Entries by Keith Schneider

Meghalaya’s Coal Shutdown Order Tests Law and New Court’s Resolve

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The big case has huge ramifications for India’s water, land, and economy. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue The April shutdown order affected virtually every business in Meghalaya’s two big coalfields — the Jaintia Hills to the east, and the Garo Hills in the state’s southwestern region. In Jowai’s crowded market, merchants complained […]

India’s National Green Tribunal Challenges Government and Industry To Follow the Law

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Four-year-old court emerges as global leader in securing resources, promoting economic gain. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue Courtroom Number 1 in session at the National Green Tribunal in New Delhi. The interior design conveys institutional significance, and sound and independent legal judgment. Beneath the gold and green, though, lies the spirit of […]

Earth Pushes Back

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Era of indifference greets droughts, floods, storms, tsunamis. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue India’s policy of free water and free energy to farmers is draining groundwater reserves, polluting air and rivers, and generating economy-weakening brownouts with millions of electric water pumps that irrigate rice and wheat crops so big they rot in […]

Showing Off Circle of Blue Colleagues and Reporting in Traverse City

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World-changing reporting fresh from northern Michigan. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue Circle of Blue’s Choke Point: China project showed how China’s massive energy-consuming urban construction program, like this development in Xian, is producing an urgent a confrontation over water in the dry north, where much of China’s energy is produced. Click image […]

Matt Black’s California Drought Photographs Featured in New Yorker

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Circle of Blue photographer documents Central Valley water shortage. Photo © Matt Black / Circle of Blue A man passes water vending machines in the small farmworker community of Stratford in California’s Central Valley. Click image to enlarge. Matt Black, the California photographer who documented the deepening drought in his home state earlier this year […]

Despite Delays and Billions in Overruns, Olmsted Locks and Dam Project Rolls On

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Ohio River project is departure for funds-starved U.S. water infrastructure installations. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue The Olmsted Locks and Dam project, the largest and most expensive inland water navigation installation ever built in the United States, is either an outstanding example of American technical excellence and persistence, or a folly of […]

World Water Week Offers Answers To Scarcity, Pollution, and Security

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Stockholm hosts largest-ever international conference on global contest for water and energy. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue The 24th annual World Water Week in Stockholm attracted 3,000 participants from 130 countries to discuss the ties between energy and water. Click image to enlarge. STOCKHOLM — Of all the world’s developed nations, none […]

Circle of Blue Wins Society of Environmental Journalists Awards for Reporting and Photojournalism

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Coverage of “the world’s quest for water” is timely, intimate, and dramatic.