Climate Change Is Scrambling Rivers' Natural Ebbs and Flows - Bloomberg
Climate Change Is Scrambling Rivers’ Natural Ebbs and Flows - Bloomberg
Climate Change Is Scrambling Rivers’ Natural Ebbs and Flows
The seasonal rhythm of rising and falling water levels is being disrupted by warmer air temperatures, new research finds.
The mouth of the Goldstream River during a drought near Langford, British Columbia, Canada, in July 2023. Photographer: James MacDonald/Bloomberg
The seasonal variations of river flow have been important to humans since the early days of civilization. The rise and fall of the Nile, for instance, established the three agricultural seasons for ancient Egyptians.
Climate change is disrupting those patterns in the world’s northern high latitudes, a change that could threaten water security, human livelihoods and natural ecosystems, a new study warns.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.