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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 [...]
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South America Nearly 400 millimeters (16 inches) of rain pummeled Argentina’s Buenos Aires province, causing widespread floods, power outages and 31 deaths as of Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. The extreme weather has prompted calls for investment in public water infrastructure projects. Tensions are rising in the Brazilian Amazon between government forces and the Munduruku [...]
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Asia and the Pacific Lack of access to safe water in Pacific countries and stressed rivers in Asia are threats to the regions’ water security, according to a new study from the Asian Development Bank and the Asia-Pacific Water Forum. The study found that 75 percent of countries in Asia and the Pacific currently lack [...]
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Fish and Pharmaceuticals A new study in Sweden found that the presence of low levels of human anti-anxiety drugs caused wild European perch to become aggressive and isolated, Reuters reported. Trace amounts of pharmaceuticals can pass through wastewater treatment plants and are found in waters around the globe. Mining Water scarcity and stricter environmental regulations [...]
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Storms spawned by Tropical Cyclone Oswald created “record turbidity levels” in Australia’s Brisbane River and forced the main water treatment plant for the city of Brisbane to close earlier this week, Bloomberg News reported. The plant is back online, but officials say water supplies for the metropolitan area remain tight. The legal case between Chevron [...]
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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 [...]
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Choke Point: China is an on-the-ground report that displays in text, photographs, and interactive graphics the powerful evidence of a potentially ruinous confrontation between growth, water, and energy that is already visible across China; a confrontation that is virtually certain to grow more dire over the next decade.
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Oxfam has urged the World Bank to stop its support of large-scale land investments, the Guardian reported. The land purchased by international investors could grow enough food for 1 billion people, but is instead being used to grow biofuels or is left idle, according to a report Oxfam released Thursday. Researchers are hoping to gain [...]
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Days of heavy rainfall have swollen rivers in the United Kingdom, where nearly 60 flood warnings remained in force Thursday and areas of York were already underwater, the Guardian reported. South America Brazil has the potential to become the world’s breadbasket due to its water resources, argues private investor and author James Dale Davidson in [...]
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India A water shortage in India’s Cauvery River Basin has pitted the state of Karnataka against its southern neighbor, Tamil Nadu, the Times of India reported. The states rejected water sharing suggestions from the Cauvery River Authority and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with Karnataka arguing that it cannot release any water downstream without jeopardizing its [...]
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The drought that set upon the United States this year has tightened a three-state tug-of-war over fresh water, affecting marine life and a valuable fishing economy downstream in the Deep South’s Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin, the most biodiverse river system in North America.
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Environmentalists and workers’ unions are angry that Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining companies, has been chosen to supply the 2012 Olympic medals.
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Circle of Blue reporter Nadya Ivanova recounts her recent trip to China and updates our coverage of the nation’s massive water transfer project.
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Low water levels in the Mississippi River have prompted salt water to move up the river from the Gulf of Mexico, Associated Press reported. The Army Corps of Engineers says that salt water is not yet a threat to water supplies in the New Orleans area. Indianapolis and some of its suburbs have seen about [...]
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Flood protection will cost the United Kingdom at least $1.3 billion (£860 million) by 2015, the Guardian reported, citing the U.K. government’s climate change advisers. The experts also warned that instead of maintaining the expenditure needed, the government has been drastically reducing the amount of public money available for protecting householders from floods. Meanwhile, the [...]
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Floods and landslides have killed more than 150 people in the Black Sea region of southern Russia in the last few days, Associated Press reported. Torrential rains have dropped nearly a foot of water in the area, turning streets into rivers, sweeping away bridges and inundating thousands of homes. Heavy rains also swept across Great [...]
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A team of scientists and photographers has embarked on a mission to document Africa’s melting glaciers, according to the Guardian. A southwestern Chinese city has cancelled plans to build a multimillion-pound copper alloy plant amid anti-pollution demonstrations that lasted for days, the Guardian reported. Water supply cuts in New Delhi have made this year’s summer [...]
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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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Tough verdict on Rio+20 from author George Monbiot: governments have given up on the planet, he writes for the Guardian. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday secured metro Atlanta’s claim to water from Lake Lanier, granting Georgia a big legal victory in its long-standing water rights dispute with Florida and Alabama, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. [...]
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For developing the principles behind more efficient irrigation systems — and for spreading those ideas around the world — Dr. Daniel Hillel, a soil scientist, has been awarded the 2012 World Food Prize.
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