A coal loader eats away at a mountain of black coal at the Port of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. In 2011, the mines, trains, and coal loading terminals here shipped about 114 million metric tons of coal on about 1,000 freighters, bringing billions of dollars in export earnings.

Global Energy Demand Driving Australia’s Coal and Gas Export Boom

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International demand and new technologies push nation to the top for hydrocarbon exports. But massive production has also created worries over water.
Protesters in Cusco, Peru in 2008 take part in a national day of strike against the government of former President Alan García, who opened up large areas of the Amazon to logging and mining interests.

International Review of Peru’s Conga Mine Recommends Improvements for Water

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Large-scale protests over resource extraction have swept the country in recent years, posing significant hurdles to a mining industry that is expected to bring Peru $US 50 billion in future investment over the next decade.
UN WASH drinking water MDG millennium development goals sanitation hygeine

UN WASH Report: A “Significant Risk of Slipping” in Global Gains for Drinking Water and Sanitation

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More people have access to drinking water and sanitation than ever before, but more investment is needed to maintain those systems.
Dr. Subir Bhattacharjee in his laboratory at the University of Alberta

Q&A: Subir Bhattacharjee on the Geopolitics of Oil and Alberta’s Tar Sands

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Subir Bhattacharjee — a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Alberta and one of Canada’s top water quality experts — tells Circle of Blue about the water cycle of the tar sands while he attends a high-level conference in Alberta, Canada.

Clean Energy Picture Dramatically Changed For Midwest, As U.S. Fossil Energy Boom Gathers Steam

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With the price of natural gas falling thanks to innovating drilling solutions in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, investments in water-sipping energy models like wind and solar have dried up.

Water Rights: Arizona Senators John Kyl and John McCain Meet With Navajo Nation Leaders

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Decades in the making, a Navajo-Hopi water rights settlement…

National Security Assessment: Water Scarcity Disrupting U.S. and Three Continents

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In a new report, the U.S. State Department finds a global confrontation between growing water demand and shrinking supplies, in addition to predictions for the next 30 years of water scarcity.
Chicago Spearheads $7 Billion Plan to Fix Its Crumbling Infrastructure

Chicago’s $7 Billion Plan to Fix Crumbling Infrastructure

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From expanding its largest airport to replacing century-old water…

Not So Wet: England Grapples With Worst Drought in 30 Years

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Dry times in southeastern England are seasoned with the favorite flavors of leaders in the arid American West: drought declarations, water restrictions, a desalination plant, and talk of piping "surplus" water to the south.

Once A Cleanup Leader, Michigan Struggles With Leaking Fuel

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The state's water is at risk from 9,100 leaking underground storage…
The winning design by Richard Vijgen in the World Water Day competition by HeadsUP and Visualizing.org will be on display in New York City's Times Square for one month. Titled “Seasonal and Longterm Changes in Groundwater Levels,” Vijgen's design uses NASA's gravitational data.

Satellite Perspectives: NASA’s GRACE Program Sees Groundwater From Space

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A first-of-its-kind space mission shows dips in groundwater supplies…
The opening of the Morganza spillway resulted almost immediately in the flooding of farmland located within the floodway. Flooding of farmland caked in fertilizer is a threat to the Gulf of Mexico because it could increase the size of the dead-zone.

Agriculture and Sewage Dead Zone: Taking on Nutrient Pollution in the Mississippi River Watershed

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As the impact of agriculture on water quality intensifies around the globe, two lawsuits in the United States aim to reduce the size of the Gulf of Mexico's ‘dead zone’ by setting limits on nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River Basin.