Po

The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Dry rivers, lakes below their usual levels, increasingly thin snowpacks, hydroelectric power at a standstill, agriculture in serious difficulty.The weekend will bring cold weather and probably snow and rain, but Italy and, in particular, the northern regions, are grappling with a prolonged lack of precipitation which heralds an alarming new year of drought. The dry Po is the worst crisis of the last 70 years The above-normal temperatures and the lack of rain in these winter months have dried out Northern Italy and the snowfall has been insufficient to replenish the waterways.According to data from the Institute of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences (ISAC) and the CNR, collected in the Drought Observatory bulletin, 2022 was the driest year since 1800 with a deficit of 30% at the end of the period.In the North the percentage of less rain rises to 40%:out of 12 months, only December was average.T...