 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
South America A new billboard in Peru is creating fresh water from the air, helping to supply local communities, according to the Global Post. Though the area typically receives very little rainfall, the billboard takes advantage of the region’s high humidity. In an effort to clean up oil projects in the Amazon, Peru has declared [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
A 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Japan near the site of the Fukushima disaster, creating a 1-meter (3.2 feet) tsunami, Reuters reported. Neither the quake nor the tsunami caused much damage. In this Guardian blog, George Monbiot questions the United Kingdom’s trial policy of biodiversity offsetting, which allows developers to destroy habitat for [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
French utility Suez Environnement will charge residents in Dunkirk, France different rates for water based on their income and level of usage, Bloomberg News reported. The French government is also pursuing legislation to make essential utilities like water, natural gas and power more affordable for low-income families. Downpours and floods have forced evacuations and impeded [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
A year after the devastating tsunami in Japan, communities in the affected regions are slowly repairing their towns. On the one-year anniversary of the disaster, the Guardian features a series of montages that press agencies have created by combining pictures taken during or just after the tsunami hit with images taken up to a year [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
The U.S. State Department’s decision to postpone its verdict on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline until after next year’s presidential election may doom the project and accelerate Canada’s efforts to ship crude to Asia, Business Week reported, citing Canada’s finance minister. Two degrees of disaster: The New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert comments on the latest IEA [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
When Texans head to the ballot box today, they will be asked to vote on a constitutional amendment that would give tax breaks to landowners who conserve water and preserve water quality, Associated Press reported. United States Energy company Exxon Mobil said that its response to the July oil spill into the Yellowstone River in [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Thrust from the Crust The nation’s nuclear power regulator said last week’s earthquake on the East Coast may have been stronger than a nuclear power station near the epicenter was designed to withstand, The Hill reports. The magnitude-5.8 earthquake caused the North Anna plant in Louisa County, Va. to lose power from the offsite electrical [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
As radiation in the water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant surged to potentially lethal levels, Bloomberg reports that Japan’s nuclear regulators and the operator of the plant dismissed warnings two years ago that a tsunami could overwhelm the facility’s defenses. Nuclear debate Meanwhile, The Economist continues the nuclear debate with an article that [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Myriad obstacles, from roads to snow to a nuclear crisis, hamstring rescue and recovery missions.
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that the 2010-11 global wheat production, at 645 million tons, will fall below consumption, forecast at 655 million tons, forcing the world to tap into its 177 million ton inventories. UPI argues that there will be more drought, rising food prices and more food crises in store for the [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
An earthquake of 8.9. magnitude has hit Japan, triggering devastating tsunami that has swept over the northern part of the country and sent out tsunami alerts in coastal areas throughout the Pacific. Reuters draws parallels between Egypt and Syria, where a water crisis has parched farmlands and plunged 800,000 people into extreme poverty. What else [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Researchers explain the correlation between environmental interactions and human health, as reported infections climb to 10,000 cases.
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Information on the disaster in Haiti is only slowly coming out, but it is clear that the magnitude and extent of the catastrophe is vast, in a land seemingly cursed by endless environmental destruction.
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
MIANYANG, China – Chinese authorities have begun evacuating an additional 40,000 people in Beichuan county in the wake of potential flooding, CNN reports. While the total number of evacuees now stands at around 200,000, the number could rise to as much as 1.3 million in the event of mass flooding from that lakes that formed [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
BEIJING – China has still to recover 15 hazardous radioactive sources and must focus on the fight to keep drinking water clean and contain chemical spills after May 12′s massive earthquake, a senior official said on Friday.
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
BEICHUAN, China – New fears about the lakes formed after the quake have prompted Chinese officials to evacuate nearly 150,000 people from the town and county of Beichuan in Sichuan province. While the death toll from the quake has been officially revised to 67,183, up to 1.3 million people may have to be evacuated from [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
CHENGDU, China – In the wake of the 8.0 magnitude quake that hit China last week, 21 new lakes have formed in Sichuan provence where landslides blocked rivers. According to state media, the lakes don’t pose an immediate threat to the communities downstream.
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
CHENGDU, China – Nearly 400 dams were damaged by Monday’s earthquake in China, report the New York Times and CNN. “State media reported that 2,000 soldiers were sent to try to plug “very dangerous” cracks in one, upriver from the hard-hit Sichuan city of Dujiangyan, official media” told the Times.
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
| About | | Staff | | In the News | | Ethics & Sponsorship | | Internships | | Board Members | | Contact | | Log In |
Posted on Thursday, October 06, 2011
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.