Tag Archives: Droughts

Analysis: The Best Ways To Fix America’s Water Crisis

CNBC (May 30, 2023) – From floods to droughts, CNBC Marathon explores the water crisis in the U.S. Today, one out of three people don’t have access to safe drinking water. And that’s the result of many things, but one of them is that 96.5% of that water is found in our oceans. It’s saturated with salt, and undrinkable.

Chapters: 00:00 — Introduction 00:30 — Can Sea Water Desalination Save The World? (Published October 2019) 14:00 — U.S. Farms Waste A Lot Of Water — But This Tech Could Help (Published September 2022) 29:56 — How The West Coast Drought Could Cause More ‘Water Wars’ (Published July 2021) 40:07 — Why Flood Insurance Is Failing The U.S. (Published November 2020)

Most of the freshwater is locked away in glaciers or deep underground. Less than one percent of it is available to us. So why can’t we just take all that seawater, filter out the salt, and have a nearly unlimited supply of clean, drinkable water? The western U.S. is experience a megadrought so severe, it is the driest two decades in at least 1,200 years. And no sector has felt the impact more than agriculture, which takes up about 70% of the world’s freshwater.

With water resources becoming more scarce, several companies are working to improve irrigation efficiency and help sustain food production in a future where extreme climate may be more common. Water is a cornerstone of economic activity, and when it runs low, communities face tough choices. The extreme drought conditions in the U.S. West are straining water resources and providing a fertile ground for wildfires. How will the West Coast face this climate challenge? And 2020 was the busiest hurricane season on record. Flooding is one of a storm’s most devastating consequences.

FEMA estimates one inch of flood water can cause up to $25,000 in damage. The U.S. began offering national flood insurance in 1968 but the program, called the NFIP, is now over $20 billion in debt. Private companies are starting to offer flood insurance as well. However, flood insurance is more complicated than it may appear. Watch the video to better understand how flood insurance works, and doesn’t work, in the U.S.

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Research Preview: Science Magazine – April 14, 2023

Current Issue Cover

Science Magazine – April 7, 2023 issue: Anchoring radiocarbon dates to cosmic events, why hibernating bears don’t get blood clots, and kicking off a book series on sex, gender, and science.

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Reproductive medicine

Since ancient times, humans have been trying to exercise control over their reproductive decisions, whether to avoid undesired pregnancy or to improve their chances of conceiving. In addition, the risks of pregnancy and childbirth have always been a major challenge.

Droughts are coming on faster

Higher global temperatures are increasing the frequency of flash droughts

Africa: Somalia Is Facing Its Worst Drought Ever

ABC News In-depth (March 23, 2023) – Somalia is one of the most dangerous places on earth. Almost two decades of conflict with the al-Qaeda backed terrorist group al-Shabaab has taken a huge toll on the country. Now Somalia is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years.

“People say that this is the worst drought in 40 years, but that’s wrong,” says Adam Abdelmoula, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia. “This is the worst drought in Somalia’s history, period.”

A map of Somalia.

With the world distracted by the war in Ukraine, the crisis is escalating away from the public gaze. This week on Foreign Correspondent reporter Stephanie March and producer/cinematographer Matt Davis travel to Somalia where makeshift camps have become home to more than a million hungry children and their families.

There, they meet mothers with babies who have walked for days without food and very little water. They hear incredible stories of courage and survival in a landscape that is unforgiving and unsafe. And they also face their own safety problems when their security team worries al-Shabaab has been told of their whereabouts.

As the Somali government fights back against al-Shabaab, another threat, which they have no control over, is driving the extreme weather: climate change. In the midst of this turmoil, the Foreign Correspondent team meets extraordinary people who are determined to make their story one of survival.

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Drought: Las Vegas’ Model For Water Conservation

Bloomberg Originals (March 1, 2023) – In Nevada, Kal Penn investigates the lasting impacts of the Colorado River Compact, the 1922 agreement that doles out water rights to seven states. The system, over-optimistic from the start, is on the verge of collapse as water levels in key reservoirs approach dead pool-status. But in nearby Las Vegas, Kal explores strategies that have led that city to become one of the most successful in the US when it comes to water conservation.

