A recent Valentine’s Day-inspired article in the Grist pointed out that oysters are the only delicacy that enhances The Mood and water quality. Don’t get too excited, though: a new study published this week in BioScience revealed that oysters are “functionally extinct” in many parts of the world where they were once abundant, and nothing [...]
According to a new international study, water flowing into the Arctic Ocean from the North Atlantic is the warmest it has been in the past 2,000 years.
According to a recent report by Deutsche Bank, the number of US lawsuits related directly or indirectly to climate change rose by nearly 300% between 2009 and 2010. In addition to cases focused more broadly on climate change, there have also been a growing number of cases focused specifically on water regulations. Examples of the increasing importance of courts in the arena of water law abound (I recently wrote about a case involving EPA-mandated water rules in Florida), but the most current noteworthy case was decided in the Michigan Supreme Court at the end of December.
Notably absent from this week’s program is any planned dialogue regarding energy demand and water supply, two issues whose inverse trajectories are threatening the environmental and economic futures of both nations.
Typically, discussions about hydropower center around hydroelectric dams and ocean wind turbines. That could change, however, if Verdant Power – an energy company based out of New York – succeeds in its latest venture.
Early last month, Florida sued the US Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to block new clean water regulations that the agency announced last month and which it plans to begin enforcing in 2012.
This past October, the Levant Desalination Association and Nosstia, an organization of expat Syrian scientists, arranged a conference in the capital city of Damascus to discuss Syria’s water crisis.
Yesterday, FIFA announced that the 2022 World Cup would be held in Qatar, the first Middle Eastern country ever chosen to host the tournament.
One of the greatest challenges to sustaining 1.8 million people in an extremely arid locale is water, which in the coastal city of Dubai is abundant but not potable.
For a vast majority of the past fifty years, oil and its abundance defined the Middle East. In coming years, however, that part of the world may well be defined by the dearth of a different natural resource: water.
State of the Planet is a forum for discussion on varying viewpoints. The opinions expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Earth Institute or Columbia University.
