Italy's largest river drying up

[CHIMO]

Source: Reuters

ROME — Italy declared a state of emergency in northern and central regions on Friday due to fears of drought following unusually warm and dry weather.

Farmers have been fretting as Italy's largest river, the Po, has dried up in recent months. The river, running west to east across northern Italy, feeds the broad Po valley which accounts for about a third of the country's agricultural output.

Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio said the state of emergency had been declared as a precautionary measure. It came a day after neighbouring France imposed water rationing in several of its regions, also in fear of drought.

Italy's hottest winter in 200 years meant snowfall was light in the Alps, with little snow-melt to swell the Po. Then a hot, dry spring set in, with temperatures in April approaching levels usually seen in June.



Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070504.witaly04/BNStory/International/home

[youngdem]

1. The Po will die soon. Sad.

[gulfcoastliberal]

6. I hope Italy isn't terribly overpopulated.

When you think about how far we're past the earth's carrying capacity... it's like Wile E Coyote suddenly realizing he's treading air well past the edge of no return.

[youngdem]

10. Fortunately, Italy's population is shrinking rapidly

The younger generation is having FAR fewer children than their parents and grandparents and many are leaving the country. So, they do have that going for them.

[dave_p]

15. It won't be fortunate for them...

... when they need someone to pay for their pensions. Nothing's ever straightforward.

[tabasco]

18. LMAO. And when Earth has 12 billion the last thing anyone will be worrying about

will be pensions.

[dave_p]

25. I wasn't talking about the world

- most of it has no pension to look forward to anyway, which is why people need kids to keep bringing in a family income when the parents are too old.

I was talking about Italy, and Europe. Population's barely grown in the last few decades. It just isn't the environmental issue. This is a bizarre US fetish that people need to get over.

Latest projections suggest a world peak slighly over 9bn, btw - and I wouldn't be surprised if it never reaches that level (except I'll be dead before I know, so I guess I'd be a little surprised to find out).

[tabasco]

28. The idea that people having lots of kids improves their quality of life is a fallacy.

Human overpopulation is the world's greatest problem.

[dave_p]

30. So's the population myth

Most people can't afford it as a means to improve their lives, they do it as a basic social security mechanism, or because they're denied means of family planning. Falling mortality's meant that more children survived. Now births are falling too. In fact they have been for decades, despite attenpts to block access to birth control.

Overpopulation isn't the problem. People wanting more goods than the planet can sustain is the problem. And those who do most damage tend to be those with lower population growth. Now more and more want a piece of the pie, but those who got to the table first don't want to give anything up.

It's greed, not people.

[GETPLANING]

22. Birth rates in Europe and Russia are plummeting

But populations in Europe are still rising. The reason is the flood of people from Afghanistan and North Africa. Russia is emptying out. Russia is in trouble.

[SoCalDem]

23. Looks like the biblical prophesies may end up being true

the meek may inherit the earth..although many are not all that meek these days.. poor downtrodden people are on the move..all over the world, and their sheer numbers may actually spell the end of "white" domination in many places..

That's what has conservative right wingers wetting themselves...

[dave_p]

16. It isn't about population

Italy's population's doubled since the 1880s and has now stopped dead. Europe's population's barely growing and in a few decades will be in freefall. This is about per capita consumption and poor energy efficiency in the world's leading economies. The world's fastest-growing populations are also some of the lowest consumers - and the ones with little prospect of economic take-off.

[SoCalDem]

20. Yep.. when your life is consumed with scrambling for bits of wood

to burn/sell and drinking brackish water, the last thing you are interested in, is high fashion or finding a Playstation on sale.

[XNASA]

2. The Rich are always stickin' it to the Po.

:-(

[kskiska]

3. Reminds me of a dumb joke my mother used to tell me as a kid

What kind of people live in the Po Valley?
Po' people.

[jollyreaper2112]

11. yah

Po people got no reason to live.

