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Water Scarcity May Add to Instability in Africa
April 21st, 2012
Via Bloomberg, a report on the impact of water scarcity to instability in Africa: The worsening problem of water scarcity may contribute to political instability in sub-Saharan Africa, said John Kufuor, the head of a World Bank-affiliated effort to improve living conditions in poor countries. “People migrate to find water anywhere if there’s a scarcity […]
Read more »Water Scarcity Leads More to Peace Than War
April 17th, 2012
Via Green Prophet, an interesting article on the possibility that water scarcity may lead more to peace than war: A couple of months ago a friend of mine studying at the Monterey Institute of International Studies engaged with a Green Prophet post about the link between water and security. As it turns out, she is […]
Read more »What Happens When All The Wells Run Dry?
April 15th, 2012
Via Australia’s The National, a reprint of Thomas Friedman’s comments on the impact of environmental pressures on recent political uprisings: The Arab awakening was driven not only by political and economic stresses, but, less visibly, by environmental, population and climate stresses. ISN’T it interesting that the Arab awakening began in Tunisia with a fruit vendor […]
Read more »Look How Unequally Water Is Divided In The Middle East
April 5th, 2012
Via The Business Insider, a look at how unequally water is divided in the Middle East: THE southern provinces on Lebanon’s border with Israel fare worse than the rest of the country by most measures. Water is one thing in short supply. Swathes of fertile farming land sit idle. Officials say the lack of water […]
Read more »A Global Confrontation: Growing Water Demand Vs. Shrinking Supplies
April 3rd, 2012
Courtesy of Circle of Blue, some further analysis of a recent U.S. State Department report that found a global confrontation between growing water demand and shrinking supplies, in addition to predicting the next 30 years of water security. As the article notes: The world’s demand for fresh water is growing so fast that, by 2030, […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Chinese Power, Burmese Politics
April 2nd, 2012
Via China Dialogue, a report that uses the stalled Myitsone dam project as a way to show how China’s state-owned energy firms have entwined themselves in Myanmar’s internal struggles. As the article notes: We approached the Myitsone construction site along a new concrete road, laid over the local government’s old, rough track by China Power […]
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