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This article is important to us because the Maritimes could be
particularty affected by the release of toxins from glacial melt. This
even one more reason we need to take action now --- AS IF OUR LIVES and
OUR ENVIRONMENT DEPEND ON IT!
I have shortened the original article some to make Paul happier.
David Wimberly
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03:09 PM ET 10/27/98
Scientists warn of impending global water crisis
BRUSSELS, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Two prize winning scientists
warned on Tuesday that world leaders would have to address
highly sensitive political issues in the coming 30 years to
avoid bloody wars over scarce water resources.
Malin Falkenmark and David Schindler, who were awarded the
1998 Volvo Environment Prize on Tuesday, warned of looming
freshwater shortages as population growth increased pressure on
supplies that were dwindling because of wastage and pollution.
<snip>
Schindler, professor at Canada's Alberta university, warned
that although the use of persistent organic pollutants like
chlorine based pesticides and mercury was decreasing, at least
in the West, climate change and depletion of the planet's
protective ozone layer meant their effects on water, the
environment and health were actually increasing.
Global warming, blamed on emissions of greenhouse gases like
carbon dioxide, was causing glaciers to melt, releasing the
pollutant chemicals that had built up within the ice during the
1960s and 1970s, he said.
Falkenmark said that over the next 30 years the world needed
to do three things to stave off a global water crisis.
Europe needed to be prepared to export six times more food
to dry developing countries with high birth rates, she said. She
said her research had shown that rainfall, already scarcer than
in the rich north, evaporated more quickly in these dry southern
countries, compounding their problems.
Secondly, industry and agriculture had to stop polluting
water to the point that it became unuseable.
And crucially, politicians needed to address the conflict
between the needs of populations living upstream of river basins
and those dwelling downstream. ``We cannot just ignore the
problem just because it is politically sensitive,'' she said.
Inefficient irrigation meant people living downstream of
China's Yellow River were deprived of water for 200 days a year,
while new industries set up to boost population in upstream
regions were polluting what resources remained.
Protect All Children's Environment
E.M.T. O'Nan
Director
2261 Buck Creek Road
Marion, NC 28752
Phone: (704) 724 4221
Fax: (704) 724 4177
Email: pace@mcdowell.main.nc.us
Web site: http://www.main.nc.us/pace
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