The Po valley was once covered in forests. Bears, deers and boars roamed in all of it. They do not even consider to reforest the area. The majority of the cropland is for annuals that are used for animal consumption. At least turning it into agroforestry systems where the animals can grow and feed themselves from the land, we would lower emissions and mitigate the droughts. Wake up Italy!
Wouldn't reforestation use more water? That is what my experience has been. Are you sure you know what you are talking about? Plus in dry seasons like this, reforestation would put them at great risk or forest fire. The US tried this is some regions and some of the reforestation has stayed (part of FDR's New Deal), but most of it burned taking homes and towns with it.
@@rabbit251 I have experience in my family property in the area. In Bergamo province. We never watered the trees that we planted, and survival rates have been high. If you are investing into a silvopastural system you may want to irrigate your trees for the first 2 to 5 years, but that's it. Considering that corn is one the most water exigent plant that you can ever grow, and that in the summer season we rarely have rains (that is the growing season for corn), all farmers use irrigation for growing the crop. Check out New Forest Farm in Wisconsin. He is doing great in the US with his project.
@@rabbit251 we need to switch to perennial crops and not annuals. Annuals erode the soil and use more water, perennials build soil, hold water, and need less of it. That and stop eating meat/dairy/eggs. While we’re at it, Europe will also need to switch ASAP to solar/wind, battery storage, electric vehicles. Not just to give a finger to Russia, but so we avoid turning this planet into Venus, which has extreme CO2 in its atmosphere with surface temperatures of about 500 degrees F.
Step one, implement “regenerative agriculture” techniques. The Po has historically flooded, which is an symptom of watershed scale mis-management. Emphasis should be placed on retaining water on the land as long as possible through the use of keypoint swales and ponds. Eliminated all spray irrigation which loses excessive amounts to evaporation, and replace it with drip irrigation. Reforest areas to reduce flooding and soil loss, and encourage recharge of aquifers to help sustain uses during predictable periods of low rainfall.
This is an almost exact parallel to what's happening to the Colorado River in the US. Lack of snowfall, a long-term drought, and diversion of the river's water to urban and agricultural concerns have severely depleted the Colorado. Unlike the United States, however, it's difficult to relocate away from a drought-stricken area - which is what may have to happen to cities like Las Vegas or Phoenix. Hopefully the water catchment plan is a long-term solution, but it's hard to predict how climate change will continue to alter weather patterns.
Extreme weather events, droughts, floods, heatwaves are only going to increase, given the predictions made by scientists decades ago and the more recent increased frequencies of such events.
@@jaaksavat7916 The feedback effects are already showing their effects, the time line for temperature increases and ecosystem destruction seems 10-20 years faster than most commonly predicted when I was growing up. By 2040-2050 there wont be enough rainfall, ground water, and/or top soil in the right places to feed us along currents transport routes, and there won't be any wild forests or fish stocks left in warming oceans to supplement that deficiency. I suspect things will be so bad by then that most countries will have complete systems and infrastructure collapse with everyone fending for themselves. Migrating, fighting, laying down too hungry to run.
Harald Lesch talked about this (I think about) 10 years ago. He said, around 2050 big parts of Italy, Spain, Greece and so on won't be habitable anymore for many months of the year. Or at least not for a popolus that big.
Water retention Ponds/Storm Management should be built in every municipality, Everywhere, in every Country !! .. Also look at Ground Cover/Tree's to help maintain Soil moisture .
Even tactics like moving downed trees so they are roughly horizontal to steep slopes increases water absorption and at least mitigates stream rises. Also erosion. Lots of work and in extreme cases helps to have well trained mules along with your come hither. Need comprehensive well funded programs to accompany financing canals etc. none of this is really new.
Speaking of "water bombs", just yesterday a sudden and violent storm hit my city and province (Piacenza, a city along the Po river) with very strong winds that caused a lot of damage to structures, injured people and the final outcome of a dead man. In the Po Valley these events are becoming more and more violent and sudden year after year. Each summer is always hotter than the previous one, and when it finally rains, it not only lasts very little, but manifests itself with a destructive violence that seems only a cruel joke of fate. PS: what about that cheerful tune as the background to a video that has something dramatic?
I would say that mineral water is bit different case. You know, you don't use san Pellegrino for thinks like cooking, showering or watering your plants.
Humans have lavished over Gold, silver, diamonds and all other forms of nonsense...but ignored the most precious life necessity....Water...without it we would surely parish...💯
@@RobJa Wrong. What does a bunny do? It destroys the grass, poops rabbit droppings, and digs up the land. What do bacteria do? Exact same, they eat up their nutrients, depriving others of it, and excrete waste. Humans are no different from all other life on earth, they eat money, and sh1t work!
Farmers need to look toward Regenerative Farming methods to reduce flooding and better absorb the rainfall. Dense cover crops is a very quick option to help reduce the damage.
Plant trees instead of giant dead field like the awfull view of dead landscape at 5:05 :(. Trees absobrb CO2, keep 50% of water in soils to grow underground waters, and 50% in air for clouds and rains, refreshing the climate at the same time.
@@ThePopolong regenerative farming with the correct crop balance removes more co2 than trees and can start the very next season, trees take a long time to grow.
Between 70 and 80% of the water supply is used for food and agriculture. Look into Regenerative Agriculture, it is the way to go forward since it takes care of many of the problems that we are having: drought, floods, dwindling food production, etc. The reason is that it takes care of the source, our soils, that have been degraded over years of intensive agricultural practices. With or without rain, degraded soils can't infliltrate water effectively so it runs off or evaporates. This is also why the excessive irrigation needs of modern agriculture. On the other hand, healthy soils and vegetarion are able to retain water so irrigation needs come down drastically. Many farmers in the US have been able to do this in 2 or 3 years... On that note, right now there is a global movement called Save Soil that is trying to push for soil protection policies in all countries. It is gaining a lot of momentum..
Simple solution is to privatize water, and not subsidize farmers (or anyone elses) use of water. That way, when water becomes scarce the price of water will rise, in response, farmers will use less. Supply goes down, demand remains the same, price goes up. No government intervention required.
Yeah yeah, always agricolture is the problem, in this area more than 20% of the land is concrete. I think that is significant very worst than agricolture it self
The sound mixing on this video is terrible. I can barely understand the narrator because the bass is mixed too high and everything above it is far too low.
Government subsided mass drip-irrigation projects are needed through all of Italy's agricultural regions. Water usage rates would drop by 80-90%, and since agriculture makes up the majority of water usage it would save the nation's future.
@@wardwyseur That’s so cool! Also GMO’ed Cordycepts mushroom “traps” can target a specific insect rather than all of them. Never understand why it’s not more common.
@@michelangelomissoni945 very good idea! But there still the problem that most of the irrigation that we use is based with plumbing from 60's and 70's. Maybe we should start with that and afther that working up to droplet irtigation and even invest in OGM
Per fare un esempio, l'80% del Veneto è cementificato, ci vivo e stanno continuando a costruire e buttare cemento anche dove non serve, mi fa arrabbiare
Ma per tutti, certo al Nord sta facendo danni enormi ma anche qui in Lucania (Basilicata) la terra é quasi un deserto, il nostro acquedotto fornisce anche acqua alla Puglia, e questo sta mettendo in pericolo anche la nostra produzione agricola...
As usual, if the authorities had reacted with some urgency when they were first warned by the scientists, the new reservoirs would have been finished years ago. Politicians only ever react in a panic, blaming previous governments' inaction. Same obviously applies to worldwide climate emergency right now.
The authorities know that society faces a huge expense and delay, to do even part of what you want. There is even legacy law that must be amended. This must be done carefully and it will take decades to reorder Europe to accommodate 'tropical weather patterns'. The world won't be made perfect in accordance to the desires of millennials.
