by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The amount of water flowing into the oceans has slowly but steadily increased in recent years, signifying a possible speeding up of the water cycle due to climate change.
These results came out of a research paper published on Oct. 4 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It marks the first time satellites were used to quantify global river flows.
Between 1994 and 2006, the scientists measured an 18% increase in freshwater discharge into the oceans. The source of that water included river runoff and melting ice caps. It averaged out to an additional 540 cubic kilometers of water per year.
This result should be obvious for in that time ever more fresh water is being discharged from households and industry into the water treatment systems and ultimately back into the water courses.
"The biggest implication is what this means for climate," said Jay Famiglietti, a co-author and professor of earth system science at the University of California at Irvine. The results fit the expectation that climate change will accelerate the global water cycle, the process where water is moved around the world through evaporation, precipitation and runoff.
As the planet warms, heat will increase evaporation from the oceans. The water condenses into clouds, and much will fall as precipitation over land. With more rain comes floods and extra river runoff flowing into the ocean – but not everywhere.
"It's not as simple as saying if global total rainfall increases, it will be wetter everywhere. It's likely that wet regions will get even more rain while semi-arid regions become drier," said Matthew Rodell, a hydrologist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, who was not involved with the study.
This is not borne out by reality, in most cases, for it would appear that certain areas, such as the UK, for instance, while at times getting too much water and flooding, the latter a problem that comes from the fact that there is way to much tarmac and concrete around which is not permitting proper ground penetration of the water, where it seems to have become dryer as far as the weather patterns are concerned.
Famiglietti said increased evaporation and precipitation could lead to more extreme weather, such as prolonged droughts and more intense floods.
The fact seems to be that the water cycle no longer functions properly and more water, actually, remains in the oceans and thus contributing to the rising of the sea levels if not actually being the main cause of it.
While some of the water increase in the oceans may come from land-based glaciers or melting ice caps most of the water flow seems to originate from rivers. A great component here appears to be the water that comes from human-induced changes. Under normal circumstances, groundwater is essentially taken out of the water cycle because it's trapped underground for sometimes thousands of years. But when humans mine the water for above-ground consumption, they add extra water to the global water cycle – water that will eventually discharge into rivers as runoff.
I have been predicting this rise of freshwater in the oceans for several years by now and also said that the water cycle is being thrown into disarray but everyone just wanted to continue with business-as-usual.
Another problem we have been causing as to droughts in be it Britain or elsewhere is the heavy mining of such underground sources which take ages to replenish. And some of the greatest damage here also is cause by the mining of such groundwater for bottled water.
But, as long as everyone makes a nice amount of money out of it all no one really seems to care and that also applies to the governments.
We are headed for serious trouble and water is going to be – in some places it is already – a scarce resource if we are not very, very careful.
Aside from the fact the amount of freshwater that is running into the oceans is also changing the salinity of the worlds seas and with it could affect the climate most adversely. We do not even know how this all will act together.
Therefore we must find ways to reduce the freshwater run off into the rivers and oceans and find a way to capturing the rainwater for future use. Getting away from the amount of paved areas might be a beginning.
Some countries, including, it would appear, the UK, seems to be legislating now that paving surfaces will have to be porous with a very high flow capacity allowing rainwater to sun off into the ground during even the heaviest of downpours. The idea of some places in the USA to do away with tarmac roads, though because of wanting to use the oil from which the tar is made for other purposes, and reverting most country roads back to gravel, also is a good idea.
We have thrown the natural balance of the Planet so into disarray that it is surprising that Mother Earth has not thrown a complete wobbly as yet. However, She is giving us enough warning signs. Are we listening and watching, though?
© 2010
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