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The Thirsty Dragon: Will World’s Largest Dam Project be Big Enough for China’s Economy?
October 17th, 2025
Via Nikkei Asia, a detailed look at whether the planned Yarlung Tsangpo power plant can revive China’s growth momentum: Addressing ordered ranks of construction workers, government officials and cadres in traditional Tibetan dress standing at attention in a clearing ringed by misty Himalayan mountain peaks, Chinese Premier Li Qiang three months ago hailed the official […]
Read more »This Texas Town Is an Energy Powerhouse. It’s Running Out of Water.
October 13th, 2025
Via the Wall Street Journal, a report on how severe drought has Corpus Christi scrambling to meet growing demand from companies like Exxon and Tesla: South Texas lured Tesla, along with Exxon Mobil and other energy behemoths, with the promise of land, cheap energy and, perhaps most critically, abundant water. The companies spent billions of dollars […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon and Parched Tiger: China’s Tibetan Mega-Dam Is Veiled in Secrecy
October 11th, 2025
Via Foreign Policy, a look at the veil of secrecy surrounding China’s Tibetan mega-dam: When Wen visited the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon in the spring of 2025, the independent Chinese ecologist saw numerous heavy trucks loaded with construction materials along Medog county in the southeastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Only a single, narrow […]
Read more »Peak Groundwater Withdrawals
October 11th, 2025
Via AGU Earth’s Futures publication, new research detailing the world’s arrival at ‘peak’ groundwater withdrawals: Abstract “Peak Groundwater” is the maximum withdrawal rate of groundwater from an aquifer system that precedes a decline in withdrawals resulting from aquifer depletion. This paper traces generalizable phases in groundwater-withdrawal regimes in individual aquifer systems and their associated impacts […]
Read more »Trouble Brewing: Maya People in Yucatán Fear New Heineken Plant’s Thirst for Water
October 10th, 2025
Via The Guardian, a look at how Indigenous groups in Mexico opposed to a planned brewery say families already have little access to water – and that their way of life is also under threat: On a summer evening in southern Mexico, a percussion group using water bottles as instruments leads a procession through Mérida, capital […]
Read more »The Dried-Out Subdivisions of Phoenix
October 8th, 2025
Via High Country News, a look at how a groundwater crisis halted the construction of thousands of homes and pitted affordability against environmental concerns: On the far edge of suburban Phoenix, a giant concrete arch spans the Central Arizona Project, dubbed a “Bridge to Nowhere” by developers and neighborhood activists alike. Nobody can use it; […]
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