Desalination

Investments Because climate change will make rivers warmer and reduce their flow, the generating capacity for coal-fired and nuclear power plants—which rely on water for cooling—will decrease by between 4 and 16 percent in the U.S. and between 6 and 19 percent in Europe in the years 2031-2060, Reuters reports, citing a study published in [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

The negotiations on a final plan for Australia’s Murray-Darling river system are well under way, with South Australian water officials summoned to give evidence to the federal parliament this week, The Australian reported. South Australia has lashed the draft plan for the basin, saying that it does not return enough water to the environment. Many [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
San Luis Valley

Groundwater is a proven crutch for dry times, but how much weight can it hold?

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

The connection between the Amazon River and its headwaters in the Andes Mountains could be partially cut by 151 proposed dams, according to a new study that is the first to look comprehensively at the ecological impacts of hydropower across the Amazon Basin, Nature reported. At least one natural gas driller has been forced to [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

Iran has launched a $US 1.5 billion project to divert water from the Caspian Sea to the country’s central desert, Associated Press reported. The project loosely reminds of China’s proposed Bohai pipeline to transport water from the Bohai Sea to dry areas in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. Could a new method of waterless fracking — [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

Hydropower and Water Security Two of the world’s biggest energy companies have pledged to measure the economic, social and environmental effects of their big hydropower projects using new voluntary guidelines, according to the Guardian. The building of dams and the increasing water consumption in upstream Afghanistan negatively affects water supply to Iran and could exacerbate [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

China plans to quadruple its desalination capacity by the end of 2015 in an effort to relieve chronic water shortages that threaten to upend its economic growth, China Daily reported. Meanwhile, Jordan is moving ahead with its Red Sea Water Desalination Project, which will extract 1.2 billion cubic meters of water from the sea, of [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
Suns River Solar Still

At a U.S. desalination research facility this month, a 2,500-year-old technology will be put to the test. The company in charge of the project hopes to increase productivity, reduce the energy needed to purify water and maybe even make desert agriculture viable.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

A private company, Cadiz Inc. (Cadiz), has revived plans to mine groundwater underlying land in the delicate Eastern Mojave Desert. This project revives fundamental questions about how we manage our precious water resources, and in particular, whether in the 21st century it is appropriate, or even necessary, to use renewable water resources in a nonrenewable and unsustainable way, for short-term profit.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

Delegates to the climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, kicked the can down the road, agreeing to extend the Kyoto Protocol by five years and eventually to draw up a new agreement that would take effect by 2020. The day after the conference, Canada announced that it will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, becoming the [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

Big carbon-intensive corporations are campaigning to increase their access to international climate negotiations, and are working to defeat progressive legislation on climate change and energy around the world, according to a new Greenpeace report. Contrary to reports in the media, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have found “no evidence of a [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
Marafiq Plant in Al Jubail

Classified cables show that Saudi and U.S. officials believe water supplies along the Persian Gulf are at high-risk for terrorist attacks and possible contamination from nearby nuclear plants. This is the first of a new series that will analyze the water-related U.S. embassy cables published by WikiLeaks.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

The world faces a wide range of serious, complex, and long-term water challenges, from shortages to contamination to local and regional disputes over water to long-term climate changes. But there are other challenges that are short-term, emergency situations that could also be addressed by some new thinking and new technology.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

Salmon and Gold A Senate Democrat from Washington state says she plans to ask the Environmental Protection Agency to use the Clean Water Act to block a mine planned in Alaska, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The Pebble Mine project would exploit some of the world’s richest gold, copper, silver and molybdenum deposits. The mine [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

Are markets in water rights likely to evolve as a rising population leads to shortages and climate change disrupts patterns of rain and snowfall? Reuters highlights some of the major water trading schemes in the world. The withdrawal of rebel forces from Somalia’s capital may offer citizens some relief from a famine that threatens almost [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

There are only 25 glaciers in the Glacier National Park now, compared to 150 in the 19th century, Grist reported. By 2020, even these will be gone, according to the park’s coordinator of climate change and glacial geology. The Financial Times verdict on Kenya’s drought: the country has failed to manage its food crisis, which [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

Leading global clothing brands source products from Chinese suppliers that pollute rivers with toxic chemicals banned in Europe and elsewhere, Reuters reported, citing a Greenpeace report published on Wednesday. Africa Drought East Africa’s devastating drought is likely the result of strong seasonal weather phenomenon in the region and is not tied to climate change, UPI [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
thumb70x70

TaKaDu uses algorithms to save water, energy, and money for utility companies around the globe.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 
Mongolia Slideshow

Along the vast frozen grasslands, 23-year-old Wu Yun and her father, Bao Zhu, tend their flock of sheep and cattle. Just over the ridge, the northern city of Xilinhot is booming as the coal industry continues to expand. But it will take a lot of water to feed both the city and the mining.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

The dire drought in central and southern China may hit the grain output in major food growing regions and put upward pressure on global prices, but China’s domestic wheat stocks will keep food imports low, according to a Reuters analysis. Read Circle of Blue’s report on China’s looming water-energy-food collision. Agriculture Yet, the World Meteorological [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit