今年の8月にISRLE2014という国際会議が韓国春川市で開催される。
International Symposium on River and Lake Environments の略称だ。
日本、韓国、中国の3か国の陸水研究者の交流だ。
第16回というのだから、ずいぶん長く続いている。
ぎくしゃくと関係がつづいているだけに、仲直りのきっかけになればよいと思っている。
招待講演を頼まれたので、次のような内容で話すことにした。
How can we overcome the coming water crises in East Asian Countries?
Earth's ecosystem are now quickly changing due to climate change, economic development and population expansion. Air temperature continues to rise and so many freshwater problems are occurring everywhere. This is particularly true in east Asian countries, including China, Korea, Mongolia and Japan, which are facing increased occurrence of floods, drought and pollution of air and water. Most of these are happening almost simultaneously across multiple countries and now we are urged to work together to prevent them and mitigate their impacts. This is a survival situation for human beings and effective co-ordinated action is needed immediately. Recently some major impacts on, and mitigation for, ecosystems and societies by climate change and global warming of inland waters were documented by Goldman et al. (2013). In this presentation, I introduce the freshwater problems identified in the book and discuss possible actions which we need to urgently implement.
少しは役に立つことを祈っている。
地球環境は、それだけ深刻な事態だ。
