BLOG
The Rio Grande’s Pecan Problem
September 9th, 2025
Via High Country News, commentary on how Big Ag is threatening New Mexico’s water supply: Green is not the color one expects to see in the cactus-and-yucca-dotted Chihuahuan Desert of southern New Mexico. But for more than a hundred miles along the I-25 corridor, between Truth or Consequences and the Texas border, a rich vein […]
Read more »When Rivers Become Red Lines
September 9th, 2025
Via Geopolitical Futures, a look at how scale and urgency have heightened the importance of certain water resources: Societies have tried to control resources as long as there have been resources to control. Whether precious metals, arable lands or hydrocarbon deposits, access to resources shapes military postures, influences political alliances and sets foreign policies – […]
Read more »Can Filtering Seawater Quench A Thirsty World?
September 9th, 2025
Via the Washington Post, a look at how desalination is spreading beyond the wealthy Persian Gulf to poorer nations sapped by water shortages, like Morocco, that see it as a lifeline: The drought has held its grip for seven years and counting. Scorched vegetation crinkles underfoot. The color has drained almost entirely from Morocco’s agricultural […]
Read more »The Promise and Peril of Ethiopia’s New Mega Dam
September 8th, 2025
Via The Economist, a report on the potential regional impact of the GERD: WHEN ETHIOPIA inaugurates the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile on September 9th, it will be Africa’s largest hydropower source (see map). But to Ethiopians, millions of whom helped pay for it by buying shares, it is far more than […]
Read more »Ethiopia ‘Outfoxes Egypt’ over the Nile’s Waters with its Mighty Dam
September 8th, 2025
Via BBC, commentary on Ethiopia’s official inauguration of the Grand Renaissance Dam: After outfoxing Egypt on the diplomatic stage for more than a decade, Ethiopia is set to officially inaugurate one of the world’s biggest dams on a tributary of the River Nile, burying a colonial-era treaty that saw the UK guarantee the North African […]
Read more »Humanity Is Rapidly Depleting Water and Much of the World Is Getting Drier
September 7th, 2025
Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, a look at how much of the world is getting drier: New research based on 22 years of satellite data shows vast areas of the world are losing fresh water and getting drier. These regions include much of the American West, Mexico, Central America and the Middle East. The […]
Read more »