Weather
Population, Climate Change and Natural Resources by Chris Ridgway It has been quite an interesting month in terms of weather and Earth Science. There has been a number of newsgrabbing headlines, including: potentially the coldest May in a 100 years; drought conditions across England; and Environment Agency warnings about river and reservoir levels in Wales. Ironically, these followed not so long afterwards with other headlines claiming that April would be the wettest since 2000! However, there is a topic that the various media outlets haven’t really considered or investigated before they put out their ‘drought condition’ and ‘hose pipe ban’ headlines. In short, the affect that the population has on demand for natural resources - in this case, Water - hasn’t really featured in weather-related news lately. It also reveals how as a society, despite all our technological advances, we are still susceptible to the vagaries of the ever-changing natural world. Why these subjects appear to be taboo with mainstream media and commentators, I don’t know? You may have noticed, certainly over the last 3-4 winters, it has been relatively drier and cooler than the ‘traditional’ wet British autumns/winters. In terms of weather patterns it’s nothing new. Whether it’s drier, colder winters, warm hot summers or washout summers, they have all happened before for thousands of years in the grand cycle of ever changing weather patterns and climate changes. The factor that has changed in the equation over the millennia, is that over the 20th Century, the United Kingdom and the World in general has become more populated, especially in dense urban metropolises. 52
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