Global Rundown
- The decline of drought-resistant trees in Morocco is leaving regions vulnerable to desertification amid high temperatures and scarce rainfall.
- By developing urban wetlands and large underground reservoirs, Copenhagen is adapting “sponge city” principles.
- Snow and ice coverage in Turkey’s mountainous regions has declined by half over the past 40 years.
- A new global study reveals that Earth’s continents have lost a significant amount of freshwater over the past two decades.
The Lead
Rising global demand for argan oil, “prized worldwide as a miracle cosmetic” and used in luxury hair and skin products, has caused great environmental strain in arid Moroccan regions where argan trees grow.
Spanning the dry Atlas Mountains and stretches of sandy hills, argan trees survive in both extreme heat and desiccation. They can live in areas that receive less than one inch of rain annually. Their roots, which can endure drought and can stretch more than 100 feet underground, hold soils together and protect against encroaching Saharan desertification.
But “scientists warn that argan trees are not invincible,” the Associated Press reports. Argan forest coverage in the city of Agadir has shrunk by 40 percent since 2000, and overgrazing from herders fleeing dry regions has contributed to this decline. Government initiatives to plant caper trees among rows of argan trees, thus conserving water by bringing water trucks and strengthening soils, have been slow to show progress as a result of regional drought.
Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue
- Restarting Ruptured Santa Barbara Oil Pipeline Tests California’s Regulators — Sable Offshore challenges the state’s environmental values.
- After Wildfire, Unstable Earth Pummels Irrigation Systems in American West — The travails of an irrigation district in Washington state illustrate agriculture’s wildfire risk.
This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
55
Percent more winter precipitation Denmark is forecast to receive by 2100 if global temperatures rise by two to three degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, Yale Environment 360 reports. More intense and erratic rainfall has already hit the Baltic nation in recent years, including a “once-in-a-millennium storm” in 2011 that dropped five inches of rain on Copenhagen in the span of just two hours. Following the deluge, which caused $1.8 billion in damages, officials drafted plans to turn the capital into a “sponge city,” a defense against extreme rainfall that “combines nature-based surface features, like wetlands and parks, with large underground structures, like storage pipes and retention basins.” Though the entire project is still less than halfway complete, experts say, after initial development, “the city’s flood risk has been reduced by 30 to 50 percent in high-priority areas.”
50
Percent of continuous snow and ice coverage in southeastern Turkey’s mountains that has been lost over the past 40 years, Al Jazeera reports, as rising temperatures and an increase in local car traffic has accelerated the melting of the region’s glaciers. Last Friday, temperatures in Silopi — about 124 miles from the mountainous Kurdish city of Hakkâri, were measured at a record-setting 122.9 degrees Fahrenheit. The loss of glacial mass, which threatens the long-term supply of fresh water, is compounded by drying. According to a United Nations report, 88 percent of Turkey is vulnerable to desertification, as “rainfall is expected to decrease by 30 percent by the end of the century.”
On the Radar
A new study published last week in the journal Science Advances reveals that Earth’s continents have undergone unprecedented freshwater loss over the past two decades, threatening food and water security for billions of people around the world: 75 percent of the world’s population lives in the 101 countries that have experienced freshwater loss, according to the study’s authors. Using satellite imaging, researchers from Arizona State University identified four “mega-drying” regions in the Northern Hemisphere — Southwestern North America and Central America, Alaska and Northern Canada, Northern Russia, and Middle East-North Africa — and determined that “the rate at which dry areas are getting drier now outpaces the rate at which wet areas are getting wetter, reversing long-standing hydrological patterns.” The study found that 68 percent of the water loss came from “came from groundwater alone.”
49th State Focus: Juneau Plans New Hydropower Project
Sweetheart Lake: The city and borough of Juneau, in partnership with engineering company Ameresco and Juneau Hydropower Inc., has announced a new $240 million hydropower project with a 19.8 megawatt capacity, KTUU reports. The project is “expected to reduce diesel fuel consumption by 88 million gallons.” Roughly nine miles of high-voltage power lines are expected to go online when the project is completed in 2028.
Fresh: From the Great Lakes Region
Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, Michigan Public and The Narwhal work together to report on the most pressing threats to the Great Lakes region’s water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work here.
- Mooz the dog is helping scientists in Michigan study threatened turtles — Michigan Public
- National Defence plans to solve its housing crunch by developing contaminated sites — The Narwhal
- Study shows correlation between ‘forever chemicals’ and Type 2 diabetes — Great Lakes Now
- Dead deer and small fish: Michigan students learn to investigate poaching — Bridge Michigan