News Flash: We are changing the climate: Your expectations for snowfall from the past mean nothing for the future. Higher water temperatures are here to stay. We will need to do a lot more water management, and we will need drastic measures to reverse climate changes. Agriculture is going to be a worldwide problem. Agriculture needs a stable climate, without it agriculture cannot exist.
@RogerWilco Assuming these things truly are long term, its hardly an existential crisis. Farmers will adapt, growing different crops, farming in different ways. And i wouldn't worry about these ridiculous claims of "global famine", after all, if the climate really is warming, vast swathes of Siberia and Canada will be opened up to farming and easy port access. This is not a climate crisis, this is people with power trying to scare us all into giving them even more power.
A similar thing is happening to Lade Mead in the American Southwest. The revisor behind Hoover Dam is gotten very low due to a severe draught. You can now see boats and planes in the lake that have not been seen in over sixty years.
I watch videos about Lake Mead and the Hoover dam from time to time. It's devastating. There is also some footage from the 70s when even the emergency spillways flooded. That will not happen again some time soon. 😔
Things like this are happening around the world in multiple food growing areas. It's just one more sign that humanity has left it too late to deal with the climate crisis.
I assume your familiar with agricultural statistics showing that production is up and up and up decade after decade and in fact the fastest improvements in the history of all humanity have been the in the last generation? Italy for instance is a region where yields are quite a bit higher than they were a generation ago. As is the case in almost every other functional part of the world.
Tragedy that this is happening! Forests are a good thing, Italy's most well known product, grapes, actually thrive better in open forest meadows; a more open sort of meadow which happens to be in the midst of the forest. The forest helps to trap moisture in the meadow, with the grassland providing temperature regulation. Balsamic Vinegar is also good stuff!
This is natural it happens everywere and it comes and goes!Greece for the last few years is having record snowfalls and although 10 years ago we had problems with the level of the water in many lakes the last few years they are more than full!Especialy the last season we had snowfalls in record amounts so much that a few tall mountains even today have a bit of snow in some parts of them!
I know but they 75% of people on earth man will say its a myth or some radical myth people dont really take anything serious . they here overpopulation and think its a joke . also the same issues with climate change they think its some myth .they dont take anything serious. Even worse we have fiat money systems based off infinity growth For the federal. Reserve to keep this game of degrading earth to keep the fiat capitalism debt based currency system going . The fed says the governments ow them the governments say the people ow them We have a economic system which encourages this climate change and overpopulation from effects of those systems worth leaders pretty much takes the climate change and overpopulation situation as a joke
At some point we are going to have to accept the necessity of creating artificial aqueducts across regional and even national borders, to transfer excessive rainfall in one area to another area that needs it. It will be hellishly expensive, but it's the only way to allow humans to continue living in places that have already been thoroughly civilized as weather patterns change over time.
How would you suggest any sort of control over such transfer of water? Starting with who determines what areas need it? As example, much of the American far west is really desert its only through huge volumes of water consumed as irrigation that make it anywhere close to "green", at what point does that area NOT get any more water from outside its geographical borders? Maybe humans shouldn't be living in certain places to begin with, I mean its pretty tough to complain about flooding if you choose to build on a flood plain...
Take it from the history books, if you loose farmers during the hard times it will come back to haunt you. Especially if they don't return when times get better. As much as people hate the idea of their government just giving away money, they will hate it even more when their grocery stores run short, or even out of goods.
Probably never heard of this river. Silliest statement ever. In Australia we were taught of the Po river civilization when we were in year 8 history. Half a world away and we know of the Po river. Clearly that statement was aimed at the US education system.
There is a underlying systemic issue. A river running straight is like a fast drain pipe. Pour wat into it a it drains fast. Natural areas are like a sponge, and can store water and release it slowly. So there is also a man made component to this and the farmers has a part of that.
It's at a point where the only way it'll be a short lasting experience is if it spells our end, as prices for food and now water, will just continue to climb untill it is no longer affordable to live for the average person. Then we are looking at treading the path of another great depression.
One positive. Excellent opportunity to dredge sections, tidying it up and improve the river banks. Raise the land of flood prone areas. River gravel, sand/aggregate...useful stuff.
Water must stay where it rains. In fact, almost all river systems have been converted into canals - to the benefit of the people, so the plan was... for more agricultural land, commercial areas, settlements. The water (waters) must be given more space, rivers widened and the runoff slowed down.
Same happening in the western cape region here in south africa, last few years the rain not enough for this region. the Cape also have a Med climate, strange here on the east coast, we had some of the worse floods in April 22!
currently the situation in northern Italy is tragic, there are 35/40 degrees and it hasn't rained for months and we have a bankruptcy political management for public water ..
I am been living in Italy for past 5 years ,as agriculture student to working for Agriculture sector in Italy, it's disastrous mismanagement of water , like in Mediaval periods subsequently less rains caused this situation in north Italy , in south Italy the farmers are more responsible to water how they have to use, probably lacking knowledge in cultivation more wasted than cultivation with heavy machinary for small pieces of land which is not necessary.
@Balaji it isn't "lacking of knowledge" the problem, it's the greed and not wanting to solve sticky situations because they might upset few people with power/money. Italy has plenty of good things as much as horrible egotistical and unprofessional people in position of importance. It's disheartening.
@@VanZibarX In theory, because in general, the south if Italy has always had less water then the north there should be a bit of more care about not wasting it.
We've faced an extraordinary situation with 4 months, 1/3 of the entire year, without a single drop of rain in the winter. Mountains were completely dried and you're blaming farmers for the lack of water? You don't even have any idea of what you're talking about
thank you DWNews for using subtitles instead of voice over narration. At best it is distracting, even for a bilingual listener, and at worse it comes out as gibberish.
2017 ANSA) - Saluzzo, September 5 - The sources to the mighty River Po on the Monviso mountain have dried up due to the recent long drought that has hit Italy. As a result there is no water flowing next to the famous sculpted rock at 2,020 metres above sea level that reads "Here begins the Po" - an extremely rare event. The 652km Po is Italy's longest river.
It is good that they are planning for the long term. Right after I thought of rain reservoirs they said it. The Americans are just doing nothing with the Colorado River but suck it dry.
@@mikebocchinfuso9437 I would say it is the second thing you do best. The firs is turning any situation to opportunity for profit. So here is my proposal: Collect all treated wastewater from coastal cities and sell it for irrigation.
@@someotherdude - Household use of water is quite meaningless, what wastes water is agriculture, industry and posh luxuries like golf courses and swimming pools. I live under the state called Spain, now experiencing a brutal drought, with water reservoirs as low as 28% in some areaas (Andalusia) and the analyses are very clear: more than 2/3 of water is wasted on irrigation of cash-crop farms (which largely produce for Northern Europe with near-slave labor force from Morocco). Regions like Madrid, also in the semi-arid south but without relevant agriculture, are much much better off (above 60%), precisely because water is mostly used for household use and not agriculture and other wasteful practices.
Tejo is even worse in Portugal! It has a 400m3 average discharge, but nowdays, a litle child that cannot swim can cross it safely in several places near its mouth.
actually we had some days of rains, but I've seen such drought evenin 2003. The problem has its roots in winter, because we have warm winters and there is no snow, no rain, glaciers are melting away..It seems we need to shift to a south mediterrean agriclture, like sicily andalusia north africa , collecting all the rain in basins durgin wet seasons. Anyway, yes, climate change is real...
you should consider to re-establish forests. if you drive through the po valley, on many occasions you can just see big agricultural parcels and therefore open plains. no wonder there is no ability to retain water...
The case of river drought in a modern country like Italy is a very sad incident, okay now Italy is aware and has to save this river,... how to protect the environment that supports the absorption of water into the ground from upstream to downstream,... create adequate supporting forests and This is your responsibility for the nation's future generations
Yes, but all of those ones were not caused by humans and all of those ones were able to right themselves because nothing in the atmosphere was out of balance. Do try to keep up, climate change is not a new phenomena.
Collective collaboration with water scare countries could be a better solution. People's mindset needs to be changed accordingly. Most scary thing,we might see same situation rising in most of countries in near future if not acted rationally.
@@joeblogs6598 Things implemented by force never lasts. Campaign starting from village level to city level, making people aware about pro and cons of it. Innovation to learn to conserve water ,reduction of water consumption from countries like Arabs, Israel. People at ground level are main resources, needs to be educated on how to conserve. Government role is just to educate, provide monetary help.
@@Prateeksinghbhadouria "Government role is just to educate, provide monetary help." The issue with that, is how government gets the money to pay for that education and monetary help. Government gets money by taxation. Taxation is peoples money taken with force by the government. Whenever you use the government to do anything, you are inherently using force.
@@joeblogs6598 on one side u could be right but think on the other side ,where can government get the money from??? Country with poor taxation mostly lack developmental projects...there are many examples where either people evade taxes or corruption is there. U can't go for loans every time. Only thing I feel, community planning at village level where people can mobilise monetary resources and build water conservation barriers , grow water scarce crops, recycle water....but this will take time...NGO's can help.
Well it is also something that cannot be solved on an individual level. Things like "having no facilities near where you live" or "all houses that are built have a short life and high energy consumption" cannot be solved by individuals.
Every little seasonal stream in the entire watershed, needs a series of check dams to catch rainfall to soak it into the aquifers. Catch the rainfall in the hills to avoid flooding down stream.
I have a seasonal creek running through my property. Just been through a couple drought cycles. Built a series of dikes using hay bales to slow down water movement and just keep water around longer. If you moderate water flow/ supply closer to its source you preempt the need for flood control
It's a real shame that the US were leading the denial for so long - during much of the period when we could have had a real affect - from Europe we could only do our own thing and try to persuade...
Why are all droughts blamed on "climate change"? There have been droughts for centuries, look at all the water being used, evaporated and wasted and tackle those things first. "Climate change" often is used as an excuse not to do anything about the real causes. Italy is surrounded by the Mediterranean, so how about building desalination plants?
There have been droughts in the past, of course, but they are happening more frequently and intensely as time progresses. Rain precipitation has shifted to being more like tropical rainfall, and all these European, flat landscapes that go for miles without much trees but instead crops and farmland, are just being overwhelmed by this and flooded. It's incredibly sad to not see the clear effects of climate change at this point in history. You gotta get wit it as things are moving fast and there's no time to sit around and ponder if it exists or not.
The drought in Italy is similar to the drought in Southwest United States and long term solutions are difficult at best. The higher temperatures create drier soil, less snow fall and different rain patterns will decrease water supply and water rationing will occur for everyone.
@John Wakamatsu The Southwest is having trouble because people are trying to farm in a desert. If the government stops subsiding farmers water bills, they will use less water. In turn the water requirements will be reduced.
I just wonder whether use of desalinated water in cities Ravenna, Padova, Rovigo, Mestre and Treviso could reduce strain on Po river and help with irrigation once this water is used for other purposes and then treated accordingly. I think that it is bit shame that countries of Southern Europe rely so much on natural water sources, deplete them for various purposes, even thou we have technology for virtually unlimited water supply. Especially in arid regions of southern Italy, Spain, and in Balkans, Greece as well, it could significantly boost local agricultural production and maybe even have positive effect on climate. As well treated waste water from coastal areas should be, even thou it will consume some energy, pumped back inland and stored in suitable reservoir and then used for irrigation.
@@julianshepherd2038 Not that much actually. E.g. for mechanical vapor compression you need just 7 to 12 kWh of electricity per cubic metre, for reverse osmosis it should be some 4 to 6 kWh, but this process has some issues with certain ions. If we would not take in account price of machinery and labour, then the price of water should not exceed some 1.2 per cubic metre if the power will came from new nuclear. For any other source, BTW this perhaps can be used asi variable load on grid, it coupled with some reservoirs, the electricity price could be significantly lower. (Well once we will solve those current supply issues, but maybe Italy can significantly boost it's solar sector, just as Balkans, Greece and other southern regions.)
@@MrToradragon Not that much? Is that why it's installed every it is needed? Desalination is incredibly expensive, energy intensive, and environmentally challenging, as the brine needs to be dumped. The technology has come a long way, but there is a reason it is effectively limited to the oil barons of the middle east
Desalination also is very detrimental to marine life, in addition to being very expensive to operate, because you have to suck in sea water via a large inlet pipe, endangering marine life trapped within it. You also have to dispose of the massive amounts of salt after all the desalination process. You have to weigh this very carefully. It is the last option. There's a reason why it is not the quickest solution to every drought problem. Most of the countries look for cheaper and safer alternatives.
@@marcob1729 The price of desalinated water, I have looked for it, is between 0.5 and 1.2 USD per cubic metre. I would say that it is quite reasonable price.
2:20 Certainly one of the approaches to solving this problem is adopting irrigation methods developed in water poor regions like Israel. The way irrigation is handled in the Po valley today as shown for example at the 2.20 time stamp in this report may no longer be sustainable.
Sure a new type of irrigation could help. But yhe other face of the medal is that our agricultural irrigation system belongs to the Romans. We have (whats remains)the agricultural ecosystem based on it. Switching type of irrigation would be the end of the agricultural ecosystem and nontheless increment the deforestation of the tree lines that delimit the field parcel (known as "centuriazione romana") and the consequencial loss of landscape.
@@Doppiovetro thanks for you input. I can't discuss this here in detail but a change in irrigation systems would only be one aspect. Others would be changing the type of crops that are grown, changing the type of trees/bushes that are planted for soil and crop protection. Further means might be applied on the side of infrastructure such as the construction of various types of retaining structures that can hold excess water for use during the dry season, The climate situation is changing fast but not so abruptly that adaptation would be impossible. For example, in the Padana they are growing rice which needs a large amount of water. This is a "new" development as the Romans didn^t know this crop. Perhaps those kinds of crops would have to be replaced. So yes, the changing climate might mean the modification and adaptation of traditional agriculture (which is as in the case of rice not so traditional) but it certainly doesn't mean the end of agriculture as such. From that point we are far far awawy.
Saldy, we reached a point where almost evry single thunderstorm in italy is extremely violent. The % of twisters and tornados in thunderstorms is increasing, winds are stronger and makes more damages, rainfalls are very very concentrated, it can fall in 10 minutes the amount of water for an entire month! The number of supercell clouds is increasing. It is becoming more and more similar to the American midwest
Farmers always have to deal with the weather, which is at times - let's say, difficult. However, no water at all equals no farming. Welcome to climante change. I remember back 25 years ago when we learned about climate change and rising temperatures and everything, and almost everyone laughing it away as a problem of the future. Well, this is that future.
The only problem is: most of the "climate change" predictions from 25 years ago didn't come true. Drought wasn't even one of the predictions of global warming because, as climate scientists explained to you just six month ago for the Ahrtal flooding, warmer air carries more water not less. It's tempting to use climate change as a catch all for weather you don't like but then you move from science to superstition.
The Dutch are really good with controlling excess water, but can they really help with a dearth of water? No, Israel has more knowledge with how to survive with a lack of water.
Talks with engineers from other countries would definitely be useful, but bear in mind that the Netherlands have a different geography than Italy. As an example, there are sismic areas and volcanos in one and not in the other.
Maybe they can make the po in several places less wide, so it overflows more easily when there is a lot of rain, and then strategically place large overflow basins in these spots so that the water can be stored there for long periods of time. When there is not enough rain, that water can be pumped out back in the river to be used by agriculture and people
If the precipitation quantity has not changed in 20 years, then the problem is with harvesting the water, not with climate change. It is unacceptable that we cannot capture, harvest, and store the precipitation for a time when it is need. Build more storage facilities.
