The study runs counter to the conventional wisdom about deforestation’s effects on the water cycle.
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Brazil
For Water, Cities Look to Farms Conserving water on farms is the key to securing water for cities that face recurring shortages, according to a new study published in the journal Water Policy, National Geographic reported. The growth of both irrigated agriculture and cities in water-scarce regions has fueled these shortages, necessitating working relationships between [...]
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South America Nearly 400 millimeters (16 inches) of rain pummeled Argentina’s Buenos Aires province, causing widespread floods, power outages and 31 deaths as of Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. The extreme weather has prompted calls for investment in public water infrastructure projects. Tensions are rising in the Brazilian Amazon between government forces and the Munduruku [...]
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While Brazil’s major crop growing areas are producing a record soybean harvest, the country’s northeast region is still suffering a severe drought, Aljazeera reported. This photo slideshow focuses on the heavy toll being paid by cattle ranchers. Pollution Clean-Up China is setting aside $US 16 billion over the next three years to reduce pollution in [...]
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Temperatures nudged higher by climate change will increase evaporation levels from plants and soil in the American west, a new Columbia University study predicted. Higher evaporation rates, the Los Angeles Times reported, will dry out land and reduce water runoff into rivers and streams by about 10 percent in California, Nevada, Colorado River headwaters and [...]
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Extreme Weather Suburbs, towns and farms outside of Rome flooded Wednesday after the Tiber River overflowed its banks and heavy rains backed up sewers and canals, Reuters reported. Widespread flooding has swamped Italy after strong storms passed through the country last weekend, killing four people. Farmers worry that increasingly frequent and severe flooding, coupled with [...]
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Days of heavy rainfall have swollen rivers in the United Kingdom, where nearly 60 flood warnings remained in force Thursday and areas of York were already underwater, the Guardian reported. South America Brazil has the potential to become the world’s breadbasket due to its water resources, argues private investor and author James Dale Davidson in [...]
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Hurricane Isaac Hurricane Isaac, which hit land Tuesday evening near New Orleans, has brought barge traffic on the Mississippi River to a crawl, Bloomberg News reported. The backup is expected to further slow exports of grain from the United States. For almost 24 hours on Tuesday, strong winds and storm surge from the hurricane reversed [...]
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U.S. Drought Continues The drought has literally hit home in the rural Midwestern United States, where some citizens are turning on their faucets to find their wells have dried up, The Associated Press reported. The Missouri government will subsidize the drilling of new wells for more than 3,700 farmers and ranchers hit by extreme drought, [...]
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Floods Almost two weeks after the devastating floods in southern Russia that claimed the lives of 171 people, three Russian officials have been detained on charges of negligence in their official duties, according to The New York Times. Beijing officials are also facing criticism from citizens and the media over their handling of the heavy [...]
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Maryland is sitting atop an aquifer containing water that is a million years old, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) found, according to USA Today. Water levels in the deep aquifer have been declining as water managers abandon younger, shallower aquifers due to saltwater intrusion. India’s Jindal Power plans to invest $7.7 billion in hydropower [...]
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The NRDC predicts that the G20 will produce less than 4 percent from renewables by 2015 and 6 percent by 2020, up from only 2.6 percent currently and 0.86 percent in 2002.
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Large-scale foreign investment in Africa’s farmland is a threat to the continent’s water supply and water access, according to a new report from the nonprofit organization GRAIN. The report asserts that the global rush to control agricultural land is also a rush to control water resources. Rivers The world’s ten most populous river basins, most [...]
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Following devastating news of poisoned children in Afghanistan, reporter Codi Yeager look at water security and conflicts around the globe.
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Water levels on the flooding Rio Negro in Brazil have reached 29.78 meters, the highest in a century, prompting 53 cities to declare a state of emergency, Xinhua reported. India could see its first commercial shale gas production in four years, Bloomberg News reported. Companies are waiting for further data analysis and government policy before [...]
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The Potomac River is the most endangered river in the United States, according to a new report by the environmental group American Rivers. The annual list of U.S. rivers at risk includes streams in virtually every region of the country. Several are threatened by the same types of activities: energy development or dam- and reservoir-building, [...]
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United States The Great Lakes Watershed is at risk from potential oil spills due to inadequate federal regulations for pipelines, according to a new report from the National Wildlife Federation and The University of Michigan, UPI reported. In 2010, crude tar sand oil spilled from a ruptured pipe into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. Ohio faces a [...]
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New photos published on the Guardian reveal that early construction work for the controversial Belo Monte dam has already started in the Amazon, despite ongoing legal battles over environmental licenses. And there are already signs of deforestation. Australia’s water market has helped farmers and irrigators in the ailing Murray-Darling River Basin to weather drought and [...]
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South Australia has become the third Australian state to agree to the federal government’s tightened approvals process for future coal seam gas and large-scale coal mining projects, Platts reported. Water Security Germany has offered to help resolve the water disputes in Central Asia and to invest in water-saving solar and wind energy in the region, [...]
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Ben Braga, the president of the International Committee for the 6th World Water Forum and the vice president of the World Water Council, talks with Circle of Blue about the Forum next week, the Rio+20 Summit in June, and the solutions to the world water crisis.
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