Entries by Circle of Blue

China routes water from country to Olympics

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BEIJING – Chinese laborers are busy building a canal to transport water to Beijing as part of the national effort to prepare for the Olympic Games, the Toronto Star reports. The central government wants Beijing green and gleaming come August, even if it means others may have to go without. A government slogan painted on […]

Melting glaciers mean a dry summer for Hindu Kush

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VIENNA – In Afghanistan, home to some 3,500 of the world’s glaciers, the effects of global warming are already being felt in the Hindu Kush said U.S. Geological Survey researcher Bruce Molnia. In some valleys snow has completely disappeared during months when it usually blankets the mountains and many basins have drained, Molnia said. Read […]

CDC reports third-world conditions in Alaska

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Alaskan villagers without running water have high rates of lung and skin infections, according to a study released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Remote Alaska includes about 170 Eskimo villages, mostly along coasts and rivers and reachable only by boat, snowmobile or airplane. Although most have electricity and heat, many […]

Ugandan springs contaminated with sewage, chemicals

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UGANDA – According to engineer Sotti Bomukama, the Director at the Directorate of Water Development in the Ministry of Water and Environment, water samples from nine spring wells in Kampala were tested and out of those, only two had water with acceptable coliform (feces) levels, which means that most water that people use is contaminated. […]

“We all go ‘Lord of the Flies’ in a week”

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In an interview on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” archaeologist and historian Brian Fagan, author of The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilization, predicts an alarming number of huge droughts worldwide. Stewart’s own prediction of what civilization’s reaction to such a situation would be: “Without water, we all go Lord […]

EPA says US pipes are crumbling

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NEW YORK – The Environmental Protection Agency says utilities will need to invest more than $277 billion over the next two decades on repairs and improvements to drinking water systems. Water industry engineers put the figure drastically higher, at about $480 billion. Water utilities, largely managed by city governments, have never faced improvements of this […]

Chinese province loses its water to Olympics

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The Lohasian features a Reuters video on the continuing criticism of China’s environmental record, which has been under increased scrutiny with the upcoming Beijing Olympics. The latest story making international news is Beijing’s siphoning off water at the expense of a neigboring province to ensure that the Olympics will be green and tourists will be […]