 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Droughts, floods and other natural disasters are creating huge economic losses around the world, totaling about $US 2.5 trillion this century, according to estimates by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Bloomberg BNA reported. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged businesses to take steps to reduce disaster risk exposure when investing in new buildings [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Water-Food-Energy A drought in Vietnam has uncovered tensions between water users in the country’s energy and agricultural sectors, Radio Free Asia reported. Despite a directive from the prime minister, the operator of a hydropower dam has refused to send more water downstream to drought-hit farms. While South Africa’s mining sector receives much of the blame [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Wine turned Peter Thum to water. While working on a project in South Africa involving two wineries, Thum saw the difficulties that many people experienced just trying to get clean water every day. “I did a bit of research and began to see the size and magnitude of this problem,” he says. So he decided [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Scientists are beginning to study the ecological function of cities, tracking and measuring the flow of atmospheric gases, water, carbon, and pollutants through the urban ecosystem, Nature reported. The research could be essential for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and creating sustainable cities. Water Levels Global sea level rise is outpacing United Nations projections by 60 [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
According to the BBC the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, released today, announced that the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide reached a record high at 391 parts per million in 2011. Other greenhouse gases, like methane, also were recorded at an all-time high. According to the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin press [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
World Food Day Yesterday was Global Handwashing Day, and today brings another notable global calendar date – World Food Day! First established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1979, the annual World Food Day was adopted by UN Resolution 35/70 of 5 December 1980. Follow this link to the FAO [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Water supplies remain key to the global boom in gold mining, driven by high demand and near-record prices.
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Despite fistfuls of money and decades of “action plans,” pollution in India’s Yamuna River, a Ganges tributary, has only gotten worse. The Hindu asks, “Is the Yamuna beyond help?” The Times of India reports that water in Maharashtra state designated for irrigation is being diverted by government agencies to power stations. Energy South Africa won [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Energy and Climate The world’s top scientists are urging governments to look at water and energy as a single, linked issue and say that growing demands for both resources is one of three major global dilemmas, the Guardian reported. How dirty are Canada’s oil sands? Reuters looks at Europe and Canada’s battle over how to [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
A flawed water-trading system is choking the Murray-Darling, Australia’s largest river basin, and the new draft plan for the region will not solve the problems, according to a prominent Australian water expert. South Africa’s Cabinet will receive the long-awaited technical report on shale gas development in the country in July at the latest, according to [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
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: |
|
|
|
Forty-six Chinese and multinational clothing companies are buying textiles from suppliers who are illegally discharging polluted water in China, according to a new report released by five non-governmental organizations, Xinhua reported. Scientists in Israel are worried over low water levels in the Dead Sea, which they believe to be caused in part by increased water [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Water scarcity will likely create conflict in regions around the world within the next decade, according to a report from the United States Director of National Intelligence, launched March 22 in Washington. The report, available here, predicts that water-linked instability is most likely to occur in South Asia and the Middle East. Providing enough water [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
South Africa could face a 17 percent gap between water supply and demand by 2030, a shortage that would significantly impact the country’s economy, according to the new Water Disclosure SA report published by the Carbon Disclosure Project. The survey found that 58 percent of South African businesses have already experienced negative impacts from water [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
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 [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
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. [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Energy South Africa may invest $78 billion in new nuclear power plants, a hydropower project and a coal-fired power plant in order to keep up with energy demand, Business Week reported. A European Union expert committee failed to reach a decision on a proposal that would label fuel from tar sands as highly polluting, pushing [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
An Australian company found a water supply for one of the largest unmined coal deposits in South Africa. Resource Generation will build and operate a wastewater treatment plant in a nearby community, Mining Weekly reports. In return, the company will receive rights to the treated effluent, which will be sent through a pipeline to the [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
An Israeli desalination plant that is expected to start operations in 2013 could allow the drought-ridden country to export water to its neighbors, Reuters reported. Is water on the agenda at the climate talks in Durban, South Africa? Severe water shortages are plaguing India’s Maharashtra state, according to India Waterportal. Meanwhile, heavy rains have wreaked [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
Canada won’t renew its commitments to the Kyoto Protocol after it expires in 2012, The Globe and Mail reported, citing Canada’s environment minister. Peru’s president gave the military and police extraordinary powers to put an end to 11 days of environmental protests against a $4.8 billion gold mine project in the country, Reuters reported. While [...]
| Help share our stories: |
|
|
|
| About | | Staff | | In the News | | Ethics & Sponsorship | | Internships | | Board Members | | Contact | | Log In |