The Stream, October 8: Australia Takes First Step Toward Cap-and-Trade System

Australia enacted a carbon tax last week that is expected to give the country the world’s most comprehensive cap-and-trade system by 2015. Drought, rampant wildfire, and Great Barrier Reef degradation pushed Australians to realize their vulnerability to climate change, National Geographic reported.

Cauvery River dispute

Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, hosted leaders from Karnataka to discuss the state’s dispute with Tamil Nadu over diversions from the Cauvery river. Both states, BBC News India reported, say they need the river water for millions of farmers.

U.S. Water Stress

The corn used to produce the amount of ethanol in a gas tank could feed 22 people. That according to researchers at the New England Complex Sciences Institute, NPR reported, as ethanol could consume up to 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers just released a major water infrastructure study, WaterWired reported. The Corps presents six alternative strategies to deal with deteriorating water-resource infrastructure that is wearing out before it can be replaced.

San Angelo, Texas, came within a year of running out of water recently after a severe drought. The city’s largest rainfall since 1968 refilled reservoirs, The New York Times reported, but the drought is not over, and San Angelo remains dangerously vulnerable.

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