Water Scarcity13
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At AGU, Earth Institute’s Columbia Water Center Adds to the Abundance of Scientific Riches
The annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting is an all-you-can-eat buffet of the most current scientific knowledge available on the planet. Name your pleasure: space, climate change, geomagnetism, nonlinear geophysics, volcanology, biogeosciences, etc. You have to be careful to indulge in moderation over the five-day event, or risk unseemly bloating. The Columbia Water Center contributed…
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Finding Sustainable Solutions As Water Crisis in India’s Food Bowl Grows
The rapidly declining groundwater table in Punjab–one of the most agriculturally productive states and the heart of green revolution belt in northern India–is a disturbing trend.
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Is New York City Ready for Drought?
All day long a flood of thousands scientists and students ebbs and flows across San Francisco’s 4th Street and Howard Avenue, coursing between the cavernous Moscone West and Moscone South convention buildings. The AGU is like a supercomputer of earth science, with human currents of data swapping information, heading from one talk to another, processing…
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India’s Water Is Running Out
India is running “the largest water-mining project in the world”–and it cannot be sustained much longer, Columbia Water Center researcher Shama Perveen told an audience on Monday. That is mainly because farmers, who depend heavily on irrigation water drawn from underground aquifers, are using far more water than rainfall can replenish. Perveen’s talk, “Quantifying the…
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Parched for Peace: The Fertile Crescent Might Be Barren
This past October, the Levant Desalination Association and Nosstia, an organization of expat Syrian scientists, arranged a conference in the capital city of Damascus to discuss Syria’s water crisis.
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Parched for Peace: A Slight Digression, Just for Kicks
Yesterday, FIFA announced that the 2022 World Cup would be held in Qatar, the first Middle Eastern country ever chosen to host the tournament.
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Ceará, Brazil: With Electricity and Water, This Place is Heaven
“With electricity and water, this place is heaven on earth.” That is the opinion of several residents I spoke with last summer during a visit to Milhã, in the center of the state of Ceará, Brazil. In this rural, semi-arid region communities are small and close-knit, and many families have lived there, often in the…
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California’s Water Rights Controversy: Should Farmers Be Allowed to Transfer Water to Developers?
Farmers in San Joaquin Valley, California have recently come under scrutiny for proposing to sell their water rights to developers. The selling of water rights remains a controversial issue especially as industry and home development compete with farmers for limited water supplies.
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Geography Awareness Week: Freshwater is Serious Fun
For adults concerned about environmental issues, particularly the growing water crisis, it can be hard to know where to start to educate and involve the children in their lives, those who will ultimately be facing the consequences of what we do or don’t do now. How do you frame serious, complicated issues in a way…
