Chance of Rain » Water

The week that was, 8/29-9/4/2010

EmilyGreen — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 18:56:57 +0000

"... one jumped right in front of me and I realized what it was." -- Chuck Fountain on a leaping sturgeon caught on film by his wife Trina on the Ogeechee River. Click on the image to be taken to the story in the Savannah Morning News.

“This is what you get when you move to the desert to ski.” — Tribal spokeswoman Jamescita Peshlakai of Cameron, Arizona at a community meeting debating a proposal to use potable water to make artificial snow, Snowbowl vote postponed, Arizona Daily Sun, August 31, 2010

To me, the whole debacle demonstrates just how dysfunctional the state legislature has become … Laws that protect the special interests at the expense of the public pass routinely. — Heal the Bay president Mark Gold on the failure of the California legislature to pass a bill banning single-use plastic bags, “State senate: Industry bagmen,” Spouting Off, September 1, 2010

The…

Four scenarios for climate change and water

EmilyGreen — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:45:13 +0000

The US Environmental Protection Agency has opened a 45-day public comment period for a draft report looking at impacts of climate change on the water supplies of four American urban regions: the Bay Area in Northern California, Seattle in the Pacific Northwest, New York City in the Northeast and Spartansburg in upstate South Carolina. Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments: Four Case Studies of Water Utility Practices was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment’s Global Climate Research Staff, formerly known as the Tortuous Title Division of Guess Whether or Not it’s a Quango. As it is a draft, the agency requests that readers not cite or quote the content. However, it does welcome feedback. Consider mine given on the title and name of the author. Click here for the EPA’s main climate change page.

The week that was, 8/15-21/2010

EmilyGreen — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 02:56:27 +0000

"Ebb and Flow: Kern's Vanishing Water," an exhibit in which artists in California's Central Valley examine water, will be on show at framers JP Jennings, 1700 Chester Avenue, Bakersfield, CA through October 3. Click on "Gradient Reversal" (above) by Christine McKee to be taken to a Lois Henry article about the exhibit in the Bakersfield Californian.

In the early morning the cow had collapsed, and I could see it would soon be dead. Its eyes were beginning to dull, as the owner squatted next to it, sprinkling water into its mouth, as if it were possible to revive it. Its legs were swollen from standing in water, and its chest and torso were covered with deep cuts and scrapes, sheets of raw flesh where branches rushing past must have hit it. The rest of the family sat nearby on a string bed, resigned, waiting for the end. This was their wealth,…

The week that was, 8/8-14/2010

EmilyGreen — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:26:17 +0000

It is one of the most graphic temperature increases on the planet. — Lake Superior surface waters are warmest on record, Duluth News Tribune, August 13, 2010

Since 1980, Lake Superior’s surface water temperature in summer has increased about two-degrees F per decade. For more, click on the cover of the Large Lakes Observatory report.

X“If the Kalabagh dam had been built, this flood could have been tamed in the reservoir.” — Shams-ul Mulk, former chief of Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority, Pakistan floods renew debate over unbuilt dam, Wall Street Journal, August 11, 2010

“Their crops have gone, their livestock has gone, the infrastructure, the roads are gone. Right now our land link with the rest of the country is gone.” Punjab regional assemblyman Mohsin Leghari, Pakistan floods cause ‘huge losses’ to crops, BBC News, August 12, 2010

Swimming in the rivers that feed the Chesapeake Bay after a hard rain could…

The week that was, 8/1-7/2010

EmilyGreen — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:19:39 +0000

“It is unprecedented …” — Major General Athar Abbas, Half a million evacuated from Pakistan floods, Daily Telegraph, August 6, 2010

“I appeal to the world to help us.” — Pakistani prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on floods now estimated to impact more than two million people, Rains worsen Pakistan flood misery, Al Jazeera, August 8, 2010*

Refugees from record monsoon flooding in Pakistan. Click on the image to make a donation to British Red Cross relief efforts. A £20 sterling donation will translate to roughly $32 US dollars.

“If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?” That’s an excellent question, but it turns out [Chief Seattle] never asked it. The entire “web of life” speech was concocted in 1972 by a Hollywood screenwriter. — H2Ownership: Ancient, Equitable Traditions of Efficient Water Resource Trading in Desert Cultures, Global Water Magazine, July…