Energy hog, and with more extreme weather adapting the landscape to cope is needed anyway. Combine the too and help not just the crops but the whole landscape and ecosystem the farmers need to maintain healthy land to grow crops on.
@@joeblogs6598 You are assuming there is water for one and that the farmers have legal access or can grease some palms to legalize wells. That works for big ag., but not for multigeneration familyfarms that do littleharm to the ecosystem. The ones doing the damage are not paying the price.
Outside the US your drought is well known. The west coast aquifer including the lake Mead, the mid west/east underground water plateau is drying out, only the east coast isn’t that bad due to hurricanes and the favorable conditions of the Atlantic climate. And almost forgot about wildfires. Few areas like the northwest and northeast isn’t suffering from drought yet. But I saw some videos from northeast Canada that the soil is actually dry and the temperatures are well above the seasonal normal. So it was reported about, but the Po valley in Italia have never been so dry and the nearby regions are in the same position. I’m just maybe 100 miles east of it but we have the same climate. Rain “bombs” like they said. We hadn’t any rain season for at least 2 years and the subterranean water basin is dry and low. So what is really missing is a comprehensive report around the world to show people what is really happening. And the climate is changing naturally but with a really really strong support from our industry and transportation etc. of course in the worst possible way.
Fun fact: decades ago they found a Roman merchant ship marooned in the Po river's delta (which was a vast swamp in the past), with its bottom half preserved by the mud along with its cargo of lead ingots and amphorae, and the personal belongings abandoned by the crew and passengers, which were civilians and some soldiers. Not to mention the lost Etruscan city of Spina, rediscovered buried under the brackish water valleys next to the river. So you're not so far off lol
@@JK-br1mu yeah, it's been a mix of "ooh good opportunity to go looking for stuff" (in the river bed they've also found prehistoric megafauna fossils, along with the WWII relics. Not to mention what they might find in the Tiber river, which is also low due to the drought) and "we're doomed", very conflicting emotions to say the least
"You probably have never heard of this river" *historians die on the inside*
And it is always Don Camilo and Peppone!!!
Bit like the Ob in Siberia.
I think it’s aimed at Americans. I cannot imagine any European who did not learn about it.
@@linchen008 a masterpiece
The only Italian river Ihad heard of was tiber 😅
The Po valley was once covered in forests. Bears, deers and boars roamed in all of it. They do not even consider to reforest the area. The majority of the cropland is for annuals that are used for animal consumption. At least turning it into agroforestry systems where the animals can grow and feed themselves from the land, we would lower emissions and mitigate the droughts. Wake up Italy!
foreste con gli orsi nella valle del po? forse al tempo dei galli o dei longobardi
Wouldn't reforestation use more water? That is what my experience has been. Are you sure you know what you are talking about? Plus in dry seasons like this, reforestation would put them at great risk or forest fire. The US tried this is some regions and some of the reforestation has stayed (part of FDR's New Deal), but most of it burned taking homes and towns with it.
@@rabbit251 I have experience in my family property in the area. In Bergamo province. We never watered the trees that we planted, and survival rates have been high. If you are investing into a silvopastural system you may want to irrigate your trees for the first 2 to 5 years, but that's it. Considering that corn is one the most water exigent plant that you can ever grow, and that in the summer season we rarely have rains (that is the growing season for corn), all farmers use irrigation for growing the crop. Check out New Forest Farm in Wisconsin. He is doing great in the US with his project.
@@rabbit251 we need to switch to perennial crops and not annuals. Annuals erode the soil and use more water, perennials build soil, hold water, and need less of it. That and stop eating meat/dairy/eggs.
While we’re at it, Europe will also need to switch ASAP to solar/wind, battery storage, electric vehicles. Not just to give a finger to Russia, but so we avoid turning this planet into Venus, which has extreme CO2 in its atmosphere with surface temperatures of about 500 degrees F.
Assolutamente vero. Siamo in mano a dilettanti di fronte al disastro.
You may think this is unbearable ? Brace yourself, it's only gonna get worse. It's only the beginning.
Indeed. This is just the beginning of the beginning of the end.
Climate change is real!
@@hangender It's been dragging on worse than The Walking Dead for decades now. End it.
I was a poor Farmer in Egypt but now I'm Rich through the help of Richard scote
I'm New here.. First time hearing about Mr Richard
Step one, implement “regenerative agriculture” techniques. The Po has historically flooded, which is an symptom of watershed scale mis-management. Emphasis should be placed on retaining water on the land as long as possible through the use of keypoint swales and ponds. Eliminated all spray irrigation which loses excessive amounts to evaporation, and replace it with drip irrigation. Reforest areas to reduce flooding and soil loss, and encourage recharge of aquifers to help sustain uses during predictable periods of low rainfall.
Don’t blame this on co2
That sounds expensive... Just saying, most people making decisions about now, won't be around long enough to really feel the impact.
@@denniswoycheshen not necessarily expensive, but true many problems stems from lack of initiative and mismanagement.
@@martincassels7995 nobody did, and there is a plan... Now isn't that wonderful?
@@martincassels7995 obviously this is Vladimir Putin's fault!
This is an almost exact parallel to what's happening to the Colorado River in the US. Lack of snowfall, a long-term drought, and diversion of the river's water to urban and agricultural concerns have severely depleted the Colorado. Unlike the United States, however, it's difficult to relocate away from a drought-stricken area - which is what may have to happen to cities like Las Vegas or Phoenix. Hopefully the water catchment plan is a long-term solution, but it's hard to predict how climate change will continue to alter weather patterns.
Also the glaciers are gone likely permanently affecting flow. This is happening all over the world.
Extreme weather events, droughts, floods, heatwaves are only going to increase, given the predictions made by scientists decades ago and the more recent increased frequencies of such events.
@@jaaksavat7916 The feedback effects are already showing their effects, the time line for temperature increases and ecosystem destruction seems 10-20 years faster than most commonly predicted when I was growing up. By 2040-2050 there wont be enough rainfall, ground water, and/or top soil in the right places to feed us along currents transport routes, and there won't be any wild forests or fish stocks left in warming oceans to supplement that deficiency. I suspect things will be so bad by then that most countries will have complete systems and infrastructure collapse with everyone fending for themselves. Migrating, fighting, laying down too hungry to run.
Harald Lesch talked about this (I think about) 10 years ago.
He said, around 2050 big parts of Italy, Spain, Greece and so on won't be habitable anymore for many months of the year. Or at least not for a popolus that big.
The long-term solution is rapide reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
Water retention Ponds/Storm Management should be built in every municipality, Everywhere, in every Country !! .. Also look at Ground Cover/Tree's to help maintain Soil moisture .
This is nature getting angry at us humans, we can’t reverse it, climate change is happening at a faster rate everywhere in the world.
No, no, no! Stop making sense! Modern humans can't handle it. You want to start a revolution, peasant? Shhhhh... 🤫🙈🙉🙊
what if i flush my toilet 1000 times a day?
@@StacksSats that sounds like a personality disorder
Even tactics like moving downed trees so they are roughly horizontal to steep slopes increases water absorption and at least mitigates stream rises. Also erosion. Lots of work and in extreme cases helps to have well trained mules along with your come hither. Need comprehensive well funded programs to accompany financing canals etc. none of this is really new.
Speaking of "water bombs", just yesterday a sudden and violent storm hit my city and province (Piacenza, a city along the Po river) with very strong winds that caused a lot of damage to structures, injured people and the final outcome of a dead man.
In the Po Valley these events are becoming more and more violent and sudden year after year.
Each summer is always hotter than the previous one, and when it finally rains, it not only lasts very little, but manifests itself with a destructive violence that seems only a cruel joke of fate.
PS: what about that cheerful tune as the background to a video that has something dramatic?
Was thinking the same thing, upbeat music to an expert saying farmers are reaching their limits..
