Posts

Peter Gleick: The Real Climate Hoax

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In all of the recent news about climate change, leaked emails, complex negotiations, and watered-down agreements in Copenhagen, one fact has't received enough attention. The climate "hoax" is real.

Peter Gleick: Stealing Water from the Future – California’s Massive Groundwater Overdraft Newly Revealed

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A NASA report summarizing data collected from new satellites confirms what most water observers have known for a long time. Massive amounts of groundwater are being sucked out of California's Central Valley groundwater aquifers -- unreported, unmonitored, and unregulated.

Peter Gleick: Water and Conflict – The New Water Conflict Chronology

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In an ongoing effort to understand the connections between water resources, water systems, and international security and conflict, the Pacific Institute initiated a project in the late 1980s to track and categorize events related to water and conflict.

Peter Gleick: Prepare Now for Another Dry Year

The western United States is still in a drought. If you have any doubts, take a look at the latest map from the U.S. Drought Monitor. Maybe we'll be lucky and the rains will start soon and be healthy. But California water agencies and users must begin planning for another dry year.

Peter Gleick: What the Frack? Poisoning Water for Energy Profits

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Injecting water, chemicals, and sand to "frack" the gas from shale rock formations.

Peter Gleick: Water on the Moon

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nasaimage290In a good indication of just how important water is to us, some of the most exciting news from the Moon since the initial 1969 landing has revolved around research to determine whether or not it has water.

Peter Gleick: Giving Desalination Another Black Eye — Poseidon’s Financial Shell Game

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Last week, I wrote about the demand by the Poseidon Group to receive two major public subsidies to build a private desalination plant at Carlsbad near San Diego. After years of claiming that they needed no public support to build this plant, this claim has finally been proven false. The private profits they need will only be possible with public subsidies.

Peter Gleick: California Water Bills. Is the New Water Legislation Better than Nothing?

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A lot of people have asked me my opinion about the new water legislation just passed in Sacramento. Here is a longer version of my piece in the New York Times Bay Area blog page

Peter Gleick: Doing Desalination Wrong: Poseidon on the Public Dole

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Many people believe that desalination of seawater is the ultimate solution to California (and the planet's) water problems. I've written about desalination in previous posts (see here and here), and have made it clear that I love the idea. In theory. And in select locations.

Peter Gleick: Who Is Stealing California’s Water?

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Someone is stealing our water. Many someones. But who and how much? No one knows today, mostly because the agency responsible for keeping an eye on water rights and use--the State Water Resources Control Board--is blind, deaf, and dumb. Blind, because they don't look. Deaf, because they don't listen to or act on most requests to investigate water rights allocations and use. Dumb, because they don't talk about these issues. "Asleep at the switch," as a colleague describes it.

Peter Gleick: Water use in the United States has Leveled off: New Remarkable Numbers Released

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New numbers on total water use in the United States in 2005 have just been released by the U.S. Geological Survey, which does an assessment of water use every five years.

Peter Gleick: Water and Population part 2

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In a previous post here, I raised the population and water issue in a general way. My point was that ignoring the population component of our resource challenges was a mistake, certainly in the long term and in some places, in the short term. I think this is indisputable -- resource constraints are worse than they would otherwise be if populations are large and growing rapidly rather than small and growing slowly, or even shrinking.