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The Case For Water Diplomacy
July 14th, 2011
Via USC’s Center for Public Diplomacy, an interesting article on water diplomacy: “Just turn on the faucet.†That’s the answer most Americans and others in the developed world would give if asked how to get plenty of clean water. But for about two billion people, such a response is meaningless. These people – almost a […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Only Uncertainty Reigns In Dry Beijing
July 9th, 2011
Via China Dialogue, an article on China’s desperate shortage of water and Beijing’s uncertainty as to how to fix the problem, torn between desalination and pumping resources from the south. As the report notes: Beijing’s lack of water is making it jumpy. Early in the morning of 14 June, a team of 12 researchers from […]
Read more »Geopolitical Water and Food Security Melting Away In Face of Rising Temperatures
July 6th, 2011
Via Grist, an interesting article on impact that higher temperatures, melting glaciers, and depletion in aquifers may have upon food – and climate – security overall: Heat waves clearly can destroy crop harvests. The world saw high heat decimate Russian wheat in 2010. Crop ecologists have found that each 1-degree-Celsius rise in temperature above the […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: China Told To Reduce Food Production Or Face ‘Dire’ Water Levels
July 4th, 2011
Via The Guardian, an interesting article on how China is running out of water and can no longer afford to irrigate its northern plains. As the report notes: “…China needs to reduce food production on its dry northern plains or aquifers will diminish to a “dire” level in 30 years, one the country’s leading groundwater […]
Read more »Sudan Seeks To Tap ‘Blue Gold’ With New Dam Projects
July 3rd, 2011
Via Terra Daily, an article on Sudan’s blue ambitions: Sudan is aggressively seeking to tap its abundant Nile waters with new dam projects as the oil-rich south’s independence looms, but experts warn of the social and environmental costs, and the bearing on the Nile water sharing dispute. Khartoum sits on the confluence of the Blue […]
Read more »Water Wars: 21st Century Conflicts?
July 2nd, 2011
Via Al Jazeera, an interesting report on the how almost half of humanity will face water scarcity by 2030 and strategists from Israel to Central Asia prepare for strife. After droughts ravaged his parents’ farmland, Sixteen-year-old Hassain and his two-year-old sister Sareye became some of the newest refugees forced from home by water scarcity. “There […]
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