Excerpt from NYTimes.com, June 12, 2019 …when the inevitable multiyear droughts set in, farmers must rely on excessive groundwater pumping to irrigate those endlessly expanding acres of fruit and nut trees, endangering the vast underground aquifer that is arguably the state’s most valuable natural resource. Given California’s reputation for legislative overkill, it’s astonishing that groundwater pumping has been absolutely unregulated …
Barcelona fights climate change by requiring solar thermal technology to heat water
Photo by Eugene Zaycev on UnsplashEmily Skeehan|June 13, 2019 In 2000, Barcelona became the first European city to implement a Solar Thermal Ordinance (STO), making it compulsory to use solar energy to supply 60 percent of running hot water in all new buildings, renovated buildings, and buildings changing their use, independently of whether they are privately or publicly owned. The …
Hydropower “Not Necessary” To Meet Global Climate & Energy Goals, Says WWF & Nature Conservancy
By Joshua S Hill Clean Technica, Hydropower “Not Necessary” To Meet Global Climate & Energy Goals, Says WWF & Nature Conservancy, May 23rd, 2019 A report published by WWF and The Nature Conservancy earlier this month claims that hydropower is unnecessary for meeting global climate change and clean energy goals thanks to the dramatic cost decreases seen in the solar, wind, and storage sectors. …
Children Of The Sun Solar Initiative Rises Out Of Devastating Fire
Tribal councils are developing and have the responsibility to develop long-term energy plans to adequately address climate change issues in and near their communities. The TSAF aims to provide resources to tribes who do not have an existing energy plan/sustainability plan. The TSAF encourages all tribes to research and assess their energy needs so that they can effectively utilize TSAF …
In age of climate change, can our lawns be more than landscaping? Forget aesthetics: Lawns can raise food, restore habitats, and even store carbon
Analysts at Garden Research found U.S. gardeners spent a record $47.8 billion in lawn and garden retail purchases last year, roughly $503 per household (a figure that includes outdoor furniture purchases). Environmental Protection Agency stats suggest that every year, Americans use 800 million gallons of gasoline caring for our lawns, and spill a further 17 million in the process (a spill, in terms of …
Mexican activist shot dead before vote on power project he opposed: Activists opposing thermal-electric plant and pipeline say Samir Flores Soberanes’s murder is a ‘political crime’
20 Feb 2019 in The Guardian Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador condemned the murder but said the referendum on the project would proceed as planned. Photograph: Julio Cesar Aguilar/AFP/Getty Images A Mexican environmental activist has been murdered before a referendum on a controversial thermal-electric plant and pipeline that he opposed. Samir Flores Soberanes, an indigenous Náhuatl, was killed in …
More than a third of all Americans may have PFAS-contaminated drinking water. Harvard public health scientist say exposure of 1 ppt of PFAS is detrimental to human health + The “Million Parts Per Trillion Tour” and Most Contaminated Military Bases
More than a third of all Americans may have PFAS-contaminated drinking water. Harvard public health scientist say exposure of 1 ppt of PFAS is detrimental to human health. AMERICA’S MOST CONTAMINATED MILITARY BASES By Pat Elder, Militarypoisons.org March 9, 2019 I drove across the country with my daughter Holly last week to draw attention to the reckless behavior of the military …
Women and Rivers Congress: as our communities and our environment face repeated violations of right to life and livelihood – new visions for our collective future must be born. And with them, new strategies and ways of coming together to share, learn, and inspir
International Rivers is honored to announce the first convening of women water leaders at the Women and Rivers Congress to be held in Nepal from March 6th to 10th, 2019. In this time of climate chaos, as our communities and our environment face repeated violations of right to life and livelihood – new visions for our collective future must be …
Turning the tide of water privatization: between 2000 and 2015, there were 235 cases of water ‘remunicipalisation’– the process by which a city, region or national government terminates or refuses to renew water concessions, leases or management contracts with private companies, in order to bring water back under public control
Privatizations saw extreme price hikes resulting in poor people losing all access to water. In response to the crises, these countries enshrined the right to water as a human right in their constitutions. With the rapidly spreading trend of remunicipalisation, 100 million people across 37 countries now benefit from water as a public good, rather than a private commodity. In the industrialised …
Pope Francis agrees, water is life and a basic human right. Promote life by protecting, sharing clean water, allowing it to remain “chaste” as St. Francis described it
Where there is water there is life, making it possible for societies to arise and advance. Our common home needs to be protected. St. Francis tells us, water “serves with humility” and is “chaste”, when we do not pollute it. – The Pope speaks at seminar on “The human right to water”- Feb 24, 2017: “Where There is Water There is …