Diminishing Rivers

The weather has been rather good in the last five days. After a period of some wettish weather, we have had warm dry sunny days since last Friday. It's all part of the mix ups in our weather patterns. Although, if the experts on climate change are right, we can expect our climate to become more extreme as the Gulf Stream changes its path, many people believe that a warming of our climate will be an improvement. A report published in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate tells us that the water flows in the world's major rivers have dropped over the last 50 years. Partly this is caused by climate changes but also it is because rivers are dammed and diverted and used for irrigation. The consequence is that supplies of drinking water are falling - except in the Arctic, where melting snow has boosted river flows. I still believe that the UK does not have a problem with water supplies provided that we collect and store adequate amounts. But for many parts of the world there will be big problems. As long as politicians will not face up to the fundamental problem of the ever increasing world population of human beings then we have no chance of tackling climate change or anything else.