Entries by Keith Schneider

2015 Biggest Trends: Water Scarcity Rises to Top Global Concern

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After a year of deep droughts, worsening pollution, rising sea levels, and floods, water was finally recognized as perilous to nations and the international economy. By Keith Schneider Circle of Blue JOHANNESBURG — In the last days of 2015, the Famine Early Warning System Network, a forecasting tool, reported that the deepest drought experienced by […]

South African Power Plants Roiled By Water Scarcity and Global Pivot Away From Carbon

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Bankruptcies, project shutdowns, regulation, and emission limits curb enthusiasm for fossil fuels. By Keith Schneider, Circe of Blue Images from space of the Kusile and Medupi power stations, under construction in South Africa, show rows of partially completed turbine plants, a pick-up sticks jumble of big tower cranes, and an armada of trucks. The stunningly clear […]

Unearthing Water Risks of the Global Mining Industry

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Keith SchneiderCircle 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 http:/Circleofblue.org/about/staff/Keith

Shenzhen’s New Path to Sustainability Is Crowded With Obstacles

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A new and huge city focuses on getting cleaner. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue An apt message for a new office park in Shenzhen. In 2014, provincial and national economists valued Guangdong Province’s annual economy at $US 1.1 trillion, which is more than Indonesia’s gross domestic product, and accounts for 10.4 percent […]

Analysis: India Seen As Vital Player at Paris Climate Conference

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Opportunity to shift from coal to cleaner energy is real and needed.

Paris Negotiators Expected to Reach First Global Climate Pact

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Momentum for a deal is strong. Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org. ““Paris is the scoreboard more than the game,” he says. “The results will reflect how much movement pressure we’ve built since Copenhagen.” Click image to enlarge. By Keith Schneider Circle of Blue French authorities issued […]

Commentary: Drought Influenced Syrian Civil War; So What, Says U.S. Congress

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U.S. Congress on an island of reflexive denial. By Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue A paper published earlier this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States added fresh, peer-reviewed details about how a malicious four-year (2007 to 2010) drought in Syria played a role in touching off a […]

China’s Early Pivot Away From Carbon

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World’s largest coal consumer’s big challenge to lower climate-changing emissions. Photo by Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue Though economic expansion is slowing in China, the country is still growing over $US 700 billion annually, almost twice the growth increase in the United States. Demand for energy to build and operate mammoth residential housing projects […]

Donghao Chung, Guangzhou’s Daylighted Water Refuge

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A new urban park constructed from a polluted sewer is a message of new principles at work in China. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue The 4.5-kilometer (2.8-mile) park along Donghao Chung, runs for a time beneath an elevated freeway. At other moments it pools in a plaza open to the light and […]

Lighting Small Fires As Cure to Catastrophic Blazes in California

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Prescribed burns tested in Klamath Mountains. Photo courtesy Adam Shumaker / This American Land A prescribed burn near Butler Creek in California’s western Klamath Mountains clears 5.6 hectares (14 acres) of underbrush to serve as a firebreak when the next big wildfire races through the area.Click image to enlarge. By Keith Schneider Circle of Blue […]

In Oakland, Still A City With Thorns, A New Garden Emerges (Part II)

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Quality of life and economy thrive with greater care for water, energy, air, and waste. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue With city and state carbon reduction limits in place, Oakland set out to meet them. The city audited its buildings, analyzed its fleet of vehicles, and reviewed its solid waste infrastructure with […]

Fish Screens Are Part of The Answer to Saving Sacramento River Salmon

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Out of social confrontation over water and fish in California comes a fish story worth telling. By Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue MAXWELL, Ca. — Before the founders of the Family Water Alliance began installing metal screens at the end of the big pipes that draw water from the Sacramento River to irrigate Colusa County’s […]