This Week in Water

It's been more than a week, I know. Appy polly loggies. Lots to report, so here goes: The "It's-Either-Too-Much-or-Too-Little" Edition:

Rising seas and shrinking coastlines are becoming a problem in the Caribbean and the Atlantic region as well as the Pacific.

Record floods in the U.S. Midwest appear to be part of a larger, longer term pattern.

Flash floods have killed dozens in Northern Afghanistan.

A bipartisan report predicts that up to $100 billion worth of U.S. coastal property will be lost due to rising seas in the coming decades, or so reports that bastion of hippie-dippy commie propaganda: Business Insider.

According to the International Energy Agency, decarbonizing the economy by replacing fossil fuels with renewables will not only halt these warming trends, it will save the global economy upwards of $71 trillion by 2050.

[editorial note: I'm pretty sure these effects are not costed out by the extraction industry's estimates. In other words, the profits of extraction are privatized and the resulting consequential costs are socialized.]

Scientists have discovered a reservoir of water in the mantle beneath the earth's surface that is three times the volume of all the planet's oceans.

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Is China trying to "steal" the world's fresh rainwater supply right out of the sky?

Detroit has issued water shut-off notices to 46,000 of its citizens, some of whom are trying to bring this to the attention of the U.N.

Atlanta's water wars are not over, but the Army Corps of Engineers now has this situation well in-hand. [I know I feel better.]

El Nino seems to have postponed the annual monsoon in India sparking fears of drought in the world's second most populous nation.

As if its historic drought weren't enough, Texas's extraction industries are tapping out its underground aquifers.

The fighting in Ukraine is threatening the water supply to over 4,000,000 people.

Nearly half of Europe's water supply is threatened by pollution.

Here's a brief survey of some of the methods of producing fresh water currently being explored. And another.