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Archive for March 22nd, 2011
German nuclear panel to probe cooling at plants
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2011
Reuters: Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen said on Tuesday that Germany's Nuclear Safety Commission will focus on issues including emergency power supply and cooling systems when it reviews all the country's atomic power stations. Chancellor Angela Merkel also said Germany's state premiers would meet on April 15 to discuss an accelerated move to renewable energy following the Japan crisis. Merkel and Roettgen were speaking after they met chiefs of the five states which host atomic power stations for...
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World Water Day: Conference discusses urban water challenges
Posted by Guardian: Lee Middleton on March 22nd, 2011
Guardian: Half of the world's population now lives in cities, with 3 million urban arrivals every week. In the next two decades, nearly two-thirds of humanity will be living in cities, delegates at a three-day event held in Cape Town to mark World Water Day (WWD) were told.
This year, WWD is focusing on the provision of water in urban areas.
Over a thousand representatives from more than 30 organisations gathered in South Africa to discuss the urban water challenges and opportunities facing the world...
Report: Water shortages to damage growth and stoke international tensions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2011
Business Green: Water scarcity could undermine the rapidly growing industrial sectors of China and India, while Europe remains far from immune to water shortage threats, according to new research published to support World Water Day.
A quarter of the world's largest companies are thought to be at risk from water shortages already, but whole economies are at risk of disruption as a result of increasingly scarce water supplies, says a report published today by risk analysts Maplecroft.
In particular, the report...
African cities need ‘greener’ water infrastructure: UN
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2011
Agence France-Presse: African cities need to move toward greener water and sanitation projects, such as rainwater collection, to keep pace with booming urban populations, a new United Nations report said Monday. "We need to turn to new and innovative engineering solutions and those that in particular address more green infrastructure," Tim Kasten of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) told journalists on the sidelines of a summit for World Water Day 2011. Traditional engineering solutions were not able to...
USDA funds research on crops and climate change
Posted by Bloomberg: Steve Karnowski on March 22nd, 2011
Bloomberg: The federal government is investing $60 million in three major studies on the effects of climate change on crops and forests. The goal is to help farmers and foresters continue producing food and timber while trying to limit the impact of a changing environment. The three studies are bringing together researchers from a wide variety of fields and encouraging them to find solutions appropriate to specific geographic areas. One study will focus on corn in the Midwest corn, another on wheat in the...
United Kingdom: Experiences of extreme weather events increase climate change concern
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2011
Asian News International: A new study has found that direct experience of extreme weather events increases concern about climate change and willingness to engage in energy-saving behaviour.
The research by Cardiff and Nottingham Universities found that members of the public are more prepared to take personal action and reduce their energy use when they perceive their local area has a greater vulnerability to flooding.
Although no single flooding event can be attributed to climate change, Britain has experienced a series...
Water Rushing Through Cities, The Gentle Version
Posted by National Public Radio: Robert Krulwich on March 22nd, 2011
National Public Radio: Alexey Titarenko/Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York Untitled, (Crowd 1), 1992 Henry David Thoreau was looking into a pond one day "” it was his local pond in Walden, Massachusetts and as he looked, a fish, a pickerel, slid into view. That fish was so comfortable, so at ease in the water, Thoreau wrote in his diary that its muscles, its fins its scales were almost water in a different form, "animalized water," he called it. And 150 years later, the great science writer Loren Eiseley said the same...
World Water Day: A global inundation of funds is not enough
Posted by Guardian: Sophie Trémolet on March 22nd, 2011
Guardian: Tuesday is World Water Day, an occasion to celebrate water and its crucial contribution to human life in all its forms. To mark the occasion, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released a report that gathers available evidence on the benefits of investing in water and sanitation services.
The emphasis of the report is on presenting the facts and figures in a way that can grab the attention of policy-makers and investors.
So let's start with the facts: almost...
United Kingdom: Throwing food away sends world’s scarce water gushing down the plughole
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on March 22nd, 2011
Guardian: As consumers throw millions of tonnes of uneaten food into the bin each year, few give a thought to the hidden cost of such waste – the water that it took to grow the food.
But new research shows that we throw away, on average, twice as much water per year in the form of uneaten food as we use for washing and drinking.
What is worse, increasing amounts of our food comes from countries where water is scarce, meaning the food we discard has a huge hidden impact on the depletion of valuable water...
World learns from Dutch to keep head above water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2011
Independent: Dubai's Palm Island, New Orleans' upgraded dykes and Australia's water recycling plants all have one thing in common: they benefited from Dutch know-how gained in the country's age-old quest for dry feet.
"The Netherlands has always battled against this natural enemy - water," said Hanneke Heeres of the Union of District Water Boards (UvW), which after 900 years existence is the Netherlands' oldest government body.
"And with global warming and rising sea levels the world is more and more interested...