Climate researcher: Israel’s coast will flood

Globes.co (Israel): “Israel will face a severe water shortage by 2040,” says Dr. Wolfgang Seiler. He will present this claim at a lecture at the International Water Technologies and Environmental Control Exhibition and Conference - Watec 2007 in Tel Aviv this week. Seiler will be a guest of Netafim Ltd., one of the conference sponsors. He is a former director of Germany’s Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, and serves on several international climate research committees, including a joint committee of Tel Aviv University and Germany’s Ministry of Science and Technology.

Seiler says that the coming water shortage will be the result of global warming. He adds that melting glaciers will raise the sea level by at least 50 centimeters. This will cause flooding of coastal cities, including in Israel, affecting millions of people. He adds that global warming will change atmospheric cycles, which will change the global precipitation regime. This will greatly affect agriculture, nature, and the condition of the world’s forests. Deliveries of clean drinking water to populations in many parts of the world, especially coastal regions, will suffer.

Seiler says that one of the most important consequences of climate change, which has not yet attracted much attention, is the increasing frequency of extreme meteorological phenomena, such as floods, drought, storms, and avalanches. These events will undoubtedly affect the lives of millions of people.