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Sudan – Battling The Twin Forces Of Civil War And Climate Change
November 23rd, 2011
Courtesy of The Guardian, a report on Sudan – where millions of hectares of semi-desert has turned into desert and a battle against water stress and a looming food security crisis looms: A thousand miles south of Cairo, Sudan is having another rotten year. To the east, Somalia, much of Ethiopia and the Horn of […]
Read more »Laos to Wait for ‘Positive Signals’ Before Building Mekong Dam
November 23rd, 2011
Via Bloomberg, a report that Laos will wait for “positive signals†from its neighbors before it builds the $3.7 billion Thai-financed Xayaburi hydropower plant on the Mekong River. As the article notes: “…Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia share the common position that any construction activity will take place only if positive signals are given by the […]
Read more »The Nubian Aquifer: A Rare Isotope Helps Track an Ancient Water Source
November 23rd, 2011
Via The New York Times, an interesting article on the challenges of measuring and managing the Nubian Aquifer, shared by Egypt, Libya, Chad and Sudan. As the report notes: The Nubian Aquifer, the font of fabled oases in Egypt and Libya, stretches languidly across 770,000 square miles of northern Africa, a pointillist collection of underground […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: China Plans Tibetan Conservation Zone To Protect Source Of Great rivers
November 19th, 2011
Via the Shanghai Daily, a report that China is planning to set up an ecological conservation zone on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where the country’s major rivers originate. As the article notes: “…The planned national conservation zone covers a 395,000 square kilometer region known as Sanjiangyuan, which is the source of China’s three major rivers – […]
Read more »How Melting Glaciers And ‘Mountain Tsunamis’ Threaten Himalayan Kingdom Of Bhutan
November 19th, 2011
Via WorldCrunch and LeMonde, a look at the dual water threats facing Bhutan: glacial floods and the possibility of reduced river flow in the years ahead: On the Druk Path Trek between Timphu and Paro in Bhutan The Kingdom of Bhutan, tucked between India and China in the foothills of the Himalaya mountain range, is […]
Read more »The Next Dust Bowl
November 18th, 2011
Two interesting articles on threat of a coming Dust-Bowlification from Think Progress. The first reflects on a recent IPCC study that – according to Joseph Romm – hints at Dust-Bowlification, but is mostly silent on global warming’s most grave threat to humanity -Â food production: A USA Today (not IPCC) chart emphasizes the risk of […]
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