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High and Dry: The American West Is Drying Up
August 17th, 2021
Via The Economist, a report on the drought in the U.S. west: Locals call it the “bathtub ring”. A white strip more than 150 feet tall encircles the turquoise surface of Lake Mead, America’s largest reservoir, showing visitors how high the water once was, and how far it has fallen. The shrinking of Lake Mead and […]
Read more »First-Ever Water Cuts Declared For Colorado River In Historic Drought
August 17th, 2021
Via CNN, a report on the first-ever water cuts declared for Colorado River in historic drought: The federal government on Monday declared a water shortage on the Colorado River for the first time, triggering mandatory water consumption cuts for states in the Southwest, as climate change-fueled drought pushes the level in Lake Mead to unprecedented lows. Lake […]
Read more »Cameroon Fight Over Water Leaves Many Dead or Wounded
August 17th, 2021
Via VOA News, a report on water related violence in Cameroon: Cameroonian officials say hundreds of people have fled its northern border with Chad after an ongoing conflict over water between cattle ranchers and fishermen killed 18 people and wounded 70. The wounded have been rushed to hospitals in Kousseri, a Cameroon border town and […]
Read more »Small Towns Grow Desperate for Water in California
August 15th, 2021
Courtesy of New York Times, a report on how California’s drought is revealing that – perhaps even more than rainfall – it is money and infrastructure that dictate who has sufficient water during the state’s increasingly frequent dry spells: As a measure of both the nation’s creaking infrastructure and the severity of the drought gripping […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Semiconductors and Water Scarcity in China
August 15th, 2021
Via The Diplomat, a look the nexus between semiconductors and water scarcity in China: Everyone knows it’s a bad idea to spill water on a cell phone, but did you know that it takes more than 3,000 gallons of water to produce one? Water is needed for mining the metal, making the glue and plastic for assembly […]
Read more »The Colorado River Basin’s Daunting New Math
August 15th, 2021
Via Circle of Blue, an article examining how the Colorado River basin’s big reservoirs have fallen to uncharted territory, with a dire forecast in the future: Lakes Mead and Powell, icons of 20th century water engineering in the American West, are in bad shape. The story of their decline is written into the edges of the […]
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