LeakBird

(March 9, 2009, Reuters)
From cotton farms to factories that make high-tech computer chips, companies face huge risks from droughts like those searing California and Australia and that recently parched the U.S. Southeast.
Climate scientists say droughts will become more common as higher temperatures evaporate water supplies and overuse drain aquifers faster than they can be replenished [...]

(March 10, 2009, Reuters)
It’s hard to visualize a water crisis while driving the lush boulevards of Los Angeles, golfing Arizona’s green fairways or watching dancing Las Vegas fountains leap more than 20 stories high.
So look Down Under. A decade into its worst drought in a hundred years Australia is a lesson of what the American [...]

(March 5, 2009, Crikey Creek)
What John Fleck refers to as “one of climate change’s most important equations”, just happens to be one of hydrology’s most important equations too – probably the most.
In the previous post I showed annual data sets of rainfall and temperature for the whole of Australia. In the last seven years, rainfall [...]

With all of the rain California has been receiving over the last few weeks, water levels are back to 80% in Sierra snowpack terms and there is “drought improvement“.  The 167-mile stretch of the Hetch-Hetchy system, which provides 85% of the Bay Area’s water, can continue to flow at four fifths capacity.  But water restrictions [...]

(Feb. 23, 2009, The Ludwig Von Mises Institute)
It is near impossible to imagine any private company not enjoying the “problem” of high demand for its products and services. Yet there are some products that are repeatedly reported as shortages. There is one thing these products have in common: government intervention, typically in the form of [...]

(Feb. 16, 2009, Tara Lohan, The Nation)
If you’ve read anything about the global water crisis, you’ve likely read a quote from Dr. Peter Gleick, founder and president of the Pacific Institute, and one of the world’s leading water experts. His name has become as ubiquitous as drought itself, which is suddenly making major headlines. [...]

(Nov. 18, 2008, PerthNow)

HOUSEHOLDERS would be charged for each flush under a radical new toilet tax designed to help beat the drought.
The scheme would replace the current system, which sees sewage charges based on a home’s value – not its waste water output.
CSIRO Policy and Economic Research Unit member Jim McColl and Adelaide University Water [...]

(Feb. 9, 2009, Aguanomics)
David Besley sent me his article comparing Australia to Georgia. Besides the usual points (farmers can survive and thrive with water markets), the article had some new stuff:
Before it reaches the Southern Ocean, the Murray drains into two large lakes that are surrounded by wetlands.
[snip]
“We had the driest years on record in [...]

(Jan. 7, 2009, The Age)
MELBOURNE consumed slightly less water in 2008 than 2007 but still lived beyond its means in the ongoing drought.
In the first full calendar year under stage 3a water restrictions, the city consumed 368 billion litres of water, a result that ensured per-capita usage was close to 1930s levels…
But a gloomier picture [...]

(Dec. 23, 2008, Associated Press)
An ancient underground water basin the size of Libya holds the key to Australia avoiding a water crisis as climate change bites the drought-hit nation.
Australia’s Great Artesian Basin is one of the largest artesian groundwater basins in the world, covering 1.7 million sq kms (656,370 sq miles) and lying beneath one-fifth [...]