TERRIFYING ASSESSMENT OF A HIMALAYAN MELTING: New Report Predicts The Impact Of Climate Change On Nepal’s Mountains May Be Much Worse Than We Thought. By Kunda Dixit, Nepalitimes.com February 5, 2019 While the global media’s attention is on the Greenland ice sheet, the Arctic and eastern Antarctica, a landmark report released this week shows that the Himalaya will face catastrophic meltdown during this …
Rapid Transition: Turning the tide of water privatization – the rise of the new municipal movement
Story of change from RapidTransition.org. Posted on 28 January 2019. See lessons Turning the tide of water privatization – the rise of the new municipal movement People around the world are reclaiming their access to water as a basic human right, by seizing control of their water supplies from private companies. This matters because one of the biggest impacts of climate breakdown …
A third of Himalayan ice cap doomed, finds report, even under a 1.5 C trajectory, pointing to the urgency of a rapid shift off of fossil fuels.
At least a third of the huge ice fields in Asia’s towering mountain chain are doomed to melt due to climate change, according to a landmark report, with serious consequences for almost 2 billion people, even under a 1.5 C trajectory, pointing to the urgency of a rapid shift off of fossil fuels. Two-thirds would be gone on the current path — glaciers …
Fracked Shale Oil Wells Drying Up Faster than Predicted, Wall Street Journal Finds
By Sharon Kelly , DeSmogBlog, January 10, 2019 In 2015, Pioneer Natural Resources filed a report with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, in which the shale drilling and fracking company said that it was “drilling the most productive wells in the Eagle Ford Shale” in Texas. That made the company a major player in what local trade papers were calling “arguably the largest single …
Florida’s water constraints are helping drive its goal of 30 million solar panels by 2030
One advantage solar has over traditional generating facilities is that solar farms require no water to operate. Florida’s future growth is constrained by the amount of fresh water it has available to meet the needs of commercial and residential users. Florida Power & Light Plans For 30 Million Solar Panels By 2030 by Steve Hanley on Clean Technica, February 1st, 2019 Florida Power …
Should water, gas, and electricity utilities be nationalised?
In Debating Europe, https://www.debatingeurope.eu/2016/04/04/should-water-gas-and-electricity-utilities-be-nationalised/ 04/04/2016 Three Quarters Of British People Want To Re-Nationalize Utilities, Leonard Hyman & William Tilles , OilPrice.com, Jan 27, 2018 Also see: https://utilityweek.co.uk/the-case-for-renationalisation/ Should basic services such as water, gas, and electricity utilities be governed by the free market? Or should they be considered a “public good”, and nationalised to keep prices down? The latter policy fell out of fashion …
Climate change’s impact on groundwater could leave ‘environmental timebomb’
Climate change’s impact on groundwater could leave ‘environmental timebomb’, Daisy Dunne, Carbon Brief, 21 January 2019 Over the next 100 years, the full impact that climate change is having on groundwater resources will become apparent in half of the world’s aquifers, a study concludes. The findings come from the first assessment of how long it could take groundwater to react …
Glacier loss putting water supply for hundreds of millions at risk
Across the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, the glaciers number in the thousands and the people who rely on them in the hundreds of millions, along rivers like the Indus in Pakistan, the Ganges and Brahmaputra in India, the Yellow and Yangtze in China and the Mekong in Southeast Asia. Eventually these rivers will be affected …
Water: ban all fracking; create a national water trust fund, ensure restrictions on facilities upstream of tribal waters; enact a ban on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs); transition to 100% renewable energy by 2035; make states put forth voter referendums on possible sales or leases of publicly owned water or sewer system to for-profit corporations
Among the groups’ recommendations are for the U.S. authorities to ban all fracking; create a national water trust fund, ensure restrictions on facilities upstream of tribal waters; enact a ban on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs); transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2035; make states put forth voter referendums on possible sales or leases of publicly owned water or …
Biomimicry: New Platform Adapting Natural Processes Lets Surfaces Self-Clean
Aruga Technologies, a Pennsylvania start-up, has developed a technology platform that allows surfaces to self-wipe and remain continuously clean throughout contact with depositing fluids. The technology is inspired by how some natural surfaces, such as arteries, dolphin skin, and mussel use dynamic surface wrinkles to renew. Mimicking this phenomenon in synthetic surfaces decreases fouling and results in an optimized and …