Global Warming

Battle of the Alps - Water Woes

A battle is brewing around Europe's rooftop over the planet's most precious resource.

The crystal-clear waters from the Alps could become increasingly contested as the effects of climate change and glacier melt become more apparent. Italy wants them for crop irrigation in the spring and summer. Swiss authorities want to hold up flows to help hydroelectric plants rev up, when needed.

For the first time in four years, government envoys from eight Alpine countries — big, small and tiny — were meeting under a grouping known as the Alpine Convention, which was set up 30 years ago to help coordinate life, leisure and the limited resources from Europe's most celebrated peaks to discuss shrinking water supplies.

96% of humans feel global warming

Whether they realized it or not, some 7.6 billion people - 96 percent of humanity - felt global warming's impact on temperatures over the last 12 months, researchers have said.

People in tropical regions and on small islands surrounded by heat-absorbing oceans were disproportionately impacted by human-induced temperature increases to which they barely contributed.

Among the 1,021 cities analyzed between September 2021 and October 2022, the capitals of Samoa and Palau in the South Pacific have been experiencing the most discernible climate fingerprints, the researchers said in the report. Lagos, Mexico City and Singapore were among the most highly exposed major cities, with human-induced heat increasing health risks to millions.