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The Guardian
Countries across the world will have to dramatically increase investment in dams, pipes and other water infrastructure to avoid widespread flooding, drought and disease even before climate change accelerates these problems, experts have warned.
New York Times
The vast amounts of food lost to spoilage and insects in poor countries, and simply tossed in rich ones, also represent an enormous stream of wasted water, according to a new report that calls for big improvements in a world heading toward 9 billion hungry, thirsty mouths.
The official Xinhua news agency in China says that as many as 8 million people in northern China are short of water due to droughts in that country. Liaoning is experiencing the worst drought in 30 years, and in Mongolia cattle are dying for lack of grass to eat. In southern China torrential rains have killed at least 76 people.
Beijing is known for its poor air quality and occasional dry periods. The summer Olympics takes place there next year.
The Christian Science Monitor
Water shortages are increasingly being experienced throughout the world, while water’s hot-commodity status has snared the attention of big business.
New York Times
The rise in concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from human activities is influencing climate patterns and vegetation across the United States and will significantly disrupt water supplies, agriculture, forestry and ecosystems for decades, a new federal report says.
BusinessGreen
A new study argues that the catastrophic effects of global warming, such as hurricane damage, property losses and increased utility costs, would wipe 3.6 per cent off US GDP by 2100.
The Independent
Barcelona is in the grip of a climate crisis on a scale never seen before in modern-day Europe. And now this parched city is being forced to import supplies from France.
Food shortages, water scarcity, heatwaves, floods and migration of millions of people will occur across Asia as a result of climate change, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN climate panel, said on Tuesday.
Australia faced an “unprecedentedly dangerous” drought and unless rain falls within weeks irrigation will be cut to the nation’s food bowl, Prime Minister John Howard said on Thursday. A contingency plan prepared for the government said unless water catchments across the country received heavy and widespread rainfalls before mid-May, allocations for irrigators and environmental river flows would be stopped.