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‘The Precedent Is Flint’: How Oregon’s Data Center Boom Is Supercharging a Water Crisis
March 29th, 2026
Courtesy of Rolling Stone, an insightful report on how Amazon has come to Oregon’s eastern farmland, worsening a water pollution problem that’s been linked to cancer and miscarriages: In the spring of 2022, Jim Doherty kept having the same conversation with folks at the only grocery store in Boardman, his eastern Oregon hometown, or at the grain […]
Read more »Iran’s Water Weapon Against the Gulf
March 28th, 2026
Via Project Syndicate, commentary on how – while the rest of the world is mainly concerned about the energy disruptions caused by the Iran war – the Gulf countries are more anxious about the Islamic Republic’s threats to their desalination facilities: The oil-rich monarchies of the Persian Gulf are often described as petrostates. But the […]
Read more »The Audacious Plan to Refill Great Salt Lake
March 28th, 2026
Via NBC News, a report on how a “Herculean” goal to replenish the water in Utah’s Great Salt Lake by the 2034 Olympics is gaining momentum and attracting strange bedfellows: The Great Salt Lake has been shriveling up for decades. At its record low about four years ago, the exposed lake bed became a source of […]
Read more »The Global Water Crisis: Stress, Scarcity, and Conflict
March 25th, 2026
Via the Council on Foreign Relations, a report on growing water stress which is threatening the health and development of communities worldwide. The United Nations warns the planet has entered an era of “water bankruptcy,” as climate pressures and rising demand intensify the strain on global water resources. Water stress occurs when demand for safe, […]
Read more »Data Centers: Gobbling Up A Resource – But Not the One Most Think
March 25th, 2026
Courtesy of the Washington Post, commentary on how the expanding footprint of AI infrastructure creates a thirst for more than electricity: The race to build artificial intelligence infrastructure is no longer abstract. It is visible in land deals, the growing demand on the power grid and the expansion of data centers across the United States. […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon and Parched Tiger: India, China, and How Not to Save the Brahmaputra
March 25th, 2026
Via The Diplomat, a look at how – instead of pursuing a diplomatic solution to manage shared waters – India is following a dam-for-dam policy: For over a decade, the Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra River has been framed as the next great theater of conflict between India and China. China, as the “upper riparian hegemon,” is building hydraulic dams […]
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