Global Water Wire
More than two extinct species a year in England, report reveals
Guardian: More than two animals and plants a year are becoming extinct in England and hundreds more are severely threatened, a report published today reveals. Natural England, the government's agency responsible for the countryside, said the biggest national study of threats to biodiversity found nearly 500 species that had died out in England, all but a dozen in the last two centuries. The losses recorded compare with a natural rate of about one extinction every 20 years before humans ...
Vietnam forest fires rise sharply in drought
Deutsche-Presse Agentur: Drought-driven forest fires in Vietnam this year have already consumed an area greater than the entire area burned in 2008 or 2009, officials said Tuesday. Fires have destroyed 1,600 hectares of forest so far this year, said Do Thanh Hai, a senior official at Vietnam's Forest Protection Department. That area is more than 10 times the rate measured in the first two months of 2008 or 2009, which each saw just more than 140 hectares destroyed. Hai blamed the fires on a drought that has ...
Canada: Dying duck pics sent to Alberta premier
CNews: An admission by Premier Ed Stelmach that he had not seen recent photos of dying ducks at a Syncrude tailings pond has ruffled the feathers of Greenpeace. The environmental group on Wednesday presented Stelmach's spokesman, Jerry Bellikka, with two enlarged photos of tar-covered ducks, hoping the premier would take a look at the images. They were entered as evidence at the ongoing trial against Syncrude, which faces environmental charges related to the April 2008 incident in ...
United Kingdom: 500 species of plants and animals vanish because of humans, says study
Times (UK): Nearly 500 species of plants and animals have disappeared in England in the past 200 years, according to the first comprehensive audit of native wildlife. The disappearances, which have been largely attributed to human activities, include four species that did not exist anywhere else. The great auk, a flightless seabird similar to a penguin, Ivell's sea anemone, Mitten's beardless-moss and York groundsel, a weed, have all become extinct since 1800. "These species were lost on ...
U.S. judge rules for Chevron in Ecuador case
Reuters: Chevron Corp may pursue an international arbitration claim over environmental pollution allegations in Ecuador, a judge ruled on Thursday, part of a long-running case that carries a potential $27 billion liability for the second-largest U.S. oil company. The government of Ecuador had asked Manhattan federal court Judge Leonard Sand to prevent Chevron from taking the 17-year-old case to arbitration under the U.S.-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty. U.S. courts had previously ...
Cyprus conflict closes leaders' eyes to water shortage
BBC: The war I'm interested in is the water war - not an armed conflict, but a struggle nonetheless, between people and a rapidly disappearing resource. The alarming thing, for those working to ease this new conflict, is that Cypriots don't even seem to realise that hostilities between them and nature have begun. Charalampos Theopemptou is the Greek Cypriot side's Environment Commissioner, and it was he who told me the story about the old man in the classroom. He explains its ...
Todd Jarvis on The Color of Water in Oregon: A Perspective on Graywater
Todd Jarvis, Associate Director of OSU's Institute for Water and Watersheds, blogmeister of the Rainbow Water Coalition, and a good friend, gave an informative Power Point presentation on graywater in Oregon before a small (15) but enthusiastic group at the second meeting of the Oregon Section of the AWRA.
Todd is a member of the Oregon Graywater Advisory Committee, which is currently grappling with developing recommendations for the treatment, disposal, and reuse of graywater that are protective of public health and the environment.
Todd's...
Peter Gleick: Water Scofflaws — Go Soak your Heads (Under a Low-flow Showerhead)
After years of inaction, blatant and willful violations of federal law, and lack of enforcement by previous administrations, the U.S. Department of Energy has just announced that they intend to pursue enforcement actions against the manufacturers of water-using appliances that violate national water and energy savings laws that have been ...
California Farmers Can Save Water, Money, Says Pacific Institute Report
The water-scarce state can overhaul its agricultural water management by implementing clearer water targets, better economic incentives, and more direct communication systems, according to a Pacific Institute report.
Photo Courtesy Pacific InstituteThis new Pacific Institute report highlights seven examples of innovations in agriculture that save water and provide multiple other benefits.By ...
Peter Gleick: Farm Water Success Stories
The Pacific Institute has just released a new report, California Farm Water Success Stories, including a separate video, describing a variety of different examples of innovation in California's agricultural sector showing the way toward more efficient water management and use. This report is a follow-on to our major 2009 study ...
