Circle of Blue Live From Stockholm World Water Week
Three Choke Point sessions on the fierce competition between water, food and energy.
Photos: ©Circle of BlueBy Keith Schneider
Circle of Blue
Circle of Blue and the Wilson Center, whose four-year-old Global Choke Point project helped elevate to worldwide attention the contest between rising energy demand and diminishing freshwater resources, will be in Stockholm August 31 to September 5 to participate in World Water Week, which is convening the most expansive international dialogue ever on the topic.
The focus of the 24th annual conference this year is how closely energy production and water supply are tied. The conference’s sponsor, the Stockholm International Water Institute, is hosting 2,500 participants from 200 organizations and 130 countries to discuss the ramifications of energy production and water supply trends that are moving in opposite directions.
In 2010, Circle of Blue posted its Choke Point: U.S. report, the first to describe how water supply and water quality would be the principal impediments to fracking and tar sands development in North America. Since then Circle of Blue has collaborated with the Wilson Center in exclusive reporting from the frontlines of the energy-water confrontation in China, India, Mongolia, and the Arabian Gulf.
Each report discovered never reported trends, among them that China is running out of water in its dry energy-rich north, and that mismanaged water supplies are dramatically hindering India’s economic development. Global Choke Point has helped the world write a new narrative about energy production and the global water crisis.
On Wednesday, Circle of Blue and the Wilson Center present the findings of the Global Choke Point project during a morning seminar hosted by J. Carl Ganter, Circle of Blue’s co-founder and managing director, and Jennifer Turner, the director of the Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum. Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue’s senior editor and chief correspondent, also will participate in a session that includes slides and graphics from reporting around the world and real-time social media dialogue between participants in Stockholm and journalists in the United States.
Global Choke Point:
On the Front Lines of the Water Food Energy CrisisWednesday, September 3rd, 9:00am – 12:30pm CET
Room T5Join the conversation
#knowwaterThree colliding trends—declining freshwater reserves, uncertain grain supplies, and booming energy demand—are disrupting economies, governments and environments around the world.
Join Circle of Blue’s award-winning journalists and the Wilson Center for a dynamic, on-the-ground exploration of the growing competition between water, food and energy globally.
In the second half of this interactive session, define the next big stories and learn how to communicate your message widely.
• Award-winning journalists take you to the front lines
• Help define the next big water-energy stories of the decade
• Hands on — learn how to tell the world’s most important stories
Circle of Blue also is participating in two other seminars at World Water Week that are hosted by the World Resources Institute and several more convenors. On Tuesday morning the Institute releases its newest report on global shale gas development and Keith Schneider moderates a panel of global experts discussing its conclusions and other trends surrounding fracking and energy production.
On Wednesday afternoon, Schneider moderates a second WRI seminar on the troubled relationship between water scarcity and global coal production and consumption. Schneider has reported extensively from China, India, Germany and the United States on shifting coal supplies and demand and their effect on freshwater resources, communities, and national economies.
Circle of Blue’s senior editor and chief correspondent based in Traverse City, Michigan. He has reported on the contest for energy, food, and water in the era of climate change from six continents. Contact
Keith Schneider
The diminishing supply of fresh water sources is of critical importance. Drawing attention to this in Stockholm on an International platform will be excellent.