The Stream, September 27: Water Found on Mars

Mars
NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered that the surface soil on Mars contains at least 2 percent water, CBS News reported. Soil samples taken by the rover also contained oxygen and carbon dioxide, and researchers believe that future samples could yield organic compounds.

Climate Change
Curbing the effects of climate change would require the world to make “substantial and sustained” cuts to emissions, according to the fifth assessment on the state of global climate change from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Guardian reported. This article gives a summarized breakdown of the report’s findings.

Climate change could mean changes to the sovereignty of island nations that cease to exist when sea levels rise, USA Today reported. These islands, many of them in the Pacific, will likely become uninhabitable due to a lack of fresh drinking water before they are completely swallowed by the ocean.

Colorado Floods
Even after floodwaters have receded in Colorado, the effects are still being felt by those who lost their homes—many of them low-income, working class families, Reuters reported. The floods have also raised questions for affected members of the state’s immigrant population, who may not want to seek aid for fear of deportation.

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