planetwater

Food Is the New Crisis

… says the National Post. And food doesn’t grow without water!

How Streams Really Flow

This is something for you Ben, and all the stream morphologists out there! The lesson is for all of us though: Don’t trust anything (obviously). Also, humans have been around for longer than we sometimes think. This one is not so obvious sometimes. There is a scene in “Elizabeth the Golden Age” that reminded me of that: The Spaniards needed lots of lumber for their seriously big fleet. Very similarly, the ancient Greeks needed lots of lumber for their Triremes. The effects of those needs are still quite visible in the landscape around Seville and on the Peloponnese.

Google to Outspend US Government on Environment

This headline from a blogpost by planetsave caught my eye. Well, that’s the purpose of a headline. Planetsave goes on to tell us how many startup-funding google does. How nice. At the bottom of that post they link to three other posts on environment-parts of the US budget (1, 2, 3).

The city of Berlin had privatized their water works nine years ago. Now they city wants its water back. If you’re living in Berlin, you can sign up here.

Climate Change and Groundwater

On a global scale, water levels are rising. The author of a recent Spiegel article claims that the effects of increasing saltwater intrusion has been neglected so far. Well… the US National Groundwater Association (NGWA) has saltwater intrusion covered since quite a while in their list of “Current and potential impacts of climate change” (part of this document). However, the author continues to mention that guys at Ohio State modelled how far saltwater extends from an ocean’s shore inland. And they found out that saltwater stretches further under continents than one has thought before.

Another point the author makes, one that I completely agree with, is that people don’t see the effects that global climate change has on groundwater resources. And people depend largely on groundwater. The author quotes a number from the USGS, according to which half of the US population derives its drinking water from groundwater

Latest UN Report

The latest UN report regarding Climate Change (and here) is a summary of the three reports that were published earlier this year. This summary will be the basis for discussion at the climate conference in Bali in December. Generally, the pictures painted in this summary-report are fairly dark: inundations, draughts, infectious diseases are all going to increase in magnitude and frequency.

The Guardian Weekly (in its issue October 5-11, 2007, page 6) reports that chinese officials admit for the first time major problems with the Three Georges Dam which was finished last year, and since the planning phase has been object of major criticism. As far as I can recollect, this is the first statement that I’ve read so far that admits that there are problems. And substantial problems:

China’s showcase hydro-engineering project, the Three Gorges Dam, could become an environmental catastrophe unless remedial action is taken, the state media reported last week. […] officials warned that landslides and pollution were among the “hidden dangers” facing the world’s biggest hydro-electric plant. The alarmist reports, carried by the Xinhua news agency and the People’s Daily website, were in stark contrast to the congratulatory tone of most domestic coverage of the project, which was planned for flood control along the Yangtze and for lessening China’s dependence on power driven by coal.

[…] ‘There are many new and old hidden ecological and environmental dangers concerning the Three Gorges Dam,’ Xinhua quoted officials as saying. ‘If preventive measures are not taken, the project could lead to a catastrophe.’ […] Li Chunming, vice-governor of Hubei, reportedly said that tributaries were being affected by outbreaks of algae. According to Xinhua, the rising volume of water in the reservoir behind the dam has eroded river banks along 91 stretches of the Yangtze, triggering landslides. The sudden collapses of soil into the water has created waves that have been up to 50 m high, the agency said.

[…] The prime minister, Wen Jiabao, raised these issues in the state council this year. His senior advisers have warned that the problems are as yet far from solved. ‘We cannot lower our guard against ecological and environmental problems caused by the Three Gorges project,’ Wang Xiaofeng, director in charge of building the dam, was quoted as saying. ‘We cannot win by achieving economic prosperity at the cost of the environment.’

There has been considerable uproar in Germany, especially in the blogging community, that flickr is censoring. Examples include “Sprechblase” and “e-ality“. Admittedly, this has nothing to do with water, but it is important for society in general and for the blogging community in general.

The rivers Elbe and Donau in Germany still suffer extreme low water levels, and are partially closed for shipping — a situation unheard of in May.

Italy ended up declaring a state of emergency yesterday, after no rain had fallen since last week

I’ve heard from readers that I am writing too much “serious” stuff. The concern is that this “serious” stuff might scare contributors to this blog away. I have no intention at all to scare anybody! And I think that blog entries on music, literature, movies, art in general, or any other topic within the boundaries of legality and good taste really, are interesting. This “serious” stuff, water in general and climate change in particular these days because it is such a hot topic in the general public, at least within my current surroundings, is occupying my mind and hence I am writing about it. If the majority of the readers and contributors think that this blog is not suitable for this, I will stop.

A lot of fuzz is going on these days about our climate. Is it getting warmer? What happens if it’s getting warmer? Who’s fault is it? Should we do something against it? What should we do? When should we do it?

The role of journalism is critical in this process, as it is generally for forming public opinion. My personal favorite happened in German public news this morning, when the anchor announced, plainly announced without any background, that patio heaters (I assume those gas fired ones) are bad for the climate, and they should be generally abandoned. Wow. Somehow, before the latest IPCC report from the working group I entitled “the physical science basis”, the media was generally quite critical, and sometimes even doubtful if climate change is happening at all. On the IPCC web page I still can find only the “summary for policy makers” of the working group I report. It doesn’t seem like the actual report is actually published yet. This has totally shifted to announcing that climate change is happening, and almost to scaring everybody how bad this is. Another brilliant piece of journalism has happened in the New York Times yesterday, and is very well summarized here, including the responses this NYT article has caused.

Tonight, NPR is airing a promising discussion with participants having big names in the scientific and political genre. It should be available as podcast soon.

The German news magazine “Der Spiegel” has an article today about how more and more people live on the earth, and how less and less have access to drinking water. The provocative title asks if that unequal distribution will be cause for future wars.

Read the rest of this entry »

The NYTimes has an interesting article on cross-boundary water issues