. | . |
Australia says some water cuts permanent Sydney (AFP) Sept 16, 2007 Some water restrictions introduced in Australia's most populous state because of a long-running drought will become permanent because of the threat of global warming, officials said Sunday. Banned forever will be the practice of hosing pathways and the daytime use of sprinklers to water lawns and gardens. The New South Wales government said the restrictions would remain in place even when the drought is over and dam levels are at capacity. "We know that climate change is real, it's here and the changes brought by climate change are going to change the way we use water," state Premier Morris Iemma said. "With the decline in average rainfalls, an increase in hot days... it means we have to be smarter about how we use water." Iemma said the restrictions were common sense in Australia, the world's driest inhabited continent. Many Australian cities have water restrictions in place and New South Wales, the eastern seaboard state of which Sydney is the capital, introduced mandatory water restrictions in 2003. Water Utilities Minister Nathan Rees said he expected little opposition to the move, particularly as there had been a shift in the way people used water in recent years. "These measures are not just about the drought that we're currently in but for droughts in years to come," he said. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Water News - Science, Technology and Politics
Icy Calculations On A Hot Topic Salt Lake City UT (SPX) Sep 11, 2007 University of Utah mathematicians have arrived at a new understanding of how salt-saturated ocean water flows through sea ice - a discovery that promises to improve forecasts of how global warming will affect polar icepacks. In the current issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, math Professor Ken Golden and colleagues show that brine moving up or down through floating sea ice follows "universal transport properties." |
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |