News from IFGR and the rivers of the world

In our previous newsletter we mentioned the ecological and economic imperative of saving corals. Other ecosystems, perhaps less well-known, are just as important for the good health of our planet, namely seagrass prairies. Seagrass prairies form in seawater along the coastlines of every continent, except the Antarctic. They are composed of more than 70 species […]

Although climate change is a global reality, its effects are not uniform for all the regions of the world or for the same type of environment. This has been revealed by a huge international study published in the journal Nature. Performed in the Himalaya-Hindu Kush mountain ranges and the Tibetan Plateau  – the largest area […]

That was the temperature indicated on the thermometer in Western Australia in December 2018. The region was struck by an extreme heatwave. Now, it’s the turn of Southern Australia this January, with temperatures ranging from 8 to 12°C higher than the seasonal average in certain cities. A temperature of 48.9°C was recorded at Port Augusta […]

Plastic pollution in the oceans is now recognised as a worldwide scourge. Thanks to the mobilisation of ONGs working to preserve maritime areas, we are now all aware of the environmental and societal threats it embodies. There are now 150 million tonnes of plastic in the oceans. If we continue a do-nothing scenario, the oceans […]

Four hydrokinetic turbines were installed on the bed of the River Rhone, just upstream of Lyon (France) at the end of 2018. They should produce 1 Gigawatt-hour a year, i.e. the equivalent of the electricity consumption of 500 households, excluding heating. Its installed capacity (320 kW) makes this project, developed following a call for projects […]

If the world knows an average warming of 4°C at the end of the century, what would be the impact on water resources? Upon the COP24, French Water Partnership produced a short  video to alert decision makers and the general public to the catastrophic impacts of an average warming of 4°C at the end of […]