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Cambodia to Divert Mekong Trade via China-Built Canal, Vexing Vietnam
March 13th, 2024
Courtesy of Nikkei Asia, a report on a planned Phnom Penh-coast link raises alarms amid regional influence tussle: From his house on the banks of the Mekong River, an hour from Phnom Penh, Mao Sarin can watch ships laden with containers chug by on their way to Vietnam and the giant river delta. If the […]
Read more »Citizen Scientists Chronicling A Neglected But Vital Mexican River
March 9th, 2024
Via MIT Technology Review, an article on volunteer efforts to document the life that remains—and still thrives—in a challenged urban river in Monterrey: The city of Monterrey in northeastern Mexico is an industrial powerhouse that has rapidly devoured green space to make room for its 5.3 million people. The Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range around […]
Read more »As Colorado River Shrinks, States Continue To Argue Over Cuts
March 9th, 2024
Via The Land Desk, a look at how states continue to tussle over a shrinking Colorado River: The two groups of Colorado River watershed states — the Upper Basin and the Lower Basin — have each come up with a respective preliminary plan for how to deal with a shrinking supply of water in the […]
Read more »AI Is Taking Water From The Desert
March 8th, 2024
Courtesy of The Atlantic, commentary on the environmental impact of new data centers and whether the Earth can sustain them? One scorching day this past September, I made the dangerous decision to try to circumnavigate some data centers. The ones I chose sit between a regional airport and some farm fields in Goodyear, Arizona, half an […]
Read more »Record Drought Imperils Food, Copper Output in Southern Africa
March 8th, 2024
Via Bloomberg, a report on Zambia’s declaration of the current protracted dry spell as a national disaster: A swathe of southern Africa about the size of France suffered the driest February in decades, killing crops and precipitating a power shortage that threatens to hit copper mines in a key producing region. Last month, large parts […]
Read more »The Parched Tiger: India’s Silicon Valley Suffers As Water Grows Scarce and Prices Spike
March 8th, 2024
Via The Cool Down, a report on Bengaluru’s water crisis: India’s Silicon Valley is suffering from a water shortage, forcing thousands of residents to go without necessities. What’s happening? Residents of the city of Bengaluru are facing an unprecedented water shortage months before the typical onset of peak summer issues. Weak southwest monsoon rains have […]
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