Water19
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Watch: Building Solutions for Water Challenges
From aging and leaky pipes to pollution and shrinking aquifers, America’s water infrastructure faces a growing set of challenges. A new video describes how the America’s Water Initiative, a program based at the Columbia Water Center, is trying to address those issues.
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Protecting Our Drinking Water
The reason we have federal water quality standards is to ensure that local economic issues, politics, racism or other factors do not control decisions about water supply. But in Flint, decisions on water supply were not subject to effective federal review.
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Flint Crisis Opens Door on Water Problems Around U.S.
Experts from the Columbia Water Center, the Earth Institute and affiliates talk about the municipal water crisis in Flint, Mich., the nature of the crisis and what it means for America’s Water.
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There’s Plenty of Blame for Flint, Michigan’s Water Crisis
The federal government sets the drinking water standards in America, even though monitoring and administration is delegated to the states. The federal EPA had the authority and responsibility to intervene. The failure in Flint belongs to all of us and it should lead to some hard thinking about the causes of this completely avoidable environmental…
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#100. Taking a Fresh Look at Five Issues
This is the 100th blog I’ve written for the State of the Planet. It seemed like a good occasion to take a look at my five most popular blogs to see what has changed in the years since they were written. Is the news better or worse for seawater greenhouses, plastic pollution, turning wastewater into…
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Microbeads, Marine Debris, Regulation and the Precautionary Principle
It is clear that the hunger for economic growth and wealth pushes business and governments to ignore environmental impacts that are considered an inevitable byproduct of development. But this fails to account for the costs that will inevitably be borne when the damage must be cleaned up.
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With El Niño, Be Careful What You Wish for
In Southern California, a strong El Niño usually signals rain. Given that California is now in the throes of a severe drought, it seems like that should be a good thing, even if it comes with risk of floods. But the reality of climate is more complex and counter-intuitive than it first appears.
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Making Agriculture Sustainable in One of India’s Poorest States
Jharkhand, India is one of the nation’s poorest and most most food-insecure states, with over 45 percent of the population living below the poverty line. Can a research team devise sustainable ways to improve livelihoods, productivity and sustainable water use?
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EPA Spilled, but Didn’t Dump, the Toxics That Ended up in Colorado’s River
The short-term, expedient result of ignoring environmental impacts may be greater immediate profit for some, but the long-term impact is higher costs and lower profit, and many of those higher costs must be borne by all of us. Many of the companies that made the mess will be long gone before many of the bills…