Very very sad scenario mate that's terrible stuff feel sad for you and others from a greek irsh Scottish Aussie from Marcus in australia tack care.
Cheers mate have a great day from Marcus in australia.
@@paulamaloney1898 your comment is just like that misplaced upbeat music...
these water bombs are also way more common in Eastern Europe than before
For that reason it made me laugh seeing san Pellegrino mineral water still being shipped to Ireland. It's like bringing wood into the forest.
Bringing sand to the Sahara.... Thinking with our feet will only make us step ahead towards disasters. Pun intended.
Lol
San Pellegrino is available in N.America ;-)
I would say that mineral water is bit different case. You know, you don't use san Pellegrino for thinks like cooking, showering or watering your plants.
There is not lack of mineral waters for drinking, there is a lack of water for agriculture and hydroelectric plants
I want to thank Duetche welle for using subtitles in stead of a voice over!!!
Humans have lavished over Gold, silver, diamonds and all other forms of nonsense...but ignored the most precious life necessity....Water...without it we would surely parish...💯
Every animal lives with nature, except humans that destroy it. Smh.. 😔
@@RobJa Wrong. What does a bunny do? It destroys the grass, poops rabbit droppings, and digs up the land.
What do bacteria do? Exact same, they eat up their nutrients, depriving others of it, and excrete waste.
Humans are no different from all other life on earth, they eat money, and sh1t work!
Farmers need to look toward Regenerative Farming methods to reduce flooding and better absorb the rainfall. Dense cover crops is a very quick option to help reduce the damage.
Plant trees instead of giant dead field like the awfull view of dead landscape at 5:05 :(. Trees absobrb CO2, keep 50% of water in soils to grow underground waters, and 50% in air for clouds and rains, refreshing the climate at the same time.
@steveo1791 They took all the trees and they put them in a tree museum,
and they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em.
@@ThePopolong regenerative farming with the correct crop balance removes more co2 than trees and can start the very next season, trees take a long time to grow.
@@nickthorp1624 👆👆
@@ThePopolong trees don't provide the amount of food that a field of grain does
Rain barrels, cisterns, swales, berms, one rock dams all help to plant the rain.
All the best Italia.
Between 70 and 80% of the water supply is used for food and agriculture. Look into Regenerative Agriculture, it is the way to go forward since it takes care of many of the problems that we are having: drought, floods, dwindling food production, etc. The reason is that it takes care of the source, our soils, that have been degraded over years of intensive agricultural practices. With or without rain, degraded soils can't infliltrate water effectively so it runs off or evaporates. This is also why the excessive irrigation needs of modern agriculture. On the other hand, healthy soils and vegetarion are able to retain water so irrigation needs come down drastically. Many farmers in the US have been able to do this in 2 or 3 years... On that note, right now there is a global movement called Save Soil that is trying to push for soil protection policies in all countries. It is gaining a lot of momentum..
Simple solution is to privatize water, and not subsidize farmers (or anyone elses) use of water. That way, when water becomes scarce the price of water will rise, in response, farmers will use less. Supply goes down, demand remains the same, price goes up.
No government intervention required.
Yeah yeah, always agricolture is the problem, in this area more than 20% of the land is concrete. I think that is significant very worst than agricolture it self
The sound mixing on this video is terrible. I can barely understand the narrator because the bass is mixed too high and everything above it is far too low.
Government subsided mass drip-irrigation projects are needed through all of Italy's agricultural regions. Water usage rates would drop by 80-90%, and since agriculture makes up the majority of water usage it would save the nation's future.
growing crops on biofilm also reduces waterusage greatly, and supresses weeds so u don't need to spray herbicides anymore
@@wardwyseur That’s so cool! Also GMO’ed Cordycepts mushroom “traps” can target a specific insect rather than all of them. Never understand why it’s not more common.
@@michelangelomissoni945 very good idea! But there still the problem that most of the irrigation that we use is based with plumbing from 60's and 70's. Maybe we should start with that and afther that working up to droplet irtigation and even invest in OGM
@@pietrovezzaro1530 yeah also because ~40% of aqueduct's water is lost because of old installations/none-bad maintenance
@@michelangelomissoni945 gmo cordyceps is the last thing I want to see
Nobody talked about the massive urban constructions driving water to get lost and not absorbed by terrain
Totally Agree
Per fare un esempio, l'80% del Veneto è cementificato, ci vivo e stanno continuando a costruire e buttare cemento anche dove non serve, mi fa arrabbiare
Suggestions from a desert dweller
1. Harvest rainwater/stormwater
2. Solar cells
3. Greenhouses
Summarized by making the cost of farming increase around 10 times....
The climatic change since the 1980's has been dramatic in northern Italy, especially as temperatures, but now also as precipitation patterns.
Chemtrails, the World Economic Forum is already coming out talking about it (as if they weren't used for decades prior)
@@gigachad6885 More like: GIGASMOOTHBRAIN.
@@gigachad6885 tard
@@gigachad6885 Cringe
Ma per tutti, certo al Nord sta facendo danni enormi ma anche qui in Lucania (Basilicata) la terra é quasi un deserto, il nostro acquedotto fornisce anche acqua alla Puglia, e questo sta mettendo in pericolo anche la nostra produzione agricola...
As usual, if the authorities had reacted with some urgency when they were first warned by the scientists, the new reservoirs would have been finished years ago. Politicians only ever react in a panic, blaming previous governments' inaction. Same obviously applies to worldwide climate emergency right now.
The authorities know that society faces a huge expense and delay, to do even part of what you want. There is even legacy law that must be amended. This must be done carefully and it will take decades to reorder Europe to accommodate 'tropical weather patterns'. The world won't be made perfect in accordance to the desires of millennials.
News Flash: We are changing the climate:
Your expectations for snowfall from the past mean nothing for the future.
Higher water temperatures are here to stay. We will need to do a lot more water management, and we will need drastic measures to reverse climate changes.
Agriculture is going to be a worldwide problem. Agriculture needs a stable climate, without it agriculture cannot exist.
Warm places are doomed. Seek water security and cooler climates. Go now and beat the stampede.
@@CastorRabbit Search Permaculture green the desert project with Geoff Lawton
@@ahmadhasif979 I'm not interested in what is possible, lots of things are possible. That has nothing to do with what comes next.
@RogerWilco Assuming these things truly are long term, its hardly an existential crisis. Farmers will adapt, growing different crops, farming in different ways. And i wouldn't worry about these ridiculous claims of "global famine", after all, if the climate really is warming, vast swathes of Siberia and Canada will be opened up to farming and easy port access.
This is not a climate crisis, this is people with power trying to scare us all into giving them even more power.
@@CastorRabbit not really, warm regions are adapted to the heat unlike west europe and some parts of USA.
A similar thing is happening to Lade Mead in the American Southwest. The revisor behind Hoover Dam is gotten very low due to a severe draught. You can now see boats and planes in the lake that have not been seen in over sixty years.
Because it's being diverted to a bunch of liberals in California that keep voting for the democrats
Oof
I watch videos about Lake Mead and the Hoover dam from time to time. It's devastating. There is also some footage from the 70s when even the emergency spillways flooded. That will not happen again some time soon. 😔
Things like this are happening around the world in multiple food growing areas. It's just one more sign that humanity has left it too late to deal with the climate crisis.
I thought someone said climate change isn't real?
Absolutely correct our politicians and corporations have done absolutely nothing to prevent this and the average citizen will be left to deal with it.
I assume your familiar with agricultural statistics showing that production is up and up and up decade after decade and in fact the fastest improvements in the history of all humanity have been the in the last generation? Italy for instance is a region where yields are quite a bit higher than they were a generation ago. As is the case in almost every other functional part of the world.
For over 10 years the concern has been ridiculed as alarmist. Yes, the alarm bells have been ringing.
@@ssssaa2 are you implying that all is well?
Same in Canada, population not in farming are oblivious to the problem. Sad.
