Image of the Day: ‘Welcome to the Cantareira desert’

15 January 2015 (EPA) – A message in graffiti which reads ‘Welcome to the Cantareira desert’ is written on a car which was once submerged in water, at the Atibainha dam, part of the Cantareira System, which shows lowest levels of water, in Nazare Paulista city, 90km away from Sao Paulo, Brazil, 15 January 2015. […]

Brazil drought prompts drastic measures to save water – ‘São Paulo was known as the drizzle city. Now it’s kind of a desert.’

By Lourdes Garcia-Navarro10 February 2015 (NPR) – Last Sunday, hundreds of Paulistanos, as the residents of São Paulo are known, dressed up and danced on the streets at one of the dozens of block parties that happen in advance of the annual celebration known as Carnival. Except this year – among the pirates and Viking […]

Starved for energy, Pakistan braces for a water crisis – ‘In the next six to seven years, Pakistan can be a water-starved country’

By SALMAN MASOOD12 February 2015 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (The New York Times) – Energy-starved Pakistanis, their economy battered by chronic fuel and electricity shortages, may soon have to contend with a new resource crisis: major water shortages, the Pakistani government warned this week. A combination of global climate change and local waste and mismanagement have led […]

Australia may stop providing water and power to remote aboriginal communities

By Jessica Lukjanow 9 February 2015 (VICE News) – Up to 200 indigenous communities in Australia could lose access to power and water because the government says it can no longer afford to deliver the basic services. The remote communities are mainly located across the northern tip of Australia and the Kimberley in the country’s […]

5 reasons Peak Food is the world’s No. 1 ticking time bomb

By Paul B. Farrell7 February 2015 (Market Watch) – Global food poisoning? Yes, We’re maxing out. Forget Peak Oil. We’re maxing-out on Peak Food. Billions go hungry. We’re poisoning our future, That’s why Cargill, America’s largest private food company, is warning us: about water, seeds, fertilizers, diseases, pesticides, droughts. You name it. Everything impacts the […]

Drought may force Brazil’s biggest city to cut back water service to 2 days a week – ‘The water is at its end, our patience too’

São Paulo, January 28, 2015 (Associated Press) –  The worst drought to hit Brazil’s biggest city in decades may leave residents with water service only two days a week. São Paulo water utility company Sabesp says a five days-off, two days-on system would be a last-ditch effort to prevent the collapse of the Cantareira water […]

Brazil environment minister says drought is worst on record – Rio de Janeiro state in ‘the worst water crisis in its history’

BRASILIA, Brazil, 24 January 2015 (Australian News.Net) – Brazil’s Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira has told the media following a crisis meeting at the presidential palace in Brasilia that the country is experiencing its worst drought since 1930. The states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais are the worst affected, she said after […]

Lake Urmia: How Iran’s most famous lake is disappearing

By Ali Mirchi, Kaveh Madani, and Amir AghaKouchak for Tehran Bureau23 January 2015 (The Guardian) – In the late 1990s, Lake Urmia, in north-western Iran, was twice as large as Luxembourg and the largest salt-water lake in the Middle East. Since then it has shrunk substantially, and was sliced in half in 2008, with consequences […]

Drought reduces São Paulo’s main water reservoir to 6 percent of capacity – ‘The water supply situation is critical and could become even more critical if the lack of rain and hot weather continue’

São Paulo, 16 January 2015 (Associated Press) – Halfway through the rainy season, the key reservoir for the southern hemisphere’s largest city holds just 6% of its capacity, and experts warned Friday that São Paulo’s authorities must take urgent steps to prevent the worst drought in more than 80 years from drying it out. The […]

Scientists: Human activity has pushed Earth beyond four of nine ‘planetary boundaries’ – The planet ‘is likely to be much less hospitable to the development of human societies’

By Joel Achenbach 15 January 2015 (Washington Post) – At the rate things are going, the Earth in the coming decades could cease to be a “safe operating space” for human beings. That is the conclusion of a new paper published Thursday in the journal Science by 18 researchers trying to gauge the breaking points […]

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