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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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For Water, Cities Look to Farms Conserving water on farms is the key to securing water for cities that face recurring shortages, according to a new study published in the journal Water Policy, National Geographic reported. The growth of both irrigated agriculture and cities in water-scarce regions has fueled these shortages, necessitating working relationships between [...]
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The salinity of Bangladesh’s water supply is increasing, especially in coastal areas, due to sea level rise and natural disasters like floods and cyclones, according to a World Bank study, AlertNet reported. Families in remote areas sometimes have to walk miles to get safe drinking water. U.S. Water Supply The final measure of California snowpack [...]
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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 [...]
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A leak was discovered at yet another underground water storage tank used to contain radioactive wastewater from Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, The New York Times reported. The country is struggling to find places to store the contaminated water, but has promised not to release it into the Pacific Ocean. A Chilean court [...]
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Peru Plans for a $500 million water project in Peru could divert rainwater across the Andes from the Amazon Basin to the country’s dry coast, turning the desert there into farmland, Reuters reported. The Olmos Irrigation Project is slated to start in 2014, and is one of seven large projects Peru has planned to increase [...]
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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 [...]
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Canada Oil Sands An unknown volume of water has been released from a holding pond at Suncor Energy’s oil sands project in Alberta, Reuters reported. The water was released into the Athabasca River, though it is unclear if the water contained toxic materials. China Water Pollution Another wave of dead animals has hit China’s waterways, [...]
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Canada Oil Sands An unknown volume of water has been released from a holding pond at Suncor Energy’s oil sands project in Alberta, Reuters reported. The water was released into the Athabasca River, though it is unclear if the water contained toxic materials. China Water Pollution Another wave of dead animals hit China’s waterways Sunday, [...]
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Environmental Threats Natural disasters cost the world approximately $US 138 billion last year, the third consecutive year that economic losses from disasters have exceeded $US 100 billion, AlertNet reported. Floods and droughts accounted for almost 80 percent of disaster victims in 2012. Failure to address environmental threats like climate change, deforestation, air pollution, and water [...]
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Heading into the last weeks of winter, the Colorado River Basin is dry yet again. Even worse, the river flow forecast gets drier every month.
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Policy Pakistan has developed its first national policy framework for taking action on climate change, including prevention, mitigation and adaptation measures, AlertNet reported. The country has been hit in recent years by increasingly severe floods and droughts. In opposing a European Commission proposal that would allow the privatization of water supplies, the German Bundesrat, the [...]
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UNEP Highlights Energy, Climate Change, and Arctic Ice Melt Reuters reports on the UNEP Year Book 2013 which highlights the cyclical nature of Arctic ice melt and fossil fuel extraction there. “What we are seeing is that the melting of ice is prompting a rush for exactly the fossil fuel resources that fuelled the melt [...]
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United States In his State of the Union address yesterday, President Obama promised to take action on climate change, even if Congress refuses. “The fact is the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods — all are now more frequent and more intense,” he said. [...]
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Water Supply Wichita Falls, Texas is moving forward with plans to recycle its wastewater into tap water, with hopes to produce 5 million gallons per day next year to augment the city’s drought-ravaged water supply, The Texas Tribune reported. As the drought drags on, more communities in Texas are turning to potable-reuse technology; Big Spring’s [...]
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Technology Researchers at Michigan State University are developing flexible films that, when placed in sandy soil, could increase water retention efficiency by up to 20 times, Gizmag reported. The technology aims to boost crop production during droughts, and may have the added benefit of protecting groundwater from agricultural chemicals and fertilizers. Water Supply and Infrastructure [...]
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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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Africa Water service, as well as electricity and phone service, has been cut in Timbuktu, the latest casualty of the ongoing conflict in Mali, CNN reported. The Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA), a group active in northern Mali that opposes the government, blamed the outages on “terrorist” sabotage. Following a devastating drought in 2009, pastoral [...]
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Water Supply A new study about Andean glaciers found that the pace of ice retreat in the tropical Andes is “unprecedented,” putting the water supply for many South American communities at risk, the Guardian reported. The study, published in Cryosphere, claims that an average temperature rise of 0.7 degree Celsius over 70 years is behind [...]
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U.S. Drought The Food Price Index for December 2012, released yesterday, hit its lowest point since prices began to rally in June 2012, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The Index is a measure of international food commodity prices, and, driven in part by the severe drought in the [...]
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