The Stream, November 7: Report Finds Half of Shale Gas Areas Have Water Stress

Energy
Global energy production will be increasingly pinched by scarce water supplies, leading to increased costs, according to a new report from energy consulting company Wood Mackenzie, The Wall Street Journal reported. The report also found that more than half of shale gas areas in the top 10 countries with the most reserves have medium to extreme water stress.

Mining
Floods continue to release mercury from old gold mining operations into California’s streams and rivers, according to a study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Associated Press reported. The contamination could threaten agriculture and fish downstream of the Sierra Nevada, and the study links it to mercury found in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and San Francisco Bay.

Agriculture
In an opinion piece for The New York Times, Mark Bittman calls the recent acquisition by a Chinese company of U.S. pork producer Smithfield a land grab, water grab, and technology grab. He argues that China gets a safer supply of pork while the U.S. gets the negative environmental consequences of pork production.

Typhoon
Residents in the Philippines are preparing for the strongest typhoon of the season in the Pacific, and some evacuations have been ordered, Reuters reported. Typhoon Haiyan is expected to hit the central islands on Friday and is already creating heavy rain and strong winds.

The Stream is a daily digest spotting global water trends. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.

Codi Kozacek

A news correspondent for Circle of Blue based out of Hawaii. She writes The Stream, Circle of Blue’s daily digest of international water news trends. Her interests include food security, ecology and the Great Lakes.
Contact Codi Kozacek