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The Thirsty Dragon: China To Have Exploited All Available Water Resources by 2030
January 4th, 2008
A dramatic report from Reuters on the impending water crisis in China. As the article notes: “…China will have exploited all available water supplies to the limit by 2030, the government has warned, ordering officials to prepare for worse to come as global warming and economic expansion drain lakes and rivers. As well, a state […]
Read more »Turkey and Its Neighbors: An Uneasy Water Relationship
January 3rd, 2008
Via Terra Daily, an interesting report that Syria has been pressing Turkey to let more water flow into that country from the Euphrates river. Just another reminder of how fragile this region is from a geopolitical water resource perspective. As the article notes: “…Syria and Iraq often complain that their northern neighbour Turkey — with […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: A Deluge of Water Issues Facing China
January 1st, 2008
Given its geographic size, enormous population, and frenetic pace of industrialization, it is perhaps no surprise that water issues are becoming more and more critical in China. And, rather than taking a revisionist approach to history and forgetting all the errors & damage inflicted on water sources around the world by other nations and trying […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Cameroon & China Strike Water Deal
January 1st, 2008
When first reading the headline of this report at Terra Daily, I immediately thought that China – akin to its other efforts to “lock up” scarce natural resources in Africa (i.e. hydrocarbons, metals, etc.) – had moved its strategic reach further, into the world of water. While the details proved to be slightly less dramatic, […]
Read more »The Aral’s Agony: Hydrocarbons (yes); Water Restoration (a drop in the bucket)
January 1st, 2008
A recent report at Energy Daily on the race to exploit Central Asia’s last significant body of water – the Aral Sea – from a hydrocarbon perspective reminded us that the Aral basin is perhaps the planet’s most damaged freshwater resource, a brutal legacy of decades of Soviet centralized planning. Thus, while the Aral’s waters […]
Read more »Geopolitics and Petropolitics Over the Caspian Sea
January 1st, 2008
Via John C. K. Daly at UPI, a very detailed analysis of the Caspian region. While the report is written from the perspective of the search for hydrocarbons, it offers a careful look at some of the very real geopolitical complexities – and long-term environmental & hydrological implications – that may arise over the Caspian […]
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