Climate change predicted to increase Nile flow variability.
Being able to predict the amount of flow variability, and even to forecast likely years of reduced flow, will become ever more important as the population of the Nile River basin, primarily in Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia, is expected to double by 2050, reaching nearly 1 billion.
The new study, based on a variety of global climate models and records of rainfall and flow rates over the last half-century, projects an increase of 50 percent in the amount of flow variation from year to year.
Originally, the correlation he showed between the El Niño/La Niña cycle and Ethiopian rainfall had been aimed at helping with seasonal and short-term predictions of the river’s flow, for planning storage and releases from the river’s many dams and reservoirs.
While there has been controversy about that dam, and especially about how the filling of its reservoir will be coordinated with downstream nations, Eltahir says this study points to the importance of focusing on the potential impacts of climate change and rapid population growth as the most significant drivers of environmental change in the Nile basin.
"Climate change predicted to increase Nile flow variability: Climate change could lead to overall increase in river flow, but more droughts and floods, study shows."
ScienceDaily, 24 April 2017.
Climate change predicted to increase Nile flow variability: Climate change could lead to overall increase in river flow, but more droughts and floods, study shows.
Retrieved April 24, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170424141236.htm Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Climate change predicted to increase Nile flow variability: Climate change could lead to overall increase in river flow, but more droughts and floods, study shows."

Chivas Brothers funds PhD to help combat effects of climate change on water supply Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky and premium gin business of Pernod Ricard, is today announcing plans to award £4,000 in grant funding to support key research into combating the effects of climate change on distillery water resources.
This research aims to identify solutions to preserve this key ingredient.
Research and development of mathematical models to help identify the best locations to manage water flow for other distilleries will be carried out at The University of Aberdeen, with the support of the James Hutton Institute.
Gordon Buist, Production Director at Chivas Brothers, said: “There are three ingredients that go into creating a single malt Scotch whisky – malted barley, yeast and water – and each is incredibly important to developing the depth of flavour and quality unique to The Glenlivet.
“As part of the project, we will support the student by providing them with the opportunity to work with our experienced environmental and sustainability team at The Glenlivet distillery, including access to a wide range of training, expertise and laboratory facilities.” Dr. Josie Geris, Lecturer in Hydrology at the School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, said: “We are pleased to be working with Chivas Brothers and the James Hutton Institute.
This project provides a unique opportunity for a research student to gain real world experience out in the field and identify solutions that will greatly benefit the whisky industry in the long term.” Chivas Brothers has a longstanding commitment to supporting further academic institutions in Scotland with students from both Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and Edinburgh University completing one-year laboratory placements with the business over the last five years.
The company also supports research and development on behalf of the whisky industry, through the Scotch Whisky Research Institute, based in Edinburgh; and funds a bursary scheme for further education and vocational training in conjunction with the Scottish International Education Trust, which is open to employees and their family members.
Notes: About Chivas Brothers Chivas Brothers is the Scotch whisky and premium gin business of Pernod Ricard, the world’s n°2 in wines and spirits.
Chivas Brothers’ award-winning portfolio features some of the world’s most revered Scotch whisky brands including Chivas Regal, the world’s first luxury whisky and the No.1 Scotch whisky in China; Ballantine’s, Europe’s No.1 Scotch whisky; The Glenlivet, the single malt whisky that set the standard; and Royal Salute, the world’s only exclusively prestige Scotch whisky range.
Source : http://www.whiskyintelligence.com/2017/04/chivas-brothers-funds-phd-to-help-combat-effects-of-climate-change-on-water-supply-scotch-whisky-news/

If we stop cutting down forests in order to plant palm oil trees, and if we stop consuming stuff with palm oil (e.g., Doritos), that will stop the CO2 bombs.
Most of this flooding is because the sea level is rising.
You can help by not polluting and not cutting down and burning trees.
The only reason they cut down those forests is because people want palm oil.
It is very bad that people want to destroy trees for palm oil.
It is not OK that animals die because people want palm oil.
When you burn down forests, the carbon dioxide the trees hold is released into our air, which is bad for our health.
These animals will have no place to live if Greenland melts away due to the rise in temperatures.
If the ice from Greenland melts, then flooding will happen in cities near the oceans, like Miami.
We can do a lot of things that causes air pollution.

