Heatwave Drying Up Europe's Water Resources

I have previously written at least twenty two entries regarding water and the coming shortages, which if not effectively managed will lead to war over this resource which is now becoming evermore precious due to the heatwave currently hitting many parts of our world. As the report below corroborates, drought and heat which is being caused by climate change is truly making a "planetary emergency", however, people don't seem to be too worked up over this.

Is it because they only see this as freshwater and are ignorant to the fact that it is a FINITE resource, and once it is gone it is gone? Desalinisation won't solve the problem, as it is costly, and would be hard to get water to interior areas of countries landlocked. CONSERVATION of the freshwater resources we have NOW as well as action to mitigate the conditions causing these droughts is what we must see GLOBALLY. As this article also points out for example, 70% of Spain's water is being wasted in irrigation. The EU MUST take URGENT steps to preserve the freshwater left to apportion it and manage it equitably, because should the rains not come in October or not be sufficient there will be an environmental catastrophe taking hold of untold proportions, and that isn't an exaggeration.

In writing about Kenya, I showed a picture of a dead calve who had been emaciated to the bone due to drought and heat. I didn't show the children emaciated to the bone, but they are there too. The people of Kenya risk their LIVES looking for water that is potable enough to drink, and they are losing their lives because of it. If you then think it can't happen in Europe, or in time even here, think again. And make no mistake about it, people WILL KILL FOR WATER. Lack of potable water causes food shortages, disease, and death, and it will cause war. Is this truly the way we wish to see this world go?As my last entry also spoke of, I also believe controlling water resources is one of the reasons for the current Israeli-Hezbollah war, and if you have been following it mention was made yesterday that it may cease once the Israelis reach the Littani River... That is because they are looking to control ALL the sources of water in that region because they know that water is a very precious commodity in the Middle East, and it is then the one way they can control the Palestinians and Lebanese. If they control the water, they can make those who they deem worthy to share it pay dearly for it.

I truly believe if that is one of the reasons why the Israeli government is doing this, that it is absolutely despicable and a human rights abuse. If they truly are withholding water from farmers, denying water to the people supplied by these rivers because of price gouging, and or diverting water to their own source from the Littani, Wazzani, or Jordan Rivers, it is a human rights abuse. Look what they did to the Mediterranean Sea by their bombing that caused 15 million tons of oil to spill into it. You can't even desalinate water that has been poisoned to that extent.

PEOPLE WILL DIE WITHOUT WATER.

However, we will see more of this as the years go by if the issues regarding water scarcity, management, and declaring it a HUMAN RIGHT internationally are not addressed NOW.
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The record temperatures in July have had a dramatic effect on Europe's water resources. Many lakes and rivers are at record lows, aggravating problems already caused by bad water management. The heat wave that has gripped Europe this summer has been breaking records across the continent. In Germany, dramatically high temperatures made this July the second hottest since 1901. A 1911 record for the highest July temperature in Britain was broken when a village in Surrey hit 36.5 degrees Celsius (97.7 degrees Fahrenheit). And the Dutch meteorological institute said this July was the hottest month in the Netherlands since temperatures were first measured in 1706.

Even though it has cooled down somewhat in the past few days, last month was still three-and-a-half degrees warmer than average, said Gerhard Müller-Westermaier, an expert in climate monitoring at Germany's National Meteorology Service. He said that the heat wave is part of global warming. "It fits the picture and it will continue to get warmer," Müller-Westermaier said. "We have had a warming of about 0.8 degrees since the beginning of the 20th century and the forecast says that in the next 100 years, we may have temperatures 1.5 to 5.5 degrees warmer. A summer like this one will become a normal summer."Drought hit agricultural sector hard."

Despite the many summer storms that swept across Germany, the country had less than 70 percent of the average July rainfall. This had a severe impact on the agricultural industry. In the eastern German state of Brandenburg, for example, farmers said their wheat yield was down some 40 to 50 percent. B

ildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:

German farmers feel the heat

According to Müller-Westermaier, more heat required more precipitation. But he said rainfall trends due to global warming have become more difficult to predict. "The models are not very good, but what they say up to now at least for central Europe is that especially in winter we will have more precipitation," Müller-Westermaier said. "In summer, there will be less precipitation. This is, of course, not a good forecast, so perhaps we will have to change our agricultural production in the future."EU needs to wake up to water problemsThe situation is even worse for farmers in the Mediterranean countries of France, Italy and Spain.

In the last year, reservoir levels in Spain have dropped to nearly half of their capacity, which is a clear indicator of drought. Climate change has exacerbated the problems caused by bad water management. Martin Geiger, the head of the Freshwater Program at environmental group WWF, said that in countries like Spain, more than 70 percent of water resources are used in agriculture -- and much of this is wasted. He said the European Union needed to wake up to how precious a resource water is.
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We ALL need to wake up to how precious a resource water is. People in America take it for granted. Fountains, pools, washing SUVs, over watering lawns, and blatantlu and slfishly wasting huge amounts of water daily will only bring us to a tipping point as water levels in rivers continue to go down as heat goes up and the precipitation to replace it is not here due to the climate crisis we face now. WHY is it that so many people don't seem to be able to grasp this concept and continue to go about their lives as if it doesn't effect them? We are reaping the whirlwind, and where it concerns our global water supply, we are playing with fire.