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Climate change to roast Sydney, say scientists
Vietnam News.Net
Wednesday 31st January, 2007 (IANS)
Sydney residents will have to cut water use by half if Australia's largest city is to survive the effects of climate change brought on by global warming, Australian scientists warned Wednesday.
A landmark report commissioned by the New South Wales (NSW) government said Sydney's maximum temperature would rise by almost 5 degrees by 2070, average rainfall decrease by 40 percent and evaporation in the city's reservoirs rise by almost a quarter.
The federal government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) estimates that by 2050 annual heat-related deaths in Sydney will rise eight-fold to 1,312.
'It makes frightening reading,' NSW premier Morris Iemma said in a statement. 'I don't want my kids to ask me in 10 years' time why I didn't do more to address the issue of climate change.'
The report's author, Ben Preston, said any success in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change would not alter the short-term prognosis for Sydney.
'Reducing emissions over the next couple of years isn't going to prevent any sort of climate catastrophe from occurring over the near term,' Preston said.
The reservoirs that serve Sydney are at record lows despite residents cutting back on water use to 1980 levels. But despite the dire situation, Iemma promised residents this week that they wouldn't have to follow the people of London and Singapore and drink recycled water.
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