It's the 21st century's double-whammy - population growth coupled with global warming - and even soggy old Britain isn't immune.
Britain's Environment Agency has released a study on what lies in stores for rivers in England and Wales by 2050. It warns that some rivers could see summer river levels drop as much as 80%, transformed into "puddles of warm, stagnant mud."
The Guardian article cites a government White Paper, "Water for Life", that explores a wide range of possible actions, including some such as desalination plants and re-cycling of effluent water that would have seemed unimaginable for Britain only a decade ago.
The UN calculates that the absolute minimum daily requirement for clean, freshwater for drinking, cooking and hygiene is 20-litres per person. Britain's average consumption now stands at 160-litres per person per day. The government hopes to get that down to 130-litres per day. To give you an idea of what that means, in 2004 Canadian daily per capita freshwater consumption (residential) was 329 litres. Now imagine your water consumption cut by two-thirds.
Is this the same Guardian that predicted the end of snow in Britain back in the year 2000 just to see record breaking snowfall in Britain in the years 2008,2009, and 2010?
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Deno
Dunno, you fool. The Guardian doesn't make predictions, it publishes a newspaper. It does report on forecasts made by others. The predictions here are actually a warning from the British government's own Environment Agency. I realize that distinction may be challenging for you Dunno. Just take two aspirin and wait until the throbbing in your head passes.
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