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Circle of Blue: In the News
Behind The Scenes—Ball State University’s Collaboration with Circle of Blue
For her senior thesis project, Season Schafer, a student in Ball State University’s Immersive Learning Program, produced this interactive look behind the scenes at the unique partnership between the university’s journalism students and the journalists at Circle of Blue. Watch the interviews to learn more.
Circle of Blue – HQ in the Heart of the Great Lakes
Pure Michigan campaign highlights Circle of Blue headquarters city, Traverse City.
Voice of America: Circle of Blue on China’s Worst Drought in 50 Years
From Voice of America:
Cities and provinces along the Yangtze River in central China are grappling with the country’s worst drought in more than 50 years. Resource analysts say the drought highlights not only the impact of climate change, but also China’s persistent problem of water scarcity and how it must balance that with the country’s enormous demand for energy and economic growth.
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Keith Schneider, a senior editor at Circle of Blue, an international consortium of journalists and scientists that focuses on global water resources, says water scarcity is a growing problem in China.
“China has been losing moisture steadily since 2000, according to their National Bureau of Statistics. In fact, they’ve lost 35 billion cubic meters of water annually since 2000. That’s 350 billion cubic meters in total for the country. And 350 billion cubic meters is a boat load of water. It’s as much water as flows down the Yangtze River and past Shanghai in eight months,” Schneider said.
Global Sustainability Conference: Circle of Blue Calls for “Relationship of Relevancy”
From the Michigan Daily:
Members of the world’s two largest energy-consuming countries met at the University [of Michigan] this weekend to discuss and highlight progress in global sustainability and green technology.
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J. Carl Ganter, director and co-founder of Circle of Blue — a group of journalists, scientists and data engineers working to fix the global water crisis — said he believes that publicity is necessary for people to understand why sustainability matters to them.
“One of the most important things when we talk about sustainability is we have to create a relationship of relevancy,” he said.
The full program is online here.
Circle of Blue Creator Presents Bracken Lecture at Ball State University
Sarah Boswell reports for the Ball State Daily News :
J. Carl Ganter is chasing a news story that’s not on anybody else’s radar — the scarcity of water in China, which could soon stifle its gross domestic product and economic success.
The multimedia journalist and co-founder of Circle of Blue spoke about international issues related to water shortages during his lecture “Our Water Future: Meeting the Challenge of the Century.” Ganter presented the Bracken Environmental Lecture on the same day as the United Nations-sponsored World Water Day.
His lecture focused on how the group got started and it’s latest project: “Choke Point China,” and today Ganter heads to China to start the project.
“It’s basically simple math,” he said. “What we found is that China, at least at the current course, most likely does not have enough water to continue their GDP growth and their use of energy. The outcome is China’s facing down a pretty serious choke point.”
Circle of Blue considers itself the only non-advocacy news agency devoted to bringing water issues into mainstream daily life through stories, data and social media.
Ball State students got involved in the mission during an immersive class this semester. They’re making interactive graphics based on data and reporting that’s being done in China.
Center for a New American Security: China’s Water-Energy Challenge
Will Rogers of the Center for a New American Security writes:
Last month, Circle of Blue reported on the cascading effect that China’s energy demand is having on water scarcity. “Underlying China’s new standing in the world is an increasingly fierce competition between energy and water that threatens to upend China’s progress,” Circle of Blue’s Keith Schneider wrote. As Schneider pointed out, China’s history is fraught with challenges stemming from scarce fresh water resources, writing that it is nothing new for a state where “80 percent of the rainfall and snowmelt occurs in the south, while just 20 percent of the moisture occurs in the mostly desert regions of the north and west.” But what is different, Schneider noted, is the expanding industrial sector that consumes 70 percent of the nation’s water, and the need for the government to tap into its coal reserves in the north in order to feed this growth. The problem is that mining coal and coal-fired power plants themselves are water-intensive, and according to government officials, “there is not enough water to mine, process, and consume those [coal] reserves, and still develop the modern cities and manufacturing centers that China envisions for the region.”
In January, Schneider published a related story arguing that, with the United States experiencing similar challenges related to what he refers to as energy demand and water scarcity choke points, the United States and China have an opportunity to share technologies and policies that could help mitigate these challenges.
Andrew Sullivan: The Dish — China’s Water Problem
The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan highlights “Choke Point: China” in The Daily Dish.
“The story has some amazing stats,” Sullivan notes.
Council on Foreign Relations: China’s Economy and the Water Crisis—A Fresh Take
Elizabeth Economy writes for the Council on Foreign Relations:
While China’s economy continues to grab headlines, a new report, “Choke Point: China,” suggests that we ought to be spending a bit more time on an often-ignored economic fundamental: water. China’s environment has been a long-standing passion of mine, both as a research focus and as an area to promote U.S.-China cooperation. While China’s poor air quality has received a lot of attention in the West—we can all see the pollution in Beijing or read about the pollution clouds that travel from China across the Pacific to the United States—the issue of greatest concern for China is access to clean water.
Circle of Blue and Ball State University Form Global Multimedia Reporting Project
Immersive program puts advanced students in the center of “one of the decade’s biggest news, policy, and technology issues.” …Read More…
40 Interviews in Davos
J. Carl Ganter was interviewed by Hub Culture in Davos this year.
For five days last week I was a fly on the wall in Davos, watching CEOs and leaders discuss the planet’s major issues at the World Economic Forum. I attended the conference as a social media producer for Hub Culture, producing short video interviews. Hub Culture is a social network of “global urban influencers,” and in Davos we occupied a building that served as a center for work, collaboration, and evening events.
-David Kroodsma
Climate Analyst for Hub Culture