There are no drought's in Canada. Stop trying to be important karen
Tragedy that this is happening! Forests are a good thing, Italy's most well known product, grapes, actually thrive better in open forest meadows; a more open sort of meadow which happens to be in the midst of the forest. The forest helps to trap moisture in the meadow, with the grassland providing temperature regulation.
Balsamic Vinegar is also good stuff!
greed demands as much mono-culture as possible. strip the earth and pay the price.
Increased temperatures melted the glaciers in the mountains that contribute to a lot of run off. All of Europe will face similar river issues.
This is natural it happens everywere and it comes and goes!Greece for the last few years is having record snowfalls and although 10 years ago we had problems with the level of the water in many lakes the last few years they are more than full!Especialy the last season we had snowfalls in record amounts so much that a few tall mountains even today have a bit of snow in some parts of them!
Alot of things need to be discussed and addressed. And population growth is one of them.
I know but they 75% of people on earth man will say its a myth or some radical myth people dont really take anything serious . they here overpopulation and think its a joke . also the same issues with climate change they think its some myth .they dont take anything serious.
Even worse we have fiat money systems based off infinity growth
For the federal. Reserve to keep this game of degrading earth to keep the fiat capitalism debt based currency system going .
The fed says the governments ow them the governments say the people ow them
We have a economic system which encourages this climate change and overpopulation from effects of those systems worth leaders pretty much takes the climate change and overpopulation situation as a joke
Absolutely - the one discussion that never happens. Sometimes our collective denial is astounding.
@@sroberts605 @j j You two first.
@@joeblogs6598 Is that all you can manage?
@@sroberts605 What would you have us all do?
At some point we are going to have to accept the necessity of creating artificial aqueducts across regional and even national borders, to transfer excessive rainfall in one area to another area that needs it. It will be hellishly expensive, but it's the only way to allow humans to continue living in places that have already been thoroughly civilized as weather patterns change over time.
Or intensify it's usage, as it's done in Israel where every bit of vegetation is covered by drip irrigation system
How would you suggest any sort of control over such transfer of water?
Starting with who determines what areas need it?
As example, much of the American far west is really desert its only through huge volumes of water consumed as irrigation that make it anywhere close to "green", at what point does that area NOT get any more water from outside its geographical borders?
Maybe humans shouldn't be living in certain places to begin with, I mean its pretty tough to complain about flooding if you choose to build on a flood plain...
Ireland becomes the Saudi Arabia of water/rain
@Shawn Elliott You may be correct. This does not require government intervention though.
@@joeblogs6598 Those large scale projects never work without government intervention.
Take it from the history books, if you loose farmers during the hard times it will come back to haunt you. Especially if they don't return when times get better. As much as people hate the idea of their government just giving away money, they will hate it even more when their grocery stores run short, or even out of goods.
Rivers are dying out, ever where, A thousands years desertification process of some part of earth has already begun
Probably never heard of this river. Silliest statement ever. In Australia we were taught of the Po river civilization when we were in year 8 history. Half a world away and we know of the Po river. Clearly that statement was aimed at the US education system.
In America they think it's Po folk in🤣 their South.
@@spaniardsrmoors6817 😂😂😂
There is a underlying systemic issue. A river running straight is like a fast drain pipe. Pour wat into it a it drains fast. Natural areas are like a sponge, and can store water and release it slowly. So there is also a man made component to this and the farmers has a part of that.
Shalom, Salam, Peace. We The Humans Keep On Fighting With Each Other, Instead Of Uniting Together To Deal With Climate Change.
This means food prices are going to go up . I hope this will be a short lasting experience or else is going to be disastrous
Yeah, it will be short lasting, because things are only getting worse, as long as we don't care about the future of our planet.
It's at a point where the only way it'll be a short lasting experience is if it spells our end, as prices for food and now water, will just continue to climb untill it is no longer affordable to live for the average person. Then we are looking at treading the path of another great depression.
One positive. Excellent opportunity to dredge sections, tidying it up and improve the river banks. Raise the land of flood prone areas.
River gravel, sand/aggregate...useful stuff.
MONEY MONEY abba made money from that tune
in fact they were a bigger export than lorry industry
Water must stay where it rains. In fact, almost all river systems have been converted into canals - to the benefit of the people, so the plan was... for more agricultural land, commercial areas, settlements. The water (waters) must be given more space, rivers widened and the runoff slowed down.
The Hippies call this Karma.
Actually there is a drainage carnel where I live near, it's completely covered by nature at the top, water still flows thankfully
This fixes the lack of snow how? its only going to get worse, alot worse
@@DKTAz00 The man in the video does not say that renaturation would increase the amount of snow.
@@craigb8228 Danke! Das wusste ich nicht.
What a beautiful part of the planet...
... this was.
we must keep the Po active. It is the only thing that separates civilization from madness
Ahahahhah
Man water will be the most expensive ressource on earth, thank you humanity!
Same happening in the western cape region here in south africa, last few years the rain not enough for this region. the Cape also have a Med climate, strange here on the east coast, we had some of the worse floods in April 22!
currently the situation in northern Italy is tragic, there are 35/40 degrees and it hasn't rained for months and we have a bankruptcy political management for public water ..
I am been living in Italy for past 5 years ,as agriculture student to working for Agriculture sector in Italy, it's disastrous mismanagement of water , like in Mediaval periods subsequently less rains caused this situation in north Italy , in south Italy the farmers are more responsible to water how they have to use, probably lacking knowledge in cultivation more wasted than cultivation with heavy machinary for small pieces of land which is not necessary.
@Balaji it isn't "lacking of knowledge" the problem, it's the greed and not wanting to solve sticky situations because they might upset few people with power/money.
Italy has plenty of good things as much as horrible egotistical and unprofessional people in position of importance. It's disheartening.
@@paolagrando5079 I completely agree 💯👍.
South is more responsible for water?
You drunk man?
@@VanZibarX In theory, because in general, the south if Italy has always had less water then the north there should be a bit of more care about not wasting it.
We've faced an extraordinary situation with 4 months, 1/3 of the entire year, without a single drop of rain in the winter.
Mountains were completely dried and you're blaming farmers for the lack of water?
You don't even have any idea of what you're talking about
It's time to stop with oil, gas and coal production
thank you DWNews for using subtitles instead of voice over narration. At best it is distracting, even for a bilingual listener, and at worse it comes out as gibberish.
That crop sprayer is the worst way to water the crops and what crops being grown should be looked at too.
Every global citizen
Must learn at this moment how
To use water more than once
And also capture it.
And use less of it.
I went from washing my corvette every weekend to only washing it once a month.
Thank you DW News for not only reporting about the actual crisis, but also pointing out solutions.
Same thing happening here in America with the Colorado River.
not really. the colorado drains a natually much dryer area
2017 ANSA) - Saluzzo, September 5 - The sources to the mighty River Po on the Monviso mountain have dried up due to the recent long drought that has hit Italy. As a result there is no water flowing next to the famous sculpted rock at 2,020 metres above sea level that reads "Here begins the Po" - an extremely rare event. The 652km Po is Italy's longest river.
letting it just flow into the adriatric is just dumb at this point, dam up the end and hold onto what water you can
The river is dry.
Droughts are scary and sad. Everything suffers from nature to agriculture to people and pets
Sorry for my opinion but we can't stop geology that's exactly what's happening all over the world. We don't have the power to stop the planet.
Thank you for your very clear exposition of the problem.
It is good that they are planning for the long term. Right after I thought of rain reservoirs they said it. The Americans are just doing nothing with the Colorado River but suck it dry.
It's what we do best, Nothing.
