By Matt Weiser California’s San Joaquin Valley has lost 60 million acre-feet of groundwater since 1961, according to a new federal study. That’s enough water for 60 Folsom reservoirs. This is among the findings in a massive study of groundwater in California’s Central Valley by the U.S. Geological Survey. It helps shed light on the […]
Update: Better late than never. Heavy rain eases Mumbai’s water woes By Himangshu Watts NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India is scrambling to divert power supplies to the countryside to irrigate rice and oilseed crops and limit damage after the worst start to the vital monsoon season in eight decades has raised fears of a drought. […]
San Joaquin Valley farms are laying off workers and letting fields lie fallow as their water ration falls. By Alana Semuels Reporting from Mendota, Calif. — Water built the semi-arid San Joaquin Valley into an agricultural powerhouse. Drought and irrigation battles now threaten to turn huge swaths of it into a dust bowl. Farmers have […]
By Adele Horin AUSTRALIA’S extended drought is having a severe impact on the mental health of farmers and their partners — but they are not turning to alcohol to drown their sorrows. A new study shows that men and women in drought-affected areas are drinking less alcohol than those in areas unaffected by the long […]
‘Once-in-a-century’ drought sending campers indoors and stunting crops North Texas has had average rainfall this year, and three “cool” days this week felt like Christmas in July. But don’t tell your friends in Central and South Texas, because they are feeling hot, parched and bothered. A “once-in-a-century” drought is baking a big swath of Texas, […]
ScienceDaily (July 10, 2009) — New Envisat images highlight the dramatic retreat of the Aral Sea’s shoreline from 2006 to 2009. The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest inland body of water, but it has been steadily shrinking over the past 50 years since the rivers that fed it were diverted for irrigation projects. […]
Researchers are starting to make sense of a severe drought that ravaged the Amazon rainforest four years ago. Their findings are terrifying. By Paul Brown In the summer of 2005, the Amazon rainforest suffered the worst drought it had seen in a century. Whole tributaries of the Amazon River dried up, leaving ferries stranded on […]
We talk about drought in California, rainwater capture issues in Colorado, and fresh water troubles in the South East. But, as water expert Peter Gleick pointed out yesterday, we haven’t a clue about what a real water crisis looks like. Australians do. As we discussed during June when we examined Peak Water, Australia has some […]
Climate change is rapidly expanding the size of the world’s tropical zone, threatening to bring disease and drought to heavily populated areas, an Australian study has found. Researchers at James Cook University concluded the tropics had widened by up to 500 kilometres (310 miles) in the past 25 years after examining 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles. […]
Beijing (AFP) June 20, 2009 – A drought in Tibet has intensified into the region’s worst in three decades, leaving thousands of hectares parched and killing more than 13,000 head of cattle, China’s state media said Saturday. The report by Xinhua news agency follows a warning by China’s top weather official last month that the […]
