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The Thirsty Dragon’s Big Drain
June 26th, 2008
From Portfolio Magazine, another article detailing the growing threat that drought has upon China’s economic growth and rural populations. As the pieces notes: “… authorities in Beijing, bent on fueling the capital’s epic growth, have commandeered nearly every drop of water they can pump from the surrounding countryside. Deprived of government help to drill wells […]
Read more »Access to Water: A Security Concern and Potential Trigger of Conflict
June 26th, 2008
As reported by Terra Daily, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stated that access to water is increasingly seen as a potential global flashpoint. “…More and more cities and countries see access to water as a security concern and a potential trigger of conflict… Global warming can aggravate this by altering existing water distribution patterns, […]
Read more »The Queen of Sin City’s Royal Flush
June 22nd, 2008
Via The Las Vegas Sun, an interesting look at Pat Mulroy of the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the actions that Las Vegas has taken to secure water supplies. As the article notes: “…Water is fuel. Without it, runaway growth across the Southwest would not be possible. To witness what cheap, federally subsidized water out […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon’s Thirsty Games
June 21st, 2008
Via Forbes, another article detailing how residents of China’s barren northern villages, still gasping from the effects of a severe drought, have been told it is their national duty to “safeguard the Olympics” by sacrificing their own meager water supplies. As the article notes: “…The Olympic rowing park was created last year by diverting a […]
Read more »World Water Use
June 21st, 2008
Via Forbes, an insightful map in which the size of each nation is distorted to illustrate its respective total annual water consumption. China, India and the United States appear largest, indicating they use the most water overall. These tables show the countries that use the most and least water per square centimeter of land. Relatively […]
Read more »Shrinking Lake Chad
June 21st, 2008
Via National Geographic, dramatic satellite images from 1972 (left) and 2007 (right) which show the water-level decline in Lake Chad, once the world’s sixth largest but now one-tenth its former size due to declining rainfall and diversion of water for human use. While not yet a site of water conflict, given the lake’s location at […]
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