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Groundwater Crisis Is Driving Global Conflict
November 9th, 2014
Via Nature World News, a look at the linkage between groundwater scarcity and global conflict: With rising drought conditions and spiking populations, the world is becoming a very thirsty place. Now, one NASA researcher is highlighting the concerns of a great many experts, claiming that not only is the world facing a water crisis, but […]
Read more »Value Diluted: Water As A Business Issue
November 6th, 2014
Via The Economist, a brief commentary on how water is becoming a growing business problem: IN 2013 a Chilean court ruled that Barrick of Canada, the world’s largest gold-mining firm, could not go ahead with its Pascua Lama mine until it could guarantee not to pollute downstream water or damage nearby glaciers. The company eventually […]
Read more »Preventing Water Wars: Building Bridges Over Water Disputes
October 2nd, 2014
Via The Guardian, a look at how legal and diplomatic policies may help countries to navigate dramatic reductions in water levels that could lead to conflict: The River Nile flows past eleven countries including Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya Fifty years ago, Lake Chad in Africa had a surface area of 25,000 square kilometres. Today, […]
Read more »Thirsty Dragon: A Canal Too Far?
September 28th, 2014
Via The Economist, commentary that the world’s biggest water-diversion project will do little to alleviate water scarcity: THREE years ago the residents of Hualiba village in central China’s Henan province were moved 10km (six miles) from their homes into squat, yellow houses far from any source of work or their newly allocated fields. These days […]
Read more »Hydro-Diplomacy Can Build Peace Over Shared Waters
September 22nd, 2014
Via New Security Beat, a report on hydro-diplomacy: From Ukraine and the Middle East to sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia, the world is engulfed in a series of significant international crises. But despite such urgent issues, it would be a grave mistake to forget about the structural foreign policy challenges – such as access to […]
Read more »Tapping the U.S. West
September 19th, 2014
Courtesy of National Geographic, an interesting look at the American West: The American West faces persistent drought, whether or not relief comes this winter. When will the hard choices be made? For three generations the Diener family has farmed the same ten square miles of Central Valley dirt. In the 1920s they grew barley and […]
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