(May 1, 2009, The Chicago Tribune)
The recent drop in Huron water levels that led the Georgian Bay Association to commission its own study resulted largely from drought and warmer temperatures, which boost evaporation rates, the report says.
“Climate is the main driver of the lake level relationships between lakes over time,” it says. “There has [...]
(April 25, 2009, Jeff Sachs, Starbroek News)
But future water stresses will be widespread, including both rich and poor countries. The US, for example, encouraged a population boom in its arid southwestern states in recent decades, despite water scarcity that climate change is likely to intensify. Australia, too, is grappling with serious droughts in the agricultural [...]
(April 22, 2009, Fox News)
The study examined stream flow in 925 of Earth’s largest rivers , and found significant change in about one third of them over the past 50 years.
(Original Article Here)
(March 22, 2009, Reuters)
If water is the new oil, is blue the new green?
Translation: if water is now the kind of precious commodity that oil became in the 20th century, should delivery of clean water be the same sort of powerful political force as the environmental movement in an age of climate change?
And, in another [...]
(March 21, 2009, Robert Glennon, AlterNet)
The following is an excerpt from “Unquenchable: American’s Water Crisis and What We Can Do About It” by Robert Glennon. Copyright 2009 Robert Glennon. Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington DC.
Editor’s Note: This excerpt is from the introduction of Glennon’s new book and follows a narrative about the water [...]
(March 18, 2009, ESPN)
After 39 years in the fish and wildlife management business, I have concluded that only two things really affect fish and wildlife populations: habitat and climate. Most of the contributions made by detailed harvest management practices and manipulations of fisheries by hatcheries have generally had relatively minor impact on the sustainability of [...]
(March 18, 2009, The New York Times)
Don’t expect the future to look much like the past, at least when it comes to the Earth’s fresh water supplies. That’s the message emerging from a major international meeting being held here this week.
More than 27,000 people — including government ministers from more than 120 countries — have [...]
(March 16, 2009, NBCChicago)
Something is happening to our beloved Lake Michigan.
Scientists aren’t sure what it is, but some experts believe the symptoms point to further evidence of radical climate change and alarming drops in lake levels.
We are all too familiar with the site of a frozen lake during our long Chicago winter. But experts say [...]
(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 10, 2009, Aguanomics)
The title of this post is my reformulation of “missing the forest for the trees,” and the subject of the post is a new report from the Pacific Institute.
In Water Scarcity and Climate Change: Growing Risks for Businesses and Investors, the PI assesses the various risks to water supplies that companies should [...]
(Feb. 26, 2009, The Guardian)
The world’s pre-eminent climate scientists produced a blunt assessment of the impact of global warming on the US yesterday, warning of droughts that could reduce the American south-west to a wasteland and heatwaves that could make life impossible even in northern cities.
In an update on the latest science on climate change, [...]
(March 7, 2009, The New York Times)
THE Earth may be two-thirds water, but only about 1 percent of that water is actually usable for human consumption and agriculture. What’s more, as the planet warms and the population shifts, even that 1 percent is at risk.
That is why demand for hydrologists has been predicted to grow [...]
(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 [...]
(March 4, 2009, Huliq)
The water levels in the Dead Sea – the deepest point on Earth – are dropping at an alarming rate with serious environmental consequences, according to Shahrazad Abu Ghazleh and colleagues from the University of Technology in Darmstadt, Germany.
(Original Article Here)
The projected Dead Sea-Red Sea or Mediterranean-Dead Sea Channels therefore need a [...]
(March 5, 2009, Randall Amster, Huffington Post)
Life here in the desert southwest is richly complex and oftentimes a great challenge. A hint of frontier culture remains even as rampant growth and homogenization take hold at breakneck speed. People love the landscapes and the history, but can still sit and watch both disappear in the name [...]
(Feb. 27, 2009, Reuters)
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday declared a state emergency due to drought and said he would consider mandatory water rationing in the face of nearly $3 billion in economic losses from below-normal rainfall this year.
As many as 95,000 agricultural jobs will be lost, communities will be devastated and some growers in [...]
(Feb. 26, 2009, Ceres)
Global climate change is exacerbating water scarcity problems around the world, yet few businesses and investors are paying attention to this growing financial threat, according to a report issued today by Ceres and the Pacific Institute.
Water is crucial for the global economy – driving every industry from agriculture to electric power to [...]
(Feb. 26, 2009, The Mercury News)
In March, after a series of cold winter storms, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada was above normal. That seemed to be good news for California’s water supply, which relies heavily on Sierra Nevada snow.
But after a record heat wave in the early spring, it was as if the winter’s [...]
(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. 19, 2009, Christian Science Monitor)
On the Colorado River Delta, some 250 miles west southwest of Tucson as the crow flies, sits Cienega de Santa Clara.
It’s a 63-square-mile patch of wetland – a key stop for migrating birds along an arid stretch of the Pacific flyway. It’s the largest remaining wetland on the Colorado River [...]
(Feb. 20, 2009, Aquadoc, WaterWired)
I found this interview with Maude Barlow on EurActiv.com (thanks to WaterSISWEB). I was ready to have my head explode but was quite (pleasantly?) surprised; she did not seem misinformed about some basic water facts. No “New Mexico has a 10-year supply of water left.”
There was one thread I found especially puzzling:
We need [...]
(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. [...]
(Feb. 19, 2009, Taiwan-Guide Blog)
I came across this article in the Taipei Times today which noted that parts of central and southern Taiwan are yet to record any rainfall this year! The article mentions concerns about an imminent drought and then goes on to say,
The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Water Resources Agency issued a warning [...]
