The European Water Crisis

Dr. Peter Carter, Paul Beckwith and Regina Valdez discuss the water crisis in Europe, which has been in a severe drought that is classified as ‘exceptional drought’ by the drought monitors.

This video was recorded on March 15th, 2023, and published on April 8th, 2023.

Some of the topics discussed:

• How at least two-thirds of Europe is in a most severe drought which is classified as ‘exceptional drought’ by the drought monitors.
• How in the summer of 2022, Europe had a widespread, one in 500 year drought and how over the winter, when they normally get their precipitation, they’ve had very little precipitation, whether it be snow or rain.
• How reservoirs, lakes, and rivers, when this video’s was taped, were down 50 to 60% with some areas having completely dried out. The drought has reached up into Northern Europe already. So - How the Rhine water levels are down such that barge traffic on the Rhine is requiring half the weight.
• How the snowpack on the Alps, which acts as a source of many rivers in Europe, are at near record lows thus threatening the prospect that these rivers will dry out in the summer.
• How the crisis in Europe is contrasted by a recent opposite extreme in California where they’ve had their 11th atmospheric river resulting in record snowfall in the Sierra Nevada.
• How technology is allowing humanity to become amazingly brilliant at recognizing and monitoring drought, but how this has not resulted in actions towards mitigating the underlying causes.
• and much more . . .

Links

• Drought in Europe - March 2023

• Venice’s Famous Gondolas Trapped in the Mud Amid Historic Low Tide

• Very Precarious: Europe faces growing water crisis as winter drought worsens

• Droughts leave cargo riverboats high and dry

• 677 inches of snow: California breaks a 40-year snowfall record as more of the state eclipses the 50-feet mark

• Global Drought Information System

• Widespread drought warnings for Ireland

• SPEI - The Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index

• SPEI - 24 months - Dec-2021 and before over Europe

• Levels of Drought

• GRACE and GRACE-FO

• Europe Lacks Groundwater: Satellite Date Shows Sustained Severe Drought Across the Continent

• Future Southern Ocean warming linked to projected ENSO variability

Regular Panelists:

• Dr. Peter Carter - MD, Expert IPCC Reviewer and the director of the Climate Emergency Institute

• Paul Beckwith - Climate Systems Scientist. Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Paleoclimatology Laboratory as well as at Carleton University

• Regina Valdez - Program Director, Climate Reality Project, NYC. GreenFaith Fellow and LEED Green Associate

Video Production:

• Charles Gregoire – Climate Reality Leader, Electrical Engineer, Webmaster and IT prime for FacingFuture.Earth and the Climate Emergency Forum

• Heidi Brault - Climate Reality Leader, BA(Psychology), Library & Information Technician Diploma - Video production and website assistant - Organizer and convener, Metadata technician, COP28 Team Lead for FacingFuture.Earth and the Climate Emergency Forum.

Attributions:

Background Music:

• Title: Through the City II
• Author: Crowander
• Source: Free Music Archive
• License: BY-NC 4.0

Image and Video:

• Image and Video Attributions