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(MENAFN - Jordan Times) Experts taking part in international event warn of grave consequences if projects like Red-Dead cancel and recycled wastewater are not realised

STOCKHOLM - A major decrease in the amount of water available for agricultural and household purposes in Jordan is anticipated as a direct effect of global warming, according to experts participating at the August 12-18 Weekly Water Week 2007 in Stockholm.

Increasing temperatures in the Jordan Valley, coupled with varying amounts and timing of rain in the next few decades would put many Jordanian farmers out of business, posing an extra challenge to policy makers.

"We expect revenues from the farming industry in the eastern side of the Jordan Valley to drop significantly," according to Heinz-Peter Wolff, a scientist who led a study at the University of Hohenheim in Germany on the socio-economic impacts of changing water availability in Jordan.

Washington, Aug 19: Permafrost, the frozen foundation of North America isn't that permanent anymore, a team of scientists from the Michigan State University, Southern Illinois University, Villanova University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, have found.

Permafrost serves as a platform underneath vast expanses of northern forests and wetlands in many northern ecosystems. But rising atmospheric temperatures are accelerating rates of permafrost thaw in northern regions.

In their study appearing in last week's online edition of Global Change Biology, MSU researcher Merritt Turetsky and her team explored whether melting permafrost could lead to a viscous feedback of carbon exchange that actually fuels future climate change.

The team found that permafrost degradation has complex impacts on greenhouse gas fluxes from northern wetlands.