(Feb. 17, 2009, The Wall Street Journal)
Taking a Cue From Carbon Tracking, Companies and Conservationists Tally Hidden Sources of Consumption
It takes roughly 20 gallons of water to make a pint of beer, as much as 132 gallons of water to make a 2-liter bottle of soda, and about 500 gallons, including water used to grow, [...]
(Feb. 16, 2009, Business-Green)
Water supplies to Las Vegas could run dry within six years thanks to receding water levels at Lake Mead, officials warned last week, bringing into question the long-term viability of the fastest growing city in the US.
Pat Mulroy, the chief executive of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said that the water level [...]
(Feb. 15, 2009, Kelly Zito, The San Francisco Chronicle)
Is it time to stick a straw into the Pacific Ocean?
About 20 water agencies up and down the California coast seem to think so.
From Marin County to San Diego, small and large projects that turn seawater into tap water are gaining favor, propelled by events unprecedented in [...]
(Feb. 14, 2009, The New York Times)
Officials say that a major source of drinking water for about 25 million Californians is at risk. That water currently comes from the delta where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers meet, and the levees that protect the region are more than 100 years old and are vulnerable to [...]
(Feb. 12, 2009, The Montreal Gazette)
Even the Great Lakes aren’t great enough to sustain North Americans’ reckless water use in the event of a continentwide water shortage, according to a new report.
The report — titled Sentinels of Change and set for release in Friday’s edition of Science — suggests the Great Lakes’ scant renewal rates [...]
(Feb. 12, 2009, Ken Pomeranz, The China Beat)
The Chinese droughts have just begun to move onto the front pages of the world’s newspapers, but the droughts are just the latest sign of much more dire warnings of water woes in China. Some China experts are talking about this (see, for instance, today’s event at the [...]
(Feb. 11, 2009, Ben Block, WorldWatch)
In regions where pumping and distributing water requires significant electricity use, policies that lead to reduced water consumption could address climate change more efficiently than requiring businesses and households to use less energy, according to water expert Peter Gleick.
“Some of the cheapest greenhouse gas emission reductions available seem to be [...]
(Feb. 11, 2009, The Star-Telegram)
As Texas’ population explodes, new residential, commercial and industrial development is rampant. The state is far more urbanized, and continued dramatic growth is expected in coming decades.
That’s putting unprecedented environmental pressures on one of the state’s most-precious resources: its many rivers, creeks, bays and estuaries. These flowing bodies provide critical water [...]
(Feb. 10, 2009, ChennaiOnline)
India is expected to experience severe water stress by 2020 with the per capita availability of water projected to be less than 1,000 cubic metres.
Indian water scenario was a matter of grave concern, as 85 per cent of water was used for agriculture, 10 per cent for industry and five per [...]
(Feb. 4, 2009, WorldChanging)
Oceans are the new atmosphere.
What we mean is, that concern for the state of the oceans and the potential impacts of the on-going catastrophic collapse of ocean ecosystems is reaching a pitch that we haven’t seen on any other environmental issue other than the build-up of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. We [...]
(Feb. 5, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle)
With experts predicting an historically dire drought in the state due to limited snowpack in the Sierras, Californian Steven Chu, Obama’s Secretary of Energy emphasized in his first interview since taking office how big the economic hit to the state and nation would be if water supplies stopped supporting California’s [...]
(Feb. 3, 2009, GreenBiz)
It has become eco-chic in recent years to declare that “water will be the oil of the 21st century” — an essential and limited resource, unevenly distributed around the world, the growing shortage of which will lead to economic power for water-rich nations and poverty for the rest, possibly even resource wars [...]
(Feb. 2, 2009, BBC News)
If you look at the numbers, it is hard to see how many East African communities made it through the long drought of 2005 and 2006.
Among people who study human development, it is a widely-held view that each person needs about 20 litres of water each day for the basics – [...]
(Jan. 24, 2009, Aquadoc)
From a media release written by David Stauth of Oregon State University:
Regional warming and drought stress are the “dominant contributors” to a rapid increase of tree mortality in old growth forests across the West during the past 50 years, a new report concludes, with the Pacific Northwest the hardest hit of all areas [...]
(Jan. 22, 2009, AlterNet)
Maude Barlow and Ge Yun, two leaders in the global struggle for fresh water, warm about the affects of climate change.
We profile two women activists taking on the global water crisis. Canadian Maude Barlow is a well known leader in the global struggle for water justice. Ge Yun from China is [...]
(Jan. 18, 2009, WaterWired)
This brief, 6-page paper by some folks form Oakland’s East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) has some advice for water utilities about preparing for climate change.
Download OPF0109
Enjoy!
(Jan. 16, 2009, Peak Oil News)
…new evidence by scientists from the University of Rhode Island and colleagues in the U.S. and Canada, published recently in the journal Eos, indicates that the water level in the lake system is highly sensitive to climate changes.
“In the distant past, there were great fluctuations in the water level [...]
(Jan. 16, 2009, Reuters)
Nearly 2 billion people in Asia, from coastal city dwellers to yak-herding nomads, will begin suffering water shortages in coming decades as global warming shrinks glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau, experts said.
The plateau has more than 45,000 glaciers that build up during the snowy season and then drain to the major rivers [...]
(Jan. 16, 2009, WaterWired)
On January 9 Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute gave presentations to both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The title: Water and Climate Change: Managing Unavoidable Impacts; Avoiding Unmanageable Impacts.
His conclusions:
Impacts of climate change on water systems are already occurring
Both mitigation and adaptation are needed
Recommendations to water managers have been available [...]
(Jan. 11, 2009, The Good Human)
Dear EarthTalk: With all the talk of rising seas, what could happen to the rivers that flow into the oceans? Will they reverse flow? Will rising seas back up into fresh water lakes? And what happens to our groundwater should saltwater flow backwards into it?
The intrusion of saltwater from the [...]
Via Nuprana.com
