Climate change, water and the infrastructure problem

By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights

The naive notion that we can, for example, "just use more air conditioning" as the globe warms betrays a perplexing misunderstanding of what we face. Even if one ignores the insanity of burning more climate-warming fossil fuels to make electricity for more air-conditioning, there is the embedded assumption that our current infrastructure with only minor modifications will withstand the pressures placed upon it in a future transformed by climate change and other depredations.

America’s ‘Cadillac Desert’: Is there a substitute for fresh water?

By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights

There is no substitute for potable water—despite what economic theory may wish to assert. To get enough of it in many locales will be increasingly expensive as we turn to ever more exotic means to extract water while both population grows and climate-enhanced droughts diminish replenishment of existing sources.

High & Dry: Talking Groundwater

By Alex Wise, Sea Change Radio

How will we meet the challenges of the world's growing dependence on groundwater? Authors Bill and Rosemary Alley on one of the globe's most deadly threats.

Along a Desert River, A New Breed of Rancher

By Sandra Postel, National Geographic Newswatch

Schwennesen is among a new cadre of farmers and ranchers that brings a more holistic, ecological way of thinking to land management.

Too Much Water to Waste?

By Debbie Cook, Post Carbon Institute

Does California have too much water? Seriously. Because our actions are sending peculiar messages.

From drought to deluge: an ecological approach to California’s water crisis

By Erik Ohlsen, Resilience.org

While the media focuses on larger-scale challenges, small-scale, implementable solutions seem absent from the discussion. Small-scale solutions are beautiful because they often address both drought and flood problems. With one of the strongest El Niños on record developing in the Pacific, California may see a massive deluge this winter. It could be damaging if we don't prepare now. On the heels of a multi-year drought, flash floods and the inundation of dry, crusty soils will be especially damaging.

EPA Study: Fracking Puts Drinking Water Supplies at Risk of Contamination

By Sharon Kelly, DesmogBlog

The Environmental Protection Agency has released its long awaited draft assessment of the impacts that fracking has on the nation's drinking water supplies.

A Thirst for Economic Change?

By Erik Alm, The Daly News

Perhaps the catalyst could be a life-altering dearth of a critical resource that, until recently, most of us in the United States have taken for granted: water.

A Year Without the Colorado River, as Seen by Economists

By Sandra Postel, National Geographic Newswatch

Imagine if each tap that delivered water from the Colorado River – whether to a farm, a factory, or a home – suddenly went dry for a year. What would happen to the West’s economy?

A Watershed Moment for Los Angeles

By Sandra Postel, National Geographic Newswatch

The timing might seem odd, even self-destructive. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued an executive order calling for his southern California city to cut its water imports by half within a decade.