Yemen: ‘Sanaa will be the first capital in modern history to run dry’

By Staff WritersSanaa (AFP) Jan 24, 2010 Impoverished Yemen is reeling under the threat of Al-Qaeda, northern Shiite rebels and southern secessionists, but a lack of water is putting its ancient capital at even greater risk, experts say. Within a decade — or even less — Sanaa could become the first waterless capital in the […]

Graph of the Day: California Groundwater Storage Loss, October 2003 – March 2009

Observed ground water trends in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins, Oct. 2003 to March 2009. NASA Data Reveal Major Groundwater Loss in California’s Heartland Technorati Tags: freshwater depletion,drought,agriculture,California,GRACE,North America

Graph of the Day: Mammal, Bird, and Amphibian Declines by Cause

Red List Index (RLI) for (a) birds, (b) mammals and (c) amphibians showing trends driven by the impacts of invasive alien species (IAS)  compared with trends driven by other factors, for the proportion of species expected to remain extant in the near future without additional conservation action; n = 9,785 nondata deficient extant bird, 4,555 […]

Little owl in decline across Britain and Europe

Nature Notebook: Unlike similar introductions, the little owl has been an attractive addition to Britain’s avifauna By Michael McCarthyTuesday, 26 January 2010 Here’s some sad news for birdwatchers and classicists alike: the wise old owl is in decline. Across Europe, the bird which began the association between owls and intelligence is dropping in numbers – […]

Torrential rain not enough to end California drought

By Bonnie Hulkower, New York, New York on 01.25.10 …While this week of rain has brought some relief to water officials, much more rain and snow is needed to pull California out of its three-year drought. The state could emerge from drought, but only if the rain is persistent, and is complemented by heavy snowfall […]

Peak Water: ‘The iconic rivers of our imagination are drying up’

By SYLVIA THOMPSON FORGET PEAK OIL. Forget climate change. Peak water is where it’s at, according to Scottish journalist and broadcaster, Alexander Bell, who has just written a fascinating book, Peak Water (Luath Press, Scotland). “It’s the coming issue of our age,” says Bell. “Civilisation is thirsty. It has never stopped to think about what […]

Himalaya villagers confront drought, flood, and receding glaciers

By Andrew BuncombeFriday, 22 January 2010 At times, the moonscape land of Ladakh can appear as dry as a desert. In this most northerly part of India, tucked high in the Himalayas, there is virtually no rainfall and almost 75 per cent of the local farmers rely on meltwater from the glaciers to irrigate their […]

Graph of the Day: Groundwater Storage Loss in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Basins, October 2003 – March 2009

In the 66-month period analyzed, the water stored in the combined Sacramento and San Joaquin Basin decreased by more than 31 cubic kilometers, or nearly the volume of Lake Mead. Nearly two-thirds of this came from changes in groundwater storage, primarily from the Central Valley. NASA Data Reveal Major Groundwater Loss in California’s Heartland Technorati […]

Ethiopia dam to destroy crucial Kenya lake

By Staff WritersNairobi (AFP) Jan 20, 2010 The livelihood of hundreds of thousands of Kenyans around the world’s largest desert lake will be wrecked by an Ethiopian dam on the lake’s main tributary, conservationists said Wednesday. “The Ethiopian dam project is going to bring nothing but tragedy and harm to Kenya,” warned renowned archeologist and […]

Graph of the Day: NW India Groundwater Depletion, 2002-2008

GRACE measures groundwater level variations, including groundwater depletion in northwest India. Since 2002, groundwater has been lost from that region at a rate of 17.7 km3 per year, largely due to pumping for irrigation. GRACE Can Monitor Human-induced Groundwater Depletion Technorati Tags: freshwater depletion,drought,agriculture,India,GRACE

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