[Toots]

12. I thought that was "short people"

:think:

[jollyreaper2112]

31. ok, a bit of a meta joke

Yeah, the original is short people. Then they riffed it on MST3K's "Pod People" episode saying "Pod people ain't got no reason to live." Then I riffed on that.

*makes OK thumb sign* "It stinks!"

(another obscure reference)

[lonestarnot]

21. Po Po Po.

[kurth]

4. Rome will look like Cairo

very, very soon.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Pope Ratz is causing the river drying up

[rec_report]

7. K&R. n/t

[Hissyspit]

8. Leonardo da Vinci wanted to reroute the Arno (and maybe the Po, too)

...can't quite recall... but I don't recall him wanting to dry them up completely. The project was massive and was never realized, like many of his ideas.

[truthisfreedom]

9. Hence the Pope's recent interest in the Earth. Our Mother.

It's a shocking set of bedfellows in the works.

[alfredo]

13. Germany's last glacier is melting away.

[Critters2]

24. That's not the only thing that's melting...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070501/sc_nm/globalwarming_ice_dc

:scared:

[alfredo]

27. Yep, we've screwed the pooch.

[Odin2005]

14. Holy Christ!

The Po is one of the most important European rivers, that would be like if the Ohio River came close to drying up here. That is fucking scary.

[cliss]

17. This is

It appears that Europe is going to get hit, HARD by global warming. I've read that even northern europe like Scandinavia, is having super-warm weather already (in April!).

Ok, what are the probable outcomes of this
I'm assuming here that the River Po will run dry this summer.

1) Italian food products will go up in price because there will be a scarcity.

2) Expect Italian wine to go up in price. There may not even be a "Vintage 2007".

3) Wanna buy some real estate on the Italian Riviera? It's going to be cheap....

4) Expect rationing, extreme measures to preserve the precious product: water. If you are a water distributor or can figure out a way to get water to Italy, you will be the next Bill Gates.

WATER WARS = the wars of the future, even more so than Petroleum. We can live without gas, but we can't go more than 2 days without the Precious H20.

[CHIMO]

19. Same

Stories that I am hearing.

In Holland they were sitting outside a few weeks ago in summer temperatures. Also the last two years in Spain have been very warm for those on the Mediterranean. Unbearable during the months with heat waves from Africa.

Boiled alive

The 2003 heatwave killed more than 30,000 people. It was the biggest natural disaster in Europe on record, according to the government's chief scientific adviser. And yet, as temperatures reach new highs, Britain is fretting about dried-out lawns and stuffy offices. Alok Jha looks at the dangers that really lie ahead - and how to survive them

When the human body gets to 42C, it starts to cook. The heat causes the proteins in each cell to irreversibly change, like an egg white as it boils. Even before that, the brain shuts down because of a lack of blood coming from the overworked, overheated heart. Muscles stop working, the stomach cramps and the mind becomes delirious. Death is inevitable.

The gruesome effects of overheating have been largely forgotten as Europe swelters under record temperatures, from southern England's 36.5C to Bosnia's 41C. When weather forecasters predicted that the heat would get more intense across the continent today, most of us heaved a sigh at the thoughts of stuffy trains, sweaty buses, parched lawns and boiling offices. But perhaps we are being complacent.

Already, people across Europe are succumbing to the heat. In France, at least 40 people, mostly elderly, have already died. The latest reported victim was a 90-year-old woman found dead in Orly, near Paris - her body temperature had reached 41C. In Spain, six people have died so far. In Germany and Holland, two people have died from heat-related injuries.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,1830298,00.html

Thirty thousand people prematurely died.

[Delphinus]

26. Wow!

You're talking temperatures over 104 degrees Farenheit at 42 Celsius!

I *do* remember the heat wave - but had forgotten how hot it was. You're right - a lot of people died early.

[demoleft]

29. ...and the bears in the National Park didn't sleep

no water in the river and...too hot to sleep, you know!
Last winter our bears didn't go to sleep, waking a bit too much.
Any solutions suggested?!