Droughts: The ‘Vanishing’ Great Salt Lake In Utah

CBS Sunday Morning (February 26, 2023) – Utah’s Great Salt Lake has been in decline, owing to climate change, drought, and over-use of water resources, and is now one-third the size it was in the 1980s. A new scientific report out this month warns that, without dramatic and immediate cuts in water consumption, the lake could vanish in just five years. Correspondent Lee Cowan talks with Sen. Mitt Romney, who co-sponsored a bill studying the lake’s problems, and with experts who say aggressive action is needed.

Drought: How Las Vegas Conserves So Much Water

As severe drought in the West forces states to make drastic water cuts, Las Vegas offers a road map to making the most out of every drop of water. Since 2002, Southern Nevada has cut its Colorado River water use by 26% while its population has grown by 750,000.

Droughts: Fixing Water Waste On American Farms

The western U.S. is experience a megadrought so severe, it is the driest two decades in at least 1,200 years. And no sector has felt the impact more than agriculture, which takes up about 70% of the world’s freshwater. With water resources becoming more scarce, several companies are working to improve irrigation efficiency and help sustain food production in a future where extreme climate may be more common.

Chapters: Ch. 1: 2:08 The West’s drought Ch. 2 4:48 Water in agriculture Ch. 3 8:02 Smarter irrigation Ch. 4 11:08 Indoor farming Ch. 5 13:11 Future technologies

Research Preview: Science Magazine – August 26, 2022

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Ancient DNA from the Near East probes a cradle of civilization

Studies seek clues to origins of farming, early languages

Global drought experiment reveals the toll on plant growth

Artificial droughts sharply cut carbon storage

Researchers watch how Arctic storms chew up sea ice

Airborne campaign to study summer cyclones could reveal air-ice interactions

Deadly bird flu establishes a foothold in North America

H5N1 has continued to kill wild birds and poultry this summer. The fall migration could bring it back in force

Many-eyed scope will make movies of the stars

Argus Array will combine hundreds of off-the-shelf telescopes to capture fleeting events

FEATURE

Sparkling waters

Tiny Caribbean crustaceans and their bioluminescent mating displays are shining new light on evolution

Droughts: Competing With Nature For Water

Climate change is causing rising temperatures, extreme weather events and more and more drought. And, in this changing reality, everyone needs more water. Humans are competing with the natural world for water. What does this mean for biodiversity? Fewer and fewer countries still have an abundance of water. The climate crisis, overpopulation and overexploitation are the root of this global problem. And, in a warming world, everyone is using more water: people, agriculture and industry. In Germany, streams and ponds are disappearing, forests and soils are drying out. What does this mean for biodiversity? And how do people cope with drought in countries that have even less water — for example, in the USA or Mexico? What happens when our water dries up?

Droughts: The ‘Shrinking’ Of The Colorado River

August 2022 Cover
  • “Tier Drops,” by Lisa Owens Viani.
    Regulations and apportioning that were set up 100 years ago are under pressure as the Colorado River shrinks. As climate change accelerates and record-breaking drought worsens, cities, tribes, and industries must prepare for a future with less water. (Online  August 10)

The Coming Crisis Along the Colorado River

It’s past time to get real about the Southwest’s hardest-working river.

About 40 million people rely on the Colorado River as it flows from Wyoming to Mexico. But overuse and climate change have contributed to its reservoirs drying up at such a rapid rate that the probability of disastrous disruptions to the deliveries of water and hydroelectric power across the Southwest have become increasingly likely. Now the seven states that depend on the river must negotiate major cuts in water use by mid-August or have them imposed by the federal government.

Those cuts are merely the beginning as the region struggles to adapt to an increasingly arid West. The rules for operating the river’s shrinking reservoirs expire in 2026, and those seven states must forge a new agreement on water use for farmers, businesses and cities.

Read more at The New York Times