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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 [...]
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Drinking Water Bacteria A University of Michigan study showed that bacteria found in drinking water can be traced to treatment filters instead of the original aquifers or rivers. The researchers, who studied Ann Arbor, Michigan’s tap water, said their findings could lead to more natural, sustainable water treatment processes and assist engineers in controlling microbes [...]
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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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Food Millions of tons of grain in India are at major risk at the moment as they are lying in the open, exposed to scorching summer heat and monsoon rains, according to Reuters. This story looks at the country’s rigid regime of subsidies for grain farmers, the lack of storage facilities and the inefficient, broken [...]
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Just as it was five years ago, a record-breaking drought is evident in Georgia. But has the state become more resilient through changes to water management policies?
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Oklahoma’s governor has signed a bill that would limit freshwater consumption in 2060 to current levels, while expanding the use of marginal sources, despite a projected 28 percent increase in population and 33 percent increase in consumptive demand.
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Under a new law, mining and oil companies in Peru will be required to hold talks with local communities about the effects of natural resource extraction on the environment and water supplies, Reuters reported. The law stops short of giving communities the power to veto potential projects. Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez faces criticism from within [...]
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Thailand is creating an $11 billion fund for flood water management and infrastructure, Reuters reported. Another $1.5 billion will be set aside for insurance. China invested nearly $53 billion in water conservation in 2011, Xinhua reported, citing China’s Ministry of Water Resources. The central government’s investments were a 70 percent increase over spending in 2010. [...]
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The United States Environmental Protection Agency linked hydraulic fracturing to groundwater pollution for the first time Thursday after finding chemicals used in fracking in a Wyoming aquifer, Bloomberg News reported. Some companies that use fracking to extract underground natural gas deposits dispute that the drilling method was the source of the contamination. Farmers in California [...]
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Water management trails climate change on companies’ agenda, despite significant near-term risk and opportunity, according to the Carbon Disclosure Project’s (CDP) Water Disclosure global report. Two percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP) should be invested in 10 industries — including water, agriculture and energy — to start making the global economy more sustainable, [...]
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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 [...]
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Global climate-protection spending totaled a record $567 billion last year, a 7 percent increase, Bloomberg reported. Latin America led the world in climate revenue increases with strong growth in its low-carbon energy production, as well as in the water, waste and pollution-control sectors. China is launching this month a nation-wide check on water consumption in [...]
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Several laws, executive orders, and directives guide the department’s conservation plans, but wartime operations can throw a wrench in the system.
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The preference for government mandates reinforces the idea that water is not like other goods.
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Ma Jun tells Circle of Blue that China is still on the track of a highly energy- and resource-intensive model, with the need to de-couple economic growth from the expansion of resource consumption
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Foreign Affairs analyzes why food subsidies have prevented and provoked revolutions in the Middle East. How did rising grain prices break the Arab world’s “democracy of bread”? America’s abandoned wells This week, ProPublica reports on the environmental impact of America’s hundreds of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells. According to studies, the wells can [...]
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As Japan’s nuclear emergency unfolds, the Guardian reports on the surging investor confidence in renewable energy, while a Peabody Energy executive says that the nuclear crisis will benefit the coal industry. Who’s got the power? Data According to this infographic in The Economist, the United States is the world’s biggest nuclear-energy producer, followed by France [...]
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A breakdown of previous plans gives context to the newly released 12th Five-Year Plan.
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Clearly wary about the consequences of its rapid economic development on the environment, China has set a path over the next five years to reduce consumption of the two most important resources that power its economy— coal and water. The country plans to rein in water use and introduces new energy intensity reduction targets in pursuit of more sustainable economic growth, according to the draft proposal of the 12th Five-Year Plan, the master economic blueprint that will chart China’s development through 2015.
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Posted on Monday, December 05, 2011
The debate about water use in California agriculture is stuck in a 30-year-old rut; relying on outdated and technically-flawed thinking that is slowing statewide efforts to meet 21st century challenges.