The New Realities of Water In a Hotter World

摘要

Climate change, coupled with the water scarcity crisis, represents the most significant environmental and socioeconomic challenge in mankind's history. Climate change now influences the planning and decisions of businesses, communities and nations around the world. Climate change is here and we are now dealing with adaptation, not mitigation. Our knowledge of the linkages between climate change and hydrology makes it possible to generate increasingly more accurate forecasts of where future water will be and where it won't be. Changing weather patterns influence sea level rise and storm intensity that in turn increase the devastating effects of storm surge (think Sandy and Katrina), necessitating infrastructure relocation and protection for the half of the world's population that lives near a coast.