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Water Wars – Between Industries
September 30th, 2009
While this blog normally examines water allocation and scarcity issues between various transnational or other jurisdictions, this New York Times article reports on the increasing likelihood of water “wars” breaking out between industries or corporations as scarcity becomes more and more prevalent. We have long held that biofuels are an exceedingly inefficient use of water […]
Read more »Water: A Possible Weapon Of Mass Destruction?
September 8th, 2009
Via the BBC, a report detailing the recent water tragedy on the Korean peninsula in which high flows on the transboundary Imjin River that swept away six South Koreans. The North Koreans, who have a dam on the river, explained that excessively high inflows forced them to release a large amount of water from the […]
Read more »Good To The Last Drop: An Imminent Last Straw For Water Policy?
August 23rd, 2009
Via The Washington Post, an interesting commentary on water shortages, water politics, and the use of market mechanisms to help address the growing problem of freshwater scarcity. As the article notes: “…In the United States, we constantly fret about running out of oil. But we should be paying more attention to another limited natural resource: […]
Read more »Climate Change and Water Scarcity: Future Threats To Security
August 9th, 2009
Courtesy of The New York Times, a new report on the the threat that climate change and water scarcity may have upon global security & future conflicts. As the article notes: The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal […]
Read more »Water Rights In An Age Of Scarcity: No Doctrine For Harmon(y)?
August 3rd, 2009
Via Peter Gleick’s always insightful blog, an interesting review of water rights in the age of scarcity and “The Harmon Doctrine,” which says that upstream water users have the right to do whatever they want with the water in their own “territory” no matter what harm it causes to downstream users. As the article notes, […]
Read more »Water Fight?
July 6th, 2009
Via Canada’s Macleans’ magazine, an interesting article on the likelihood of forthcoming water fights over an increasingly scarce resource: Every few days, another farmer commits suicide in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin, the agricultural heartland. Many, according to Australian evolutionary biologist Tim Flannery, haven’t had any water in almost four years—in places, the allocation of irrigation water […]
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