Global Warming
www.greenpeace.org/features/details?features_id=21871This year's summer vacation gave me plenty of time to ponder on the intensity of rainfall. There sure was a lot of it.
Now, ever since April, I have noticed much more violent rainstorms than I can remember from my childhood. I am not a meteorologist, and may be wrong in this, but it seems so. It has been hammering down, the way we used to know from films and travels to the tropics only. Now, even the meteorologists state that this has been the wettest July in years (that's my summer vacation all right). This week, we've seen reports on the television about severe flooding in Russia, Ucraine, Spain, Sweden and more. The Gothenburg area, only a couple of hours in a small boat from our rain-pestered summer house, had a month's rainfall in a night. Some towns were declared disaster areas.
This winter, avalanches swept away houses and roads all along the Western coast of Norway. Now, these areas have always had avalanches, but because of that, houses and roads tend to be built in traditionally safe spots. Not safe anymore.
Is this not what they have been warning against for years? That global warming will cause more violent weather?
President Bush II may still hide his head in the sand to protect the profits of his friends. Exxon may still be doubting the greenhouse effect (as documented in the Stop Esso site). But it is getting warmer here. Even in the barren, cold islands of Svalbard (last stop before the North pole), glaciers are melting. These photos are taken from a report on the Greenpeace site, and they show the effects quite dramatically.
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