Climate Change

Desalinating Seawater sounds Easy, but there are cheaper and more sustainable Ways to meet people’s Water Needs

By Gregory Pierce, University of California, Los Angeles | – (The Conversation) – Coastal urban centers around the world are urgently looking for new, sustainable water sources as their local supplies become less reliable. In the U.S., the issue is especially pressing in California, which is coping with a record-setting, multidecadal drought. California Gov. Gavin […]

Climate Crisis

Scientists Conclude Climate Change Contributed to 1/3 of Pakistan being Under Water; Calls for Debt Relief

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The massive monsoon floods that affected 33 million people in Pakistan, destroyed 1.3 million homes, turned the southern province of Sindh temporarily into a new inland sea nearly 70 miles across, and killed off 80% of the country’s livestock was in part fueled by the human-caused climate emergency. So argues […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency: Typhoon Merbok, fueled by unusually warm Pacific Ocean, pounded Alaska’s vulnerable coastal Communities at a critical Time

The Conversation

By Rick Thoman, University of Alaska Fairbanks | – The powerful remnants of Typhoon Merbok pounded Alaska’s western coast on Sept. 17, 2022, pushing homes off their foundations and tearing apart protective berms as water flooded communities. Storms aren’t unusual here, but Merbok built up over unusually warm water. Its waves reached 50 feet over […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis and the Age of the Super-Typhoon: Storms batter, flood Puerto Rico, Pakistan, Japan and Shanghai

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A mere category 1 hurricane dumped so much water on Puerto Rico so quickly that one of its rivers has swollen to 25 feet above normal, even more than it rose during Hurricane Maria in 2017, which was a Category 5 hurricane. The island is beset by flash floods, and […]

Climate Crisis

‘It’s getting close’: As the megadrought grinds on, Southwest Water in Doubt

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Sydnee Wilson | – ( Cronkite News) – PHOENIX – NASA satellite photos show how drastically the water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead have receded in just the past few years. They demonstrate the severity of long-term drought and the challenges Arizona will face to conserve and enhance its precious water supply. […]

Climate Crisis

2022’s supercharged Summer of Climate Extremes from Pakistan to USA: How global warming and La Niña fueled Unprecedented Disasters

The Conversation

By Kevin Trenberth, University of Auckland | – There’s an old joke about the fellow who has his left foot in a bucket of ice water and the right in a bucket of hot water, so that his overall temperature is average. That seemed to apply to the climate during 2022’s northern summer of extremes. […]

Batteries

How 3 Gigawatts of Battery Power Plus Solar Saved California from Electricity Blackouts during the Heat Dome this Month

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In August 2020, California consumers suffered through a severe heat wave, responding by blasting their air conditioners. California had put in so much solar that by then that 34% of the state’s power came from wind and solar, and another 13.9% came from hydro. Nuclear still provided around 10% of […]

Climate Crisis

Nine out of 10 marine Species could disappear by 2100, Scientists warn

Daniel T. Cross

( Sustainability Times) – If the planet continues to warm at current rates, by the end of the century as many as 90% of marine species will be at risk of going extinct. This stark warning comes from a team of scientists who examined some 25,000 species, including fish, marine plants, bacteria and protozoans, which […]

Climate Crisis

Working with Local Knowledge only way to save Pakistan from Flood Disasters

The Third Pole

By Daanish Mustafa | – ( The Third Pole) – How would a decolonised water perspective and practice mitigate the effects of the type of floods that Pakistan is witnessing in 2022? If decolonising water is about recentring the multiple layers of meaning and practice that are associated with water at the local and indigenous […]