In July 2022, record temperatures saw some 6km3 of Greenland’s ice sheet melt away during a single day. That is some 6000 billion litres of pure fresh water – more than enough to quench the thirst of the entire world population all summer. A second peak occurred in September.
But in spite of melting poles, shrinking glaciers and torrential rain, pure water is in short supply in many places. One in four people in the world does not have immediate access to pure water. This lack of fresh water is estimated already to kill more than a million people a year, and the problem will grow with climate change.
In large parts of the world, the water supply depends on snow melting into streams and rivers over the course of a year. But in a warmer world, less snow will fall, and the melt water will fail in the summer. Extreme rain sounds useful for
