While water issues are particularly acute in the developing world, shifting climate patterns and soaring demand are creating significant shortages across the planet.
Warming the world is likely to change the climate patterns that we rely on; some areas, for example, are apt to become drier while others will become wetter.
That warm water influences climate patterns around the world, increasing the likelihood of wet and cool weather in the Southeast, heavy rain in California, warm and dry conditions in the Pacific Northwest, and host of other global impacts.
That brings torrential rain and flooding to Ecuador, Peru's desert coast and western Bolivia, and drought to the Andean highlands of Peru and Bolivia.Scientists now know that El Niño disrupts normal climate patterns across much of the world.
A new study of historic climate patterns suggests that, as our current world warms, slower-moving critters may go extinct in far greater numbers than their speedier counterparts.
But the need to do so has gained increased currency -- and urgency -- not least because many climate scientists believe that the cyclical climate patterns driving weather in many of the world's less developed regions will become more frequent and more intense as average global temperatures rise.
Hurricane Sandy was a deadly reminder of shifting climate patterns, emphasizing the need for new ways to manage the world's resources and environment.
Changes in climate patterns that have been seen in the United States and around the world are likely to be connected with sweltering heat waves in Chicago, Milwaukee, and other locales, many scientists agree.
Trenberth also said that some long-range climate models also fail to adequately simulate other natural climate patterns that influence El Nino let alone how they might also shift in a warming world.
The Climate Council attributed the wild weather to continuing erratic climate patterns from climate change.
