State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Water Scarcity21

  • 5th World Water Forum

    Representatives from the agriculture and energy industries convened here at the 5th World Water Forum to debate how, why, where and whether humankind’s rising demands for water, oil, food and energy will lead to conflict or cooperation. The Forum tackled issues of food and energy, conflicts over water, and pragmatic synergies among vital resource sectors. …

  • Fix a Leak Week, March 16-20, 2009

    New York’s Department of Environmental Protection is sponsoring Fix a Leak Week this week throughout the city. In addition to the free water-saving kits (mentioned below in Samantha’s post), the city seems to be actively tackling the issue of water preservation.

  • Water Usage Per Person

    Seeing Samantha’s post on water conservation kits reminded me how much water we use in the US compared to others in the world. The above data is from UNDP Human Development Report 2006. For your reference, 1 liter = 0.264172052 US gallons. I hope there are a lot of related posts that come from this…

  • Free water saving kits from NYC DEP

    If you go to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection website, you’ll see that nearly half the items on the homepage are about water. There’s the large scale, like protecting and maintaining the sewer systems and watersheds, and also the smaller scale, such as their rain barrel and residential water conservation programs. As…

  • Do you still drink bottled water?

    For most of the readers of this post, the issue of bottled water might not be entirely new. Surely there has been rising awareness and alarming voice about the downsides of bottled water. However, the market is undeniably still growing. Bottled water market is growing on a global scale and, especially in the U.S., the…

  • As Economy Falters, Everglades May Lose Out

    In the past months, the headlines have been dominated by news of yet another bad day for the stock market. But, there is another casualty of the recession that probably isn’t getting as much press. While stocks continue to plummet, the Everglades of South Florida may also be falling on hard times as a result…

  • Drought and Fire Continue to Threaten Koalas and Humans in Australia

    By now, most people are familiar with the above image from the recent devastating wildfires in Australia. But while the rapid internet proliferation of this example of interspecies camaraderie mimicked the spread of the fire itself, there was no happy ending for many victims in Australia’s Victoria state on February 7th. The death toll has…

  • Water Footprinting

    Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an article about how companies are starting to calculate their “water footprint” as well as their carbon footprint to institute more water friendly policies. Commercial companies have discovered that it takes “20 gallons of water to make a pint of beer, as much as 132 gallons of water to make a…

  • Scientists to Map Out Earth’s Soil

    New tool will help explain and solve world’s greatest environmental threats

  • 5th World Water Forum

    Representatives from the agriculture and energy industries convened here at the 5th World Water Forum to debate how, why, where and whether humankind’s rising demands for water, oil, food and energy will lead to conflict or cooperation. The Forum tackled issues of food and energy, conflicts over water, and pragmatic synergies among vital resource sectors. …

  • Fix a Leak Week, March 16-20, 2009

    New York’s Department of Environmental Protection is sponsoring Fix a Leak Week this week throughout the city. In addition to the free water-saving kits (mentioned below in Samantha’s post), the city seems to be actively tackling the issue of water preservation.

  • Water Usage Per Person

    Seeing Samantha’s post on water conservation kits reminded me how much water we use in the US compared to others in the world. The above data is from UNDP Human Development Report 2006. For your reference, 1 liter = 0.264172052 US gallons. I hope there are a lot of related posts that come from this…

  • Free water saving kits from NYC DEP

    If you go to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection website, you’ll see that nearly half the items on the homepage are about water. There’s the large scale, like protecting and maintaining the sewer systems and watersheds, and also the smaller scale, such as their rain barrel and residential water conservation programs. As…

  • Do you still drink bottled water?

    For most of the readers of this post, the issue of bottled water might not be entirely new. Surely there has been rising awareness and alarming voice about the downsides of bottled water. However, the market is undeniably still growing. Bottled water market is growing on a global scale and, especially in the U.S., the…

  • As Economy Falters, Everglades May Lose Out

    In the past months, the headlines have been dominated by news of yet another bad day for the stock market. But, there is another casualty of the recession that probably isn’t getting as much press. While stocks continue to plummet, the Everglades of South Florida may also be falling on hard times as a result…

  • Drought and Fire Continue to Threaten Koalas and Humans in Australia

    By now, most people are familiar with the above image from the recent devastating wildfires in Australia. But while the rapid internet proliferation of this example of interspecies camaraderie mimicked the spread of the fire itself, there was no happy ending for many victims in Australia’s Victoria state on February 7th. The death toll has…

  • Water Footprinting

    Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an article about how companies are starting to calculate their “water footprint” as well as their carbon footprint to institute more water friendly policies. Commercial companies have discovered that it takes “20 gallons of water to make a pint of beer, as much as 132 gallons of water to make a…

  • Scientists to Map Out Earth’s Soil

    New tool will help explain and solve world’s greatest environmental threats