Saturday, April 22 marks Earth Day which is a national day to focus on the environment, climate change, and sustainability.
I’m proud to say that I hail from the state where this was founded – Wisconsin.
Gaylord Nelson, formerly a U.S.
Earth Day in 1970 achieved a rare political achievement, gaining support from Democrats and Republicans as well as people from all walks of life.
The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts to preserve our environment in a massive way.
Forty seven years ago, partisanship was put aside with the understanding that our environment was a precious resource for all people, not just something to be exploited for financial gain.
Earth Day has become a global event, mobilizing people in numerous countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage giving a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide.
Green technologies are not only good for the environment, they lead to high tech, better paying jobs.
Climate change deniers, fossil fuel lobbyists, and reticent politicians are all fighting environmental consciousness and denying the scientific evidence that humans are changing our environment and that our climate is warming.
Locally there are numerous events: one major one is the March for Science which will take place at the University of Maine.

The Top 7 Ways the Trump Administration Is Attacking Science at the EPA.
The EPA is full of climate science deniers, starting at the top Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus to the contrary, EPA Administrator Pruitt has questioned whether carbon dioxide causes climate change and the magnitude of humans’ role in driving it.
Pruitt also has staffed the EPA with a litany of climate change science deniers, drawing particularly heavily from the office of Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK)—who famously threw a snowball on the Senate floor to prove that climate change is a hoax—to fill senior leadership positions.
President Trump determined that climate change has no cost On March 28, President Trump signed an executive order nullifying much of former President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan.
The EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act, which passed the House in March, could prevent the nation’s top scientists from participating in the SAB if, paradoxically, they would be advising the SAB on matters related to their own expertise.
Rep. Lamar Smith wants to block the EPA from using sound science to set pollution standards Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), an ardent climate denier who has been leading the congressional attack on science, introduced the Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act, or HONEST Act.
As such, the bill could block the EPA from using the best available scientific evidence to set pollution limits or develop ambient air quality standards.
President Trump has failed to hire scientists throughout the government President Trump has kept many critical science positions vacant since he took office in January.
President Trump, Administrator Pruitt, and their allies in Congress want to obscure the science that clearly demonstrates the need to cut air and water pollution by the powerful corporate interests that offer them the greatest political support.
Myriam Alexander-Kearns is a Policy Analyst for the Energy and Environment Policy team at the Center for American Progress.

UN agency uses satellite data to aid farmers in Africa, Middle East boost water efficiency.
20 April 2017 – The United Nations agricultural agency created an online database that uses satellite data and Google Earth images to figure out how much water is being used to irrigate crops, focusing on parts of Africa and the Middle East that are facing water scarcity.
“Water use continues to surge at the same time that climate change – with increasing droughts and extreme weather – is altering and reducing water availability for agriculture,” said Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Climate Change and Natural Resources.
“That puts a premium on making every drop count, underscoring the importance of meeting growing food production needs from efficiency gains.” Known as WaPOR, the open-access database measures evapotranspiration – how water evaporates and returns to the atmosphere, according to FAO.
“Evapotranspiration thus provides a direct measure of the water consumed by a crop during a growing season and, when related to the biomass and harvestable crop yield, allows for calculating the crop water productivity,” the UN agency said presenting WaPOR at a high-level meeting in Rome on “ “Coping with water scarcity in agriculture: a global framework for action in a changing climate”.
WaPOR sifts through data to produce maps that who much food is produced for every cubic meter of water consumed.
FAO, with support from the Government of the Netherlands, is currently focusing on African and the Middle East, with detailed data expected in October for pilot areas in Ethiopia, Lebanon and Mali.

