is at this moment producing colder winters in Europe.

Meanwhile here in the desert Southwest, this winter has been so hot I could spit. We used to get 5 months (Oct-Feb) of cool (high 60's) daytime temps, and then a lovely Spring of temps in the 70's for 2 months, which was enough time to prepare for the 5 months of the furnace which is our summers.

October has remained hot (over 100) for the last 3 years, when it used to mark the beginning of the cool temps; and 2 years ago it started warming up to late Spring temps in mid-February with no transitional period. One day it was 63 and people were wearing coats (hey your blood thins down here :P); then the next day it was in the high 80's and everyone was back in shorts. The mild but cool winters are about the only thing Phoenix has going for it because the summers are just devastating - now they are lasting 7 months instead of 5.

This year so far we have had only about 3 weeks of cool temps, back in early December, and not one drop of rain. I almost had to turn on the A/C one day this month and I was pretty unhappy about that.

Edit-memory error

[Boomer]

14. Bearable with AC, but happens when....

Bearable with AC, but happens when rising energy prices escalate the cost of AC beyond the average poor or working-class or even middle-class family? (And make no mistake, as oil moves from the cheap, easily-accessible left side of the Peak Oil graph to the expensive, labor-intensive side of the graph, prices *will* rise.)

How many people will be able to survive those summers? How many poor and elderly will die (as they did in France) and how many will simply be forced to migrate to relatively milder areas of the country.

"Milder" areas in terms of temperature, of course, but areas which are being regularly assaulted with hurricanes, tornados, floods, and mud slides.

Between hurricanes, drought, wild fires, and flooding, we could see millions of Americans permanently displaced and scrambling to survive financially, much less jockeying for some space in which to live.

[phantom power]

15. I expect that the phrase "climate refugees" will be big...

once things really get rocking. The former inhabitants of New Orleans will probably be considered to be the first climate refugees of the 21st century, in retrospect. For the United States, anyway.

As for Phoenix, I would guess that the population of the valley would be at most 1/10 what it is today, without AC. The high country is a different story, with a temperate climate. Water is a whole other story. It's possible to live thru a Phoenix summer with out AC (although almost nobody would put up with it), but water is not optional.