BLOG
Israeli Water, Mideast Peace?
February 26th, 2014
Courtesy of The New York Times, some commentary on the impact that water woes may have upon Middle East politics: Nuclear proliferation, religious militancy and income inequality are all major threats to Middle East stability. Sadly, a new one is brewing: water scarcity. The human causes are clear: rapid population growth, antiquated infrastructure, the over-pumping […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: South-North Water Transfer ‘Not Sustainable’
February 26th, 2014
Via ChinaFile, an update on China’s South-North Water Transfer project which, one official said, would be rendered irrelevant if one-third of buildings in Beijing could collect more rainwater and recycle more wastewater: The bank of the Yangtze River in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality, dried up in a drought that in 2011 forced authorities to halt […]
Read more »Canadian Ambassador: Water Wars With U.S. Will Become Bigger Issue Than Pipelines
February 25th, 2014
Via the Vancouver Sun, an article reporting that some senior Canadian diplomats think that water wars with the U.S. will soon become more important than current cross-border deliberations over potential petroleum pipelines: Canada must prepare for diplomatic water wars with the U.S., as demand on both sides of the border grows for this vital but […]
Read more »The Drying Of The American West
February 23rd, 2014
Courtesy of The Economist, a sobering report on the drought conditions in the American west: THE first rule for staying alive in a desert is not to pour the contents of your water flask into the sand. Yet that, bizarrely, is what the government has encouraged farmers to do in the drought-afflicted south-west. Agriculture accounts […]
Read more »Water Crisis Brings Threats Of Mideast War And Terrorism
February 16th, 2014
Via Terra Daily, further commentary on two studies examining the growing global water crisis: Satellite data released by the University of California, Irvine, shows the world’s water supply is disappearing fast because of agricultural demand, an expanding population, energy production and climate change, with the Middle East, Africa and Asia in particular facing crisis in […]
Read more »Why Global Water Shortages Pose Threat Of Terror And War
February 12th, 2014
Via The Guardian, a sobering article on From California to the Middle East, huge areas of the world are drying up and a billion people have no access to safe drinking water. US intelligence is warning of the dangers of shrinking resources and experts say the world is ‘standing on a precipice’ An Egyptian farmer […]
Read more »