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Access to Water: A Security Concern and Potential Trigger of Conflict
June 26th, 2008
As reported by Terra Daily, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stated that access to water is increasingly seen as a potential global flashpoint. “…More and more cities and countries see access to water as a security concern and a potential trigger of conflict… Global warming can aggravate this by altering existing water distribution patterns, […]
Read more »World Water Use
June 21st, 2008
Via Forbes, an insightful map in which the size of each nation is distorted to illustrate its respective total annual water consumption. China, India and the United States appear largest, indicating they use the most water overall. These tables show the countries that use the most and least water per square centimeter of land. Relatively […]
Read more »Africa: At A Water & Food Inflection Point?
June 13th, 2008
As reported by Nairobi’s Business Daily, food and fresh water security was one of four key issues being discussed by world business leaders who recently gathered in Cape Town, South Africa for the 18th Annual World Economic Forum on Africa. As the article notes: “…Africa is at an inflection point… It has been argued that […]
Read more »Water: Conflict or Catalyst?
May 23rd, 2008
Offering a contrary viewpoint, Circle of Blue recently reported on some experts who believe water can help drive cooperation instead of conflict. While we do not hold such an optimistic outlook, it is certainly fair to present this more hopeful view: “…Scholars from a variety of disciplines would likely argue the world is entering a […]
Read more »Court Water to Conquer War
May 23rd, 2008
As recently noted by Circle of Blue, Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, stated: “If you look at where the violence in the world is right now, in the worst cases — places like Darfur, Sudan, like Somalia, like the Middle East, like Pakistan, Afganistan — these are all water-stressed regions. […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Olympics Water Diversion Causing Olympian Problems
February 29th, 2008
As recently reported by The Financial Times, the diversion of water to Beijing for the Olympics and for big hydropower projects threatens the lives of millions of peasant farmers in China’s north-western provinces. According to the senior Chinese government official quoted in the report, Beijing will need an estimated 300m cubic metres of additional water […]
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