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The Thirsty Dragon: Majority of China’s Proposed Coal-Fired Power Plants Located In Water-Stressed Regions
August 29th, 2013
Via the World Resources Institute, a report on China’s coal fired power plant plans: To maintain its economic growth and provide for its massive population, China must reconcile two powerful, converging trends: energy demand and resource scarcity. One prime example of this tension is the country’s coal use and water supply. According to a new […]
Read more »A Grand Dam That Felled Morsi: The Ecological Roots Of Egypt’s Current Strife
August 29th, 2013
Via Down To Earth, an interesting look at the ecological/water roots of Egypt’s current strife: The bloodletting in Egypt, which was triggered by the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi on July 3, has foreshadowed its deeper ecological roots. Egypt cannot get past its present turmoil, at least in the long run, without spotlighting and comprehending […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: China’s Dam(n)ed Future
August 24th, 2013
Via China Water Risk, a report on China’s hydro power sector: Apparently it will be wetter in the North, thanks to a switch in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) from a warm to a cool phase (more on this in Food, Weather & Water Heading North). The bad news is that this switch will make […]
Read more »Central Asia’s Valuable Hydropower Potential
August 24th, 2013
Via Forbes, a report on Central Asia’s hydropower potential and politics: Anyone who saw the recent social media backlash against Nestle knows that water access is becoming a global flash point. And that’s especially true in Central Asia, a region singled out by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence as having an “inadequate†ability to […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon (The Hungry Dragon): Why China Wants US-Grown Pork Chops
August 24th, 2013
Via MotherJones, a look at the impact of water scarcity on China’s food supplies: When the Chinese company Shuanghui International bought US pork giant Smithfield in May—a deal that’s still on hold pending US government review—I read it as another sign that China’s rulers are ready to more or less outsource the nation’s food supply […]
Read more »Peak Water in the American West
August 24th, 2013
Via Science, a startling assessment of the U.S. West’s water challenges from Peter Gleick: Dropping water levels in Lake Mead, behind Hoover Dam. (Source: Peter Gleick 2013) It is no surprise, of course, that the western United States is dry. The entire history of the West can be told (and has been, in great books […]
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