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UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 20 (APP):
The severe drought and searing heat will oppress wide swathes of the earth with
increasing frequency this century, according to a forecast by scientists who met
this week in Beijing, the UN weather agency said today. “The combination of record heat
and widespread drought during the past five to ten years over large parts of
southern and eastern Australia is without historical precedent and is, at least
partly, a result of climate change,” according to a statement endorsed by the
scientists at the meeting co‑sponsored by the UN World Meteorological
Organization (WMO).
The statement was also released
at UN Headquarters in New York.
The continental United States
and Mexico, the Mediterranean basin, parts of northern China, southern Africa
and Australia and parts of South America were cited as particularly prone to
harsh drought, WMO said in a press release relaying the results of the
International Workshop on Drought and Extreme Temperatures.
In addition, severe heat waves
are expected to increase everywhere, especially in the continental western US,
northern Africa, the Middle East, central Asia, southern Africa and Australia,
the agency added.
More than 40 scientists from
climate and agricultural research institutes, universities and environmental
monitoring organizations participated in the conference, which ran from 16 to 17
February and was co‑sponsored by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).
The increase in Australian
droughts and heat waves could be a temporary climate event lasting 10 to 30
years, according to several presentations at the conference that noted that
these events have occurred in the historical climate record elsewhere in the
world.
However, they added, the
Australian events are also consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report, which says that the world has
been more drought‑prone during the past 25 years.
Several participants detailed
examples of droughts and heat waves, such as those in Europe in 2003, in
south‑east Australia in 2009, and currently in northern and central China, which
are the worst drought in half a century
To help agriculture, rangelands
and forestry cope with the phenomenon, they recommended the development of a
standardized drought index that can be practically applied to a wide range of
agricultural purposes across the world.
Other recommendations included
more proactive drought planning, efficient water use and wider introduction of
new drought‑tolerant crop varieties.
WMO said it has been developing
monitoring and prediction tools, with CMA and other partners, to increase
awareness of extreme climatic hazard in the agriculture and forestry
communities.
It added that World Climate
Conference‑3, which is being held from August 31 to September 4, 2009 in
Geneva, Switzerland, will address these issues through several presentations on
the connections between climate variability and change and agriculture, the
agency said.
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