The Australian House of Representatives passed the major initiative late last year, but some states are fighting back.
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New South Wales
In the Midwest, low water levels are a growing economic concern for the region. CNN reports that the Great Lakes are expected to reach all-time lows in the coming months, and reached record lows in December of 2012. Cargo shipping industries have already been impacted by the past 13 years of dropping lake levels. As [...]
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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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Scientists are trying to understand whether the drought that has scorched much of the United States this summer is a cut their water consumption, according to EnergyWire. A new study reveals an astronomical Climate change and a mining boom threaten to disrupt Mongolia’s economy, according to New Security Beat. A agriculture and the energy industry [...]
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After the 20-week public consultations ended last week, three key basin states have rejected the proposed plan, and more than 60 Australian academics have slammed the document for neglecting to include climate change projections and for its lack of transparency.
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Massive hydrocarbon production has created worries over water use and pollution as the “Down Under” nation rises to the top of global exporters.
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International demand and new technologies push nation to the top for hydrocarbon exports. But massive production has also created worries over water.
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The Murray-Darling Draft Plan The Murray-Darling River Basin draft plan is likely to trigger another round of legal arguments over state water entitlements, according to Adelaide Now. The states of New South Wales and Victoria have rejected the plan — which recommends returning 2,750 gigaliters of water a year to the river system — arguing [...]
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On World Water Day, we look at: Water Innovation Hindustan Times features examples of grassroots water innovation in India. With 1.2 billion people, India is teeming with innovators and places to try out ingenious ideas in energy, water, banking, and health care, according to Fast Company. What makes a country ideal for innovation? Israel could [...]
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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 [...]
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Dams on the tributaries of the Mekong River could have a bigger negative effect on fish biodiversity and food security than the hydropower stations on the main river, new research shows, according to the journal Nature. Extreme weather and climate change signal the emergence of a new normal that increases the risks at the intersections [...]
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Extensive flooding in Australia makes the need to implement a new Murray-Darling Basin water management plan less urgent, argued the Water Minister of New South Wales, who called for delayed action on the reforms, according to The Australian. Two billion people gained access to safer drinking water between 1990 and 2010, meeting an international Millennium [...]
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Droughts and Floods Today’s must-read: Paul Salopek’s beautiful, poignant, thought-provoking account for Foreign Policy of his journey with the Daasanach nomads through the hunger zone in northern Kenya. Prolonged dry spells and droughts have threatened parts of China, Russia, Australia, France, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, the United Kingdom, East Africa and the United States in recent [...]
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As water levels dropped three meters (10 feet) in India’s Brahmaputra River, fears surfaced that China was diverting water near the river’s origin in Tibet, Agence France-Presse reported. The cause of the water shortage remains unknown. Africa’s Lake Chad is shrinking—it is now one tenth the size it was in the 1960s—but local residents have [...]
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Africa A massive relocation program in Ethiopia is pitting village farmers against the government and land investors racing to secure prized agricultural land and water, PBS Newshour reported. Drought is likely to return to Somalia and other parts of the Horn of Africa over the next three months, climate scientists have warned, according to IRIN. [...]
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Energy A new study by the University of Texas Energy Institute has found no evidence that hydraulic fracturing is contaminating groundwater, Voice of America reported. According to the report, many problems associated with fracking are related to processes common to all gas and drilling operations, such as drill casing failures, yet more science is needed [...]
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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 [...]
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A new study into the carbon footprint of shale gas operations adds more fuel to the debate about the technique’s environmental record, the journal Nature reported. According to the report, natural gas operations could leak enough methane to tarnish shale gas’s image as a cleaner alternative to coal. Floods Rivers in Bulgaria and Greece burst [...]
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Weather Extremes Thousands of Australians have been forced from their homes because of floods that have risen to record levels in some areas of Queensland and New South Wales, Reuters reported. While the coal industry is largely unaffected, agriculture and properties are likely to sustain significant damage. Bad weather has gripped much of Europe as [...]
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The International Energy Agency will make shale gas recommendations in its upcoming global energy report this fall, Financial Post reported. U.S. Shale Boom U.S. President Barack Obama pushed support for shale gas drilling and clean energy technology in his State of the Union address. Bloomberg gives the highlights. Meanwhile, North Dakota’s shale oil boom has [...]
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