Heart of Dryness: Water, Climate, and Energy

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The second installment Climate Change Coping Strategies of excerpts from James G. Workman's Heart of Dryness

Peter Gleick: Water on the Moon

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nasaimage290In a good indication of just how important water is to us, some of the most exciting news from the Moon since the initial 1969 landing has revolved around research to determine whether or not it has water.

Peter Gleick: Giving Desalination Another Black Eye — Poseidon’s Financial Shell Game

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Last week, I wrote about the demand by the Poseidon Group to receive two major public subsidies to build a private desalination plant at Carlsbad near San Diego. After years of claiming that they needed no public support to build this plant, this claim has finally been proven false. The private profits they need will only be possible with public subsidies.

Heart of Dryness: Climate Change Coping Strategies

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Since the dawn of Homo sapiens in arid Africa, nine tenths of our evolution has unfolded as foragers. Only relatively recently did our species embark on agriculture, and recent events suggest certain limits to that extraordinary experiment. Exponential population growth has combined with unprecedented climate change until half the planet’s land surface can now be classified as drylands—arid landscapes inhabited by a third of humankind.

Video: James G. Workman Discusses the Water and Climate Issues that Haunt Botswana’s Bushmen

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The video above and corresponding transcript below are a Q&A author James G. Workman did with the book's publishers, Walker & Company.

Peter Gleick: California Water Bills. Is the New Water Legislation Better than Nothing?

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A lot of people have asked me my opinion about the new water legislation just passed in Sacramento. Here is a longer version of my piece in the New York Times Bay Area blog page

Peter Gleick: Doing Desalination Wrong: Poseidon on the Public Dole

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Many people believe that desalination of seawater is the ultimate solution to California (and the planet's) water problems. I've written about desalination in previous posts (see here and here), and have made it clear that I love the idea. In theory. And in select locations.

Climate Change Is Water Change — Water Experts React to Barcelona Negotiations

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Climate Change Is Water ChangeWater experts have convened in Barcelona to ensure water management strategies are integrated into global climate change negotiations – so far their efforts have fallen on deaf ears.

India’s Leaders Argue Over River Linking Plan

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Attempts to mitigates drought and climate change in India by connecting its northern and southern rivers.

Rio Grande Threatened by Radioactive Run-off

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Rio Grande Threatened by Radioactive Run-offRadioactive waste is trickling toward New Mexico’s Rio Grande River from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, serving as a grim reminder of the site’s Cold War history, and potentially threatening northern New Mexico's drinking water.

Qatar Food Company Signs $1 billion Deal to Use Sudan Farmland

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Sudan-Farmland-290Qatar furthers the trend of Gulf Arab Countries off-shoring their agricultural production to secure food supplies for its citizens and other populations in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Qatar’s Hassad Foods signed a deal last week, worth potentially $1 billion, to develop 20,000 acres of land in northern Sudan, Reuters reports. Cultivation could expand to 250,000 acres.