In the Flow: Back in the Cycle

I haven't posted anything on this blog since January this year (I was busy finishing a degree), but I am going to be restarting the blog. Previously, the content had been very focused on climate change and river discharge, but it is my aim to expand the blog to cover the whole topic of climate change and water management.

With climate change ready to be debated by the world at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris (also known as COP21), we are moving into an crucial period of potential political action on climate change. The conference aims to achieve a binding and universal agreement on climate change from all nations of the world, something which has proved impossible in the previous 20 years of UN negotiations - such an achievement would represent a defining moment in the 'fight' against climate change. I personally find it unlikely such an agreement will be reached, as there are some nations that still do not wish to engage with climate change (due to self interests, not doubt in the science), but I would be very happy to be proven wrong. The global political climate (pun not intended) appears to be far more suitable for such negotiations than the tense failure that was Copenhagen 2009, but nobody has entered the debating chamber yet. However, there are already concerns that anything agreed is likely to keep us below the 2C 'danger' threshold.

Water is a part of the hydrological cycle (see Fig 1), which hopefully is hopefully familiar. In simple terms, it is a big circle of water - water evaporates from the sea into the atmosphere, condenses and falls as precipitation, and makes its way back to the sea both on and within the ground. This is of course a gross simplification, but it is enough to make the point that all of these different parts of the cycle will be affected by climate change. This could lead to a variety of impacts, including droughts, floods, pollution, erosion, changes in water availability, just to name a few. Clearly, these are important impacts that could have a significant impacts on both humans and the environment. I hope to explore the different impacts in detail over time in this blog.

Hoping to aim for weekly posts, but obviously this will vary - sometimes more posts than once a week, sometimes less!