@@mikebocchinfuso9437 I would say it is the second thing you do best. The firs is turning any situation to opportunity for profit. So here is my proposal: Collect all treated wastewater from coastal cities and sell it for irrigation.
dumbest statement ever
the worst in 70 years. is that because they didn't document 71 years ago? or is it because it was as bad 70 years ago?
all nations have to start building sponge cities all villages have to start agroforestry and the farmers have to work in a syntropic way
Do you mean to re-marsh all the region?
@@LuisAldamiz he means other people must reorder their lives, but not him. Notice he didn't mention household use of water.
@@someotherdude - Household use of water is quite meaningless, what wastes water is agriculture, industry and posh luxuries like golf courses and swimming pools.
I live under the state called Spain, now experiencing a brutal drought, with water reservoirs as low as 28% in some areaas (Andalusia) and the analyses are very clear: more than 2/3 of water is wasted on irrigation of cash-crop farms (which largely produce for Northern Europe with near-slave labor force from Morocco). Regions like Madrid, also in the semi-arid south but without relevant agriculture, are much much better off (above 60%), precisely because water is mostly used for household use and not agriculture and other wasteful practices.
Tejo is even worse in Portugal!
It has a 400m3 average discharge, but nowdays, a litle child that cannot swim can cross it safely in several places near its mouth.
actually we had some days of rains, but I've seen such drought evenin 2003. The problem has its roots in winter, because we have warm winters and there is no snow, no rain, glaciers are melting away..It seems we need to shift to a south mediterrean agriclture, like sicily andalusia north africa , collecting all the rain in basins durgin wet seasons. Anyway, yes, climate change is real...
Climate change is real as it has been for billions of years, not man made.
The water is there. They just said they pump it all out to sea.
Water is one of the most essential things in life and must given every environmental and scientific knowledge..even the poor and the rich need it
Correction: water IS life on our planet
you should consider to re-establish forests. if you drive through the po valley, on many occasions you can just see big agricultural parcels and therefore open plains. no wonder there is no ability to retain water...
The case of river drought in a modern country like Italy is a very sad incident, okay now Italy is aware and has to save this river,... how to protect the environment that supports the absorption of water into the ground from upstream to downstream,... create adequate supporting forests and This is your responsibility for the nation's future generations
Been a lot of shifts over time in regards to weather. Plenty of examples of extreme heat and extreme rainfalls etc over the centuries.
Yes, but all of those ones were not caused by humans and all of those ones were able to right themselves because nothing in the atmosphere was out of balance. Do try to keep up, climate change is not a new phenomena.
Collective collaboration with water scare countries could be a better solution.
People's mindset needs to be changed accordingly.
Most scary thing,we might see same situation rising in most of countries in near future if not acted rationally.
you are absolutely right
@Prateek singh bhadouria "People's mindset needs to be changed accordingly." How do you expect to do that? Use the government to force them to do it?
@@joeblogs6598 Things implemented by force never lasts.
Campaign starting from village level to city level, making people aware about pro and cons of it.
Innovation to learn to conserve water ,reduction of water consumption from countries like Arabs, Israel.
People at ground level are main resources, needs to be educated on how to conserve.
Government role is just to educate, provide monetary help.
@@Prateeksinghbhadouria "Government role is just to educate, provide monetary help." The issue with that, is how government gets the money to pay for that education and monetary help. Government gets money by taxation. Taxation is peoples money taken with force by the government.
Whenever you use the government to do anything, you are inherently using force.
@@joeblogs6598 on one side u could be right but think on the other side ,where can government get the money from???
Country with poor taxation mostly lack developmental projects...there are many examples where either people evade taxes or corruption is there.
U can't go for loans every time.
Only thing I feel, community planning at village level where people can mobilise monetary resources and build water conservation barriers , grow water scarce crops, recycle water....but this will take time...NGO's can help.
Really worrisome that the longest important river in Italy is in terrible trouble
People ask what can they do to stop climate change but they dont want to hear what the solution is.😥😟
Well it is also something that cannot be solved on an individual level. Things like "having no facilities near where you live" or "all houses that are built have a short life and high energy consumption" cannot be solved by individuals.
Every little seasonal stream in the entire watershed, needs a series of check dams to catch rainfall to soak it into the aquifers. Catch the rainfall in the hills to avoid flooding down stream.
Costruisci laghi per preservare ogni goccia di pioggia. Viva l'Italia!
Si sta già facendo.
I have a seasonal creek running through my property. Just been through a couple drought cycles.
Built a series of dikes using hay bales to slow down water movement and just keep water around longer.
If you moderate water flow/ supply closer to its source you preempt the need for flood control
I live in the area the video talked about, I my city we have a creek and it is standard practice to keep plats to grow into its bed to slow the flow
In my neighborhood we have this cool little stream:) and my friend have a little stream on his property:D
Is it just me or is the cheery, kids-show music a bit odd on such a serious topic just as this?
it is not cheery at all. More a kind of melodramatic, ironic, sad and playful tone to it. But I guess perception can vary.
I found the music inappropriate and way too loud
I hope I really did miss it, but DW you did not mention climate change once in this video,
Please tell me I'm wrong, come on...
It will be the climate that forces action on climate change, not politics!
It's a real shame that the US were leading the denial for so long - during much of the period when we could have had a real affect - from Europe we could only do our own thing and try to persuade...
Why are all droughts blamed on "climate change"?
There have been droughts for centuries, look at all the water being used, evaporated and wasted and tackle those things first.
"Climate change" often is used as an excuse not to do anything about the real causes.
Italy is surrounded by the Mediterranean, so how about building desalination plants?
There have been droughts in the past, of course, but they are happening more frequently and intensely as time progresses. Rain precipitation has shifted to being more like tropical rainfall, and all these European, flat landscapes that go for miles without much trees but instead crops and farmland, are just being overwhelmed by this and flooded.
It's incredibly sad to not see the clear effects of climate change at this point in history. You gotta get wit it as things are moving fast and there's no time to sit around and ponder if it exists or not.
The drought in Italy is similar to the drought in Southwest United States and long term solutions are difficult at best. The higher temperatures create drier soil, less snow fall and different rain patterns will decrease water supply and water rationing will occur for everyone.
The earth is 5 billion years old GET IT !!!!
@John Wakamatsu The Southwest is having trouble because people are trying to farm in a desert. If the government stops subsiding farmers water bills, they will use less water. In turn the water requirements will be reduced.
Is the river being deepened through dredging at certain points?
I just wonder whether use of desalinated water in cities Ravenna, Padova, Rovigo, Mestre and Treviso could reduce strain on Po river and help with irrigation once this water is used for other purposes and then treated accordingly. I think that it is bit shame that countries of Southern Europe rely so much on natural water sources, deplete them for various purposes, even thou we have technology for virtually unlimited water supply. Especially in arid regions of southern Italy, Spain, and in Balkans, Greece as well, it could significantly boost local agricultural production and maybe even have positive effect on climate.
As well treated waste water from coastal areas should be, even thou it will consume some energy, pumped back inland and stored in suitable reservoir and then used for irrigation.
Energy and financially expensive.
@@julianshepherd2038 Not that much actually. E.g. for mechanical vapor compression you need just 7 to 12 kWh of electricity per cubic metre, for reverse osmosis it should be some 4 to 6 kWh, but this process has some issues with certain ions. If we would not take in account price of machinery and labour, then the price of water should not exceed some 1.2 per cubic metre if the power will came from new nuclear. For any other source, BTW this perhaps can be used asi variable load on grid, it coupled with some reservoirs, the electricity price could be significantly lower. (Well once we will solve those current supply issues, but maybe Italy can significantly boost it's solar sector, just as Balkans, Greece and other southern regions.)
@@MrToradragon Not that much? Is that why it's installed every it is needed? Desalination is incredibly expensive, energy intensive, and environmentally challenging, as the brine needs to be dumped. The technology has come a long way, but there is a reason it is effectively limited to the oil barons of the middle east
Desalination also is very detrimental to marine life, in addition to being very expensive to operate, because you have to suck in sea water via a large inlet pipe, endangering marine life trapped within it. You also have to dispose of the massive amounts of salt after all the desalination process. You have to weigh this very carefully. It is the last option. There's a reason why it is not the quickest solution to every drought problem. Most of the countries look for cheaper and safer alternatives.
