The worst drought since at least the 1950s has barely registered on political radar screens this year. Water doesn't make it into convention or stump speeches, or onto bumper stickers or campaign signs. To many people concerned about the nation's water supply, this drought of attention to a vital resource underscores a glaring, ongoing problem that will likely worsen in coming years if it is not ... read more >>

Unlike geoengineering efforts to remove carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from earth itself, space-based Solar Radiation Management (SRM) would seek to literally deflect a small portion of the sun’s luminosity before it hits our atmosphere. ... read more >>

Humanity’s ability to feed itself is in serious doubt as climate change takes hold on land in the form of droughts and extreme weather, as well as on the world’s oceans. Less well known to many is the fact that emissions from burning oil, coal and gas are both heating up the oceans and making them more acidic. That is combining to reduce the amount of seafood that can be caught, according to a ne ... read more >>

One year after crews began to take down two obsolete dams on Washington state’s Elwha River, the unprecedented restoration is already yielding such signs of life as fish hatchlings, tree saplings and the beginnings of beaches for ongoing study by US Geological Survey scientists and their state, federal and tribal partners. ... read more >>

The entire Gulf region is reliant on desalination technology to get most of its water but it's an energy inefficient process.
Experts say new technologies should be installed which could cut energy consumption by 50%.
Firms developing these technologies are struggling to persuade decision makers to invest, making it hard for the advances to become commercially viable.
Jonathan Frewin reports f ... read more >>

This chapter will focus on decision support systems (DSS) as they relate to water resources management and planning. Water is a resource that touches and is interwoven with numerous human activities as well as the environment we live in. Its availability and beneficial use depend on the timing and manner of its arrival (rainfall intensity, rain or snow, duration, frequency), the physical setting ... read more >>

Traditionally, international water resources have been managed by riparian states based essentially on a technical hydraulic approach, addressing navigation concerns, water flows at the border and shared hydraulic structures, besides the definition of political borders. During the 1990s, the possibility of a paradigm change emerged, where a “technical hydraulic management approach” seemed to be g ... read more >>

Pacific countries need to embrace renewable energy and follow the first tentative steps of some governments. The South-East Asia and Pacific region is blessed with abundant sources of 'green' energy — including sun, wind, water, biomass and geothermal — but governments are still not doing enough to harness them. The 30 countries in this part of the world are sitting just a few degrees below and a ... read more >>

The article discusses the effects of oil exploration on ecosystem in lake Malawi and the people with the lake shore who heavily rely on fishing for living. On the other hand, Malawi’s economy has been heavily dependent on agriculture, and for many years with tobacco being the country’s main revenue earner. But the current global economic crisis coupled with a strong worldwide anti-smoking campai ... read more >>

At first glance, threats to the nation's freshwater might seem less urgent and less important than many of the other economic and foreign policy challenges facing our politicians and policymakers. After all, clean and inexpensive water continues to flow from our taps. Yet front page stories on the devastating drought across America's Great Plains, increased prices for corn, grains, and other agri ... read more >>