Australia Archives

Climate Change Burden-Sharing Must Not Compromise Developing World’s Growth, India’s PM

October 29, 2009

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Barack Obama earlier this year.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that developing countries will not compromise their financial growth for climate change, and that, instead, rich countries need to ensure access to clean technologies.

Peter Gleick: Water and Population part 2

6 Comments

October 22, 2009

In a previous post here, I raised the population and water issue in a general way. My point was that ignoring the population component of our resource challenges was a mistake, certainly in the long term and in some places, in the short term. I think this is indisputable -- resource constraints are worse than they would otherwise be if populations are large and growing rapidly rather than small and growing slowly, or even shrinking.

Idea Central: Collaborative Solutions to SE Australia’s Water Crisis

2 Comments

October 20, 2009

Software to Engage the Wisdom of Crowds

Alternative Adventure: Eco-explorer David De Rothschild to Travel the Pacific in Plastic Ship

2 Comments

October 19, 2009

After traversing Antarctica in 2004 and spending more than 100 days crossing the Arctic in 2006, in mid-November British adventurer and ecologist David de Rothschild will hoist sail across the Pacific Ocean on a boat made of plastic, or what he calls “the dumbest” product on the planet.

Australia’s Adelaide: A Lesson for Urban Centers Facing the Global Water Crisis

5 Comments

October 12, 2009

Australia’s fifth-largest city, Adelaide, could see its 1.3 million inhabitants relying more and more on bottled water over the next year, according to local politicians. Mounting consequences of climate change and sluggish national political action have led to high salinity levels and depletion of wildlife along the River Murray.

Peter Gleick: Crikey! Real Water Conservation and Efficiency in Australia

September 23, 2009

Regular readers of this blog know my feelings about the potential to improve the efficiency of our water use. Besides being cheaper and more environmentally beneficial than new supply options, efficiency improvements are easier to find.

Portents of Precipitation: New Atlas Predicts the Rain

0 Comments

August 5, 2009

Researchers from the Australian National Universities (ANU) have created an unprecedented visual atlas of global rainfall projections over the next century.

Aussie Town Bans Bottled Water

5 Comments

July 9, 2009

In the remote picturesque Southern Highlands of Australia, a small town leads by water example.

Peter Gleick: Wake Up, Here is What a Real Water Crisis Looks Like

July 3, 2009

California is in the midst of an ugly debate about water--uglier than normal--because of a confluence of events, including a "hydrologic" drought caused by nature

Drinking From The Sea

4 Comments

June 29, 2009

Pressed by growing urban populations, drier and warmer climates and the need to fortify supplies stretched by the increasing worldwide thirst, metropolitan and national governments on five continents are building record numbers of industrial plants to use a nearly alchemic technology to produce drinking water from the sea.