Post by KNOWTHIS on Dec 19, 2006 2:36:50 GMT -5
www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200612/s1812173.htm
It's more than a drought, say scientists
The world's top meteorologists have released their annual weather assessment and it paints a dismal picture.
The globe's sixth warmest year on record has produced widespread drought interspersed with what they call radical variability - the October snowfall in southern Australia for example.
But despite the world getting hotter and drier, there is concern Australians are taking refuge in the notion of a short-term drought.
And critics say governments are failing in their efforts to address water problems.
Polar ice is melting and ozone depletion continues.
But drought is the key theme of the World Meteorological Organisation's 2006 statement on the status of the globe's climate.
Australia is a member country of the UN's meteorological agency, based in Switzerland, and it was there that the weather bureau's Dr Michael Coughlan delivered the news.
"The current estimates put this year at being about the sixth warmest year on record, Europe had its warmest summer on record, Australia had its warmest spring on record," he said.
While there were extreme events like Australia's October snowfall, global mean temperatures are climbing, rainfall is declining and this country has had its hottest decade.
It's more than a drought, say scientists
The world's top meteorologists have released their annual weather assessment and it paints a dismal picture.
The globe's sixth warmest year on record has produced widespread drought interspersed with what they call radical variability - the October snowfall in southern Australia for example.
But despite the world getting hotter and drier, there is concern Australians are taking refuge in the notion of a short-term drought.
And critics say governments are failing in their efforts to address water problems.
Polar ice is melting and ozone depletion continues.
But drought is the key theme of the World Meteorological Organisation's 2006 statement on the status of the globe's climate.
Australia is a member country of the UN's meteorological agency, based in Switzerland, and it was there that the weather bureau's Dr Michael Coughlan delivered the news.
"The current estimates put this year at being about the sixth warmest year on record, Europe had its warmest summer on record, Australia had its warmest spring on record," he said.
While there were extreme events like Australia's October snowfall, global mean temperatures are climbing, rainfall is declining and this country has had its hottest decade.