Climate Change and Water Resources

There is a great deal of misunderstanding surrounding the subject of climate change, often leading to profound confusion regarding its potential impacts on natural resource systems and public well-being. Well-intentioned but misguided attempts by the media to call attention to the prospect of climate change have left much of the public with the impression that the Earth's climate system is either poised at the brink of cataclysmic change or that global climate change is a myth that they can safely ignore.


Neither of those extreme views provides useful guidance to anyone attempting to make informed decisions about the management of climate-sensitive resources. In this report, the research team summarized the best available scientific evidence on climate change, including both natural changes and changes that may be caused by human activities. In particular, this primer focused on what is known about the implications of climate change for the water cycle and the availability and quality of water resources.



This report is available as a pay-per-view item only.