[Desdemona remembers when it was the Martians who were building desperate canal mega-projects to save their world…] Beijing (UPI) Sep 30, 2010 – China’s $62 billion South-North Water Transfer Project is forcing the relocation of 330,000 people and may not even deliver clean water. The system, designed to supply 45 trillion gallons of water for […]
By FELICITY BARRINGERSeptember 27, 2010 LAKE MEAD NATIONAL RECREATION AREA, Nev. — A once-unthinkable day is looming on the Colorado River. Barring a sudden end to the Southwest’s 11-year drought, the distribution of the river’s dwindling bounty is likely to be reordered as early as next year because the flow of water cannot keep pace […]
Two images from the Thematic Mapper on the Landsat 5 satellite show some of the stark changes on the eastern end of Lake Mead since 1985. 22 August 1985 11 August 2010 Caption by Michael CarlowiczSeptember 23, 2010 In August 2010, Lake Mead reached its lowest level since 1956. The largest reservoir in the […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com September 27, 2010 A new study in the open access journal of Tropical Conservation Science finds that the Kasagala forest reserve in central Uganda is losing important tree species and suffering from low diversity of species. Researchers believe that forest degradation for charcoal and firewood has put heavy pressure on this […]
Ideal breeding conditions for grasshoppers are expected to cost farmers billions By Paul RodgersSunday, 26 September 2010 Australia’s Darling river is running with water again after a drought in the middle of the decade reduced it to a trickle. But the rains feeding the continent’s fourth-longest river are not the undiluted good news you might […]
Rio De Janeiro (AFP) Sept 15, 2010 – A severe drought parching northern Brazil this year has shrunk the mighty Amazon River — the world’s longest river — to its lowest level in 47 years, officials said Wednesday. The waterway’s depth at Manaus, the main city in the Amazon region, was just 19.34 meters (63.45 […]
Lake level products from the NASA/USDA/FAS. Topex/Poseidon (blue), Jason-1 (red), and Jason-2 (purple) radar altimeters. The lakes reside in the USA (Michigan), Argentina (Chiquita), Iran (Urmia), Tanzania (Rukwa), and China (Hulun). State of the Climate in 2009, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climatic Data Center, as appearing in the June 2010 issue (Vol. 91) […]
By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF September 7, 2010, 10:31 am Torrential rains and flash floods that swept through cities and villages in West Africa in late August have intensified a food crisis in the region, leaving upwards of 10 million people suffering from severe food shortages, the United Nations and relief organizations warned last week. The […]
The filling of Lake Mead (green) was initiated in 1935, and that of Lake Powell (blue) in 1963. In 1999, the lakes were nearly full, but by 2007, the lakes had lost nearly half of their storage water after the worst drought in 100 years. The Colorado River system supplies water to over 30 million […]
ScienceDaily (Sep. 5, 2010) — Against a backdrop of extreme weather wreaking havoc around the world, a new report warns that increasingly erratic rainfall related to climate change will pose a major threat to food security and economic growth, especially in Africa and Asia, requiring increased investment in diverse forms of water storage as […]
