I took this picture several years ago near a bend of the Piave River that is known as Fontane di Nogaré from a subterranean spring that feeds the river at this point. The mountains in the background are the Belluno Dolomites. It's a beautiful place and I will let you enjoy its charms for a moment before I tell you what is wrong with this picture.

What is wrong is that this was taken in December, a time of year when, at the very least, the mountain tops should be laden with snow. Climate change has made the sight of the naked Dolomites more and more common in the last several winters. And no snow on the mountains in winter means no water reservoir feeding the rivers in spring and summer, which in turn affects the irrigation of the Padana Plain, the bread basket of Italy, where most of our crops are grown. This was the first year I remember when there was absolutely no snow on the mountains, not even a sprinkling, but since then it has become a fairly common sight, along with dried out lakes and disappearing mountain streams. Sights I never would have expected to see in a land that when I was a kid was so rich in water that waterfalls were an ubiquitous sight whenever we went hiking.