U.S. water usage by state on Google Earth

Using United States Geological Survey data from the most recent U.S. water consumption reports, Circle of Blue has generated a new visualization of water use by state. The Google Earth module also includes data for the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Click here to download the module.

Popularity: 16%

Graphic: Water shortages - GAO report proves prophetic

Scientists, researchers, and others warn that the U.S. is entering a new era of water scarcity. A General Accounting Office (GAO) report from 2003 projected that 36 states could face water shortages by 2013. Five years sooner than forecast, the report has proved disturbingly prophetic. Read more

Popularity: 12%

Despite promises, Sacramento tops U.S. daily average for water use

Sacramento, CA - Even after promising to reduce water consumption significantly in 2000, the majority Sacramento’s water regions failed to meet the 16 conservation goals set-up. Only one region met all the goals and collectively they failed meet even half the goals. Instead, water consumption in Sacramento actually increased in the last eight years, topping the U.S. national average for water use. Read more

Popularity: 7%

Lake levels won’t be fixed soon

STURGEON BAY, Wisconsin - Any possible large-scale engineering project that might help raise water levels on Lake Michigan and Lake Huron is decades away, a representative of an international study group says. Read more

Popularity: 4%

Angola: blessed water needs no sterilization

ANGOLA - A survey of Angolan households has revealed less than half of caregivers always treat water with a reliable method before giving it to children. And one third of those interviewed by Population Services International (PSI) believes water is blessed by God and does not need to be sterilized before use.

More than a quarter of children in the surveyed households had experienced diarrhoea (usually caused by water-borne bacteria) in the 15 days before completing the questionnaire and 7 percent of respondents reported a case of cholera in their household in the last 2 years.

Read more here.

Source : Inter Press Service

Popularity: 10%

Graphic: Bottled water imports and exports

A new UN map highlights bottled water’s patterns of international trade. With France being the major exporter of bottled water, trade routes in Europe (between France, Germany, and Belgium) often involve intracontinental trade. The United States also imports a large quantity of water from France and Fiji. Read more

Popularity: 58%

1 Lightbulb = 3-6,000 Gallons

It takes between 3,000 gallons and 6,000 gallons of water to power a 60-watt incandescent bulb for 12 hours a day over the course of a year.

That statistic was published on Thursday by researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, who have studied how demand for a dwindling natural resource–fresh water–plays into energy. Read more

Popularity: 5%

Graphic: All the water in the world

A diagram, by Circle of Blue, illustrating just how little freshwater the world has to work with. If all the world’s water were to fit inside 100 glasses, the supply available to humanity would not fill three quarters of one glass. Read more

Popularity: 34%

UN map shows unsustainable agriculture irrigation worldwide

Unsustainable water withdrawals for irrigation on every continent are clearly illustrated in a map published by the United Nations Environment Programme. Read more

Popularity: 17%

Virtual Water innovator awarded 2008 Stockholm Water Prize

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN — Professor John Anthony Allan of King’s College London and the School of Oriental and African Studies has been named the 2008 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate. Profesor Allan pioneered the development of key concepts inthe understanding and communication of water issues and how they are linked to agriculture, climate change, economics and politics.

Read more here.

sources: Stockholm International Water Institute; Reuters

Popularity: 6%

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