@@marcob1729 The price of desalinated water, I have looked for it, is between 0.5 and 1.2 USD per cubic metre. I would say that it is quite reasonable price.
5:53 This was known for decades already. Why haven't you prepared for the storage of fast falling rain?
Keep it up for the sake of humanity love kindness prosperity and happiness
The question should be, can the river be saved without changing anything. Especially our lifestyles.
no
2:20 Certainly one of the approaches to solving this problem is adopting irrigation methods developed in water poor regions like Israel. The way irrigation is handled in the Po valley today as shown for example at the 2.20 time stamp in this report may no longer be sustainable.
It is highly probable.
Sure a new type of irrigation could help. But yhe other face of the medal is that our agricultural irrigation system belongs to the Romans. We have (whats remains)the agricultural ecosystem based on it. Switching type of irrigation would be the end of the agricultural ecosystem and nontheless increment the deforestation of the tree lines that delimit the field parcel (known as "centuriazione romana") and the consequencial loss of landscape.
@@Doppiovetro thanks for you input. I can't discuss this here in detail but a change in irrigation systems would only be one aspect. Others would be changing the type of crops that are grown, changing the type of trees/bushes that are planted for soil and crop protection. Further means might be applied on the side of infrastructure such as the construction of various types of retaining structures that can hold excess water for use during the dry season, The climate situation is changing fast but not so abruptly that adaptation would be impossible. For example, in the Padana they are growing rice which needs a large amount of water. This is a "new" development as the Romans didn^t know this crop. Perhaps those kinds of crops would have to be replaced. So yes, the changing climate might mean the modification and adaptation of traditional agriculture (which is as in the case of rice not so traditional) but it certainly doesn't mean the end of agriculture as such. From that point we are far far awawy.
you forgot a factor: geoengineering
I hope the plans are better completed than the sea wall for Venice
Looooool
The sea wall for Venice is working...
Saldy, we reached a point where almost evry single thunderstorm in italy is extremely violent.
The % of twisters and tornados in thunderstorms is increasing, winds are stronger and makes more damages, rainfalls are very very concentrated, it can fall in 10 minutes the amount of water for an entire month! The number of supercell clouds is increasing.
It is becoming more and more similar to the American midwest
Farmers always have to deal with the weather, which is at times - let's say, difficult.
However, no water at all equals no farming. Welcome to climante change.
I remember back 25 years ago when we learned about climate change and rising temperatures and everything, and almost everyone laughing it away as a problem of the future. Well, this is that future.
exactly. they had 25 years to prepare for this. the peeps that warned about this happening were mocked, ridiculed.
How do you guys suppose we address this "anthroprogenic climate change"?
The only problem is: most of the "climate change" predictions from 25 years ago didn't come true. Drought wasn't even one of the predictions of global warming because, as climate scientists explained to you just six month ago for the Ahrtal flooding, warmer air carries more water not less. It's tempting to use climate change as a catch all for weather you don't like but then you move from science to superstition.
Should be strategically planned so aid to put farmers demand as priority if you don’t hunger spread in near future
I hope that after raining, there is no flash flood, because the land cannot receive so much water after the drought.
The Netherlands waterknowledge might help…
Truly 🙂
As an Italian, I really hope so
The Dutch are really good with controlling excess water, but can they really help with a dearth of water? No, Israel has more knowledge with how to survive with a lack of water.
Would the Netherlands know how to manage a rain fall from Jan to June of only 170mm.
Talks with engineers from other countries would definitely be useful, but bear in mind that the Netherlands have a different geography than Italy. As an example, there are sismic areas and volcanos in one and not in the other.
Maybe they can make the po in several places less wide, so it overflows more easily when there is a lot of rain, and then strategically place large overflow basins in these spots so that the water can be stored there for long periods of time.
When there is not enough rain, that water can be pumped out back in the river to be used by agriculture and people
The music and the narrator's style seem to suggest that this topic is funny
Party music!
money that he is filmento
If the precipitation quantity has not changed in 20 years, then the problem is with harvesting the water, not with climate change. It is unacceptable that we cannot capture, harvest, and store the precipitation for a time when it is need. Build more storage facilities.
I am sick of living in unprecedented times!
see a doctor mate
you'll need more than medicine
Wasn't 2003 like that? It would be interesting to have more information on the matter of the river Po'.
Governments need to start funding desalination plants even if its only for agricultural purposes.
Energy hog, and with more extreme weather adapting the landscape to cope is needed anyway. Combine the too and help not just the crops but the whole landscape and ecosystem the farmers need to maintain healthy land to grow crops on.
@@hillockfarm8404 Energy consumption for desalination is not that great.
@Mark Farmer Governments are funded by taxation, wealth taken by force from the citizens. If farmers want to farm, they can pay for the water.
@@joeblogs6598 Sure, but then don't tax them.
@@joeblogs6598 You are assuming there is water for one and that the farmers have legal access or can grease some palms to legalize wells. That works for big ag., but not for multigeneration familyfarms that do littleharm to the ecosystem. The ones doing the damage are not paying the price.
Same is happening with the Tejo/Tagus river here in Portugal, it's the largest river in the Iberian peninsula...
Overpopulation is the root problem
No, greed is.
I am wondering whether archaeologists are taking the opportunity to search for artifacts that had long been under water?
Thanks China🇨🇳 for continued
- *building* more and more coal-fired power plants, and
- *burning* more and more fossil fuel.
Aaaaand add USA
If every house put a water tank beside it, like they do in Australia, the household use of reservoir water would go down substantially.
How about lake mead and the hoover damn? Please spread some awareness since big media will not.
DW IS the big media ;)
Outside the US your drought is well known. The west coast aquifer including the lake Mead, the mid west/east underground water plateau is drying out, only the east coast isn’t that bad due to hurricanes and the favorable conditions of the Atlantic climate. And almost forgot about wildfires. Few areas like the northwest and northeast isn’t suffering from drought yet. But I saw some videos from northeast Canada that the soil is actually dry and the temperatures are well above the seasonal normal. So it was reported about, but the Po valley in Italia have never been so dry and the nearby regions are in the same position. I’m just maybe 100 miles east of it but we have the same climate. Rain “bombs” like they said. We hadn’t any rain season for at least 2 years and the subterranean water basin is dry and low. So what is really missing is a comprehensive report around the world to show people what is really happening. And the climate is changing naturally but with a really really strong support from our industry and transportation etc. of course in the worst possible way.
I was in itally last week. And it was like in Tunis. Air, smell, hot wetter, everything dry.
Find Ancient Roman artifacts in the riverbed! Gladii, denarii, the possibilities are endless!
Thanks to the rising temperatures we can restore the Roman Empire! All this climate change thing seems pretty good actually
Fun fact: decades ago they found a Roman merchant ship marooned in the Po river's delta (which was a vast swamp in the past), with its bottom half preserved by the mud along with its cargo of lead ingots and amphorae, and the personal belongings abandoned by the crew and passengers, which were civilians and some soldiers.
Not to mention the lost Etruscan city of Spina, rediscovered buried under the brackish water valleys next to the river. So you're not so far off lol
@@hilariousbenjamin5614 that is awesome. I like the weather events that reveal ancient stuff....not that we want any collateral damage along with it
@@JK-br1mu yeah, it's been a mix of "ooh good opportunity to go looking for stuff" (in the river bed they've also found prehistoric megafauna fossils, along with the WWII relics. Not to mention what they might find in the Tiber river, which is also low due to the drought) and "we're doomed", very conflicting emotions to say the least
To say 40% of renewable energy comes from hydropower is not a good way to put it. How much is it in total?