U.N. tool uses satellite data to help farmers save water.
ROME, April 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A new Google-powered online tool that uses satellite data to map water consumption in Africa and the Middle East aims to help farmers produce more crops with less water, the United Nations said on Thursday.
WaPOR, an open-access database developed by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) enables countries to easily monitor how efficiently farms use water, allowing for improvements in irrigation and food production, the agency said.
As agriculture is responsible for 70 percent of all water used on the planet, it will be critical to increase "crop per drop", experts say.
"Water use continues to surge at the same time that climate change – with increasing droughts and extreme weather – is altering and reducing water availability for agriculture," said FAO’s deputy director-general Maria Helena Semedo.
The tool allows users like governments or farmers to spot areas where water is used inefficiently and take action by changing the irrigation system or switching to a more water-efficient crop, FAO said.
"You can compare with your neighbour and say: ‘Look he is planting his wheat field one month ahead of me or using this kind of irrigation system or fertilizer and he is doing much better’," FAO technical officer Livia Peiser, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Two thirds of the world’s population live in areas experiencing water scarcity at least one month a year, according to the United Nations.
(Reporting by Umberto Bacchi @UmbertoBacchi, Editing by Katie Nguyen.
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Climate change forecast: More intense deluges and downpours Down Under.
Dorothy Mackellar’s now classic view of Australia as a country of droughts and flooding rains is likely to get a further boost with just a 2°C rise in global warming.
New findings from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, published in Nature Climate Change, have pointed to strong increases in rainfall during extreme precipitation events in Australia as a result of global warming.
This paper reveals that with just a rise of 2°C in global average temperatures, Australia will see a 11.3-30% intensification in rainfall from extreme precipitation events.
Greater average humidity led to a sharper increase in the intense rainfall events.
But even in areas where average humidity and rainfall was lower, suggesting increasing aridity, the most extreme rainfall events still saw an 11.3% increase in total rainfall with 2°C of global warming.
Australia’s infrastructure will need to be prepared to adapt to these more extreme rainfall events even if we act to moderate the global temperature rise to within 2°C."
The paper also went beyond the 2°C international Paris Agreement target, looking at what would happen with a 4°C rise in global temperature, which is a likely outcome based on current increases in the rate of carbon emissions.
ScienceDaily, 17 January 2017.
Retrieved April 17, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170117140252.htm University of New South Wales.

One potential way to protect crops is by spraying them with a compound that induces the plants to become more drought resistant.
Now, by identifying the key molecular mechanism that enables a plant to minimize water loss, researchers may be one step closer to that goal.
They produce a hormone, called abscisic acid, or ABA, that binds to a protein, called a PYL receptor, triggering a chain of reactions that eventually closes the plant’s pores on its leaves.
The key is the ABA hormone.
But the details for how ABA works have been elusive.
Experimental techniques such as X-ray diffraction can take snapshots of the hormone before and after binding to the PYL receptor, but they can’t catch the two in the act.
Using molecular dynamic simulations, the researchers have, for the first time, revealed the molecular details for how ABA binds with the PYL receptor.
For PYL receptors whose crystal structures are known, their binding pocket — the part of the protein that binds to ABA — is the same.
While researchers may still want to confirm this mechanism in other plants, such as rice — whose PYL receptor structure is known — the hunt for an ABA mimic can now begin, Shukla said.
The goal is to find a compound that can work on all species without resorting to genetic engineering.

Paper by B. Udall & J. Overpeck: ‘The 21st Century Colorado River Hot Drought and Implications for the Future’.
At least one-sixth to one-half (average at one-third) of this loss is due to unprecedented temperatures (0.98C above the 1906–1999 average), confirming model-based analysis that continued warming will likely further reduce flows.
Recently published estimates of Colorado River flow sensitivity to temperature combined with a large number of recent climate model-based temperature projections indicate that continued business-as-usual warming will drive temperature-induced declines in river flow, conservatively 220% by midcentury and 235% by end-century, with support for losses exceeding 230% at midcentury and 255% at end-century.
These results, combined with the increasing likelihood of prolonged drought in the river basin, suggest that future climate change impacts on the Colorado River flows will be much more serious than currently assumed, especially if substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions do not occur.
Approximately one-third of the flow loss is due to high temperatures now common in the basin, a result of human caused climate change.
As temperatures increase in the 21st century due to continued human emissions of greenhouse gasses, additional temperature-induced flow losses will occur.
Additional precipitation may reduce these temperature-induced losses somewhat, but to date no precipitation increases have been noted and climate models do not agree that such increases will occur.
Good stuff from a couple of bright guys!
Enjoy!
"Years of drought and famine come and years of flood and famine come, and the climate.and the climate is not changed with dance, libation or prayer. "