planetwater

ground- water, geo- statistics, environmental- engineering, earth- science

Archive for April, 2007

Beginning of the End of Bottled Water

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CNN reports on some “evidence” that some parts of society start to realize that bottled water is not the way to go.

Written by Claus

April 28th, 2007 at 4:27 pm

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Drought Earlier Than Usual in Southern Germany and Italy

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The month of April has been exceptionally warm, and there has been exceptionally little precipitation in Germany. The danger of forest fires is extremely high, barbecue stations in the forests around Stuttgart are being closed because the danger of accidentally starting a fire are too high. Generally, vegetation is about four weeks ahead of the average time for flowering. Personally, I was sleeping outside in a sleeping bag without using a tent in early April. I had never done this before. Die Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) has two articles relating to this topic in its issue from April 26th:

  • Italien ruft Wassernotstand aus“: Farmers in the valley of the river Po in northern Italy needed to start irrigating their fields in early April, about 4 weeks earlier than normal, leading to a water level in the river meters below the average. Additionally, water levels in Italy’s northern lakes (Lago di Garda, Lago di Como) are down as well. Decreased water levels in rivers are anticipated to decrease the output of power plants and hence power shortages are expected. The author expects that a state of emergency will be issued early next week if it doesn’t rain until then.
  • Die Angst vor der grossen Duerre“: This article paints a similar picture for southern Germany as for Italy: early beginning of irrigation, decreased yield of agricultural crops,

Written by Claus

April 28th, 2007 at 4:09 pm

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Advances in Liquid Gummy Bears

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There’s vitaminwater from a company called “Glaaceu”, and there is lifewater from “PepsiCo”. Supposedly both contain some new sweetener which is supposedly awesome. Who wants to drink stuff that looks like liquid gummy-bears anyways? Via slashfood

Written by Claus

April 25th, 2007 at 9:05 am

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Yangtze Polluted

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The Boston Globe quotes today a chinese newspaper stating that the Yangtse is irreversible polluted

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Written by Claus

April 17th, 2007 at 6:37 am

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Yet Another Wave

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Here is another picture of a very cool wave:

Another cool wave

Written by Claus

April 5th, 2007 at 8:49 am

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Coffee and Milk

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Written by Claus

April 1st, 2007 at 8:38 pm

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