Water

Water issues are serious in southern India. The lack of available potable ground water leads to drinking water shortage. The good news is that rainwater harvesting on the rise.
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I found this story that 28,000 rivers in China have disappeared particularly unnerving. When people run out of water they will look for it and possibly be willing to fight for it.

Ma Jun, who wrote China's Water Crisis, says, "Some northern cities will simply be out of water in eight or ten years." That sounds very serious. Hopefully China has a big solution coming.

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The world's oceans are littered with tiny bits of plastic. I stumbled onto this story by way of a critique to Boyan Slat's plan. I'm sure his plan is not perfect but at least its a start.

Check out the story here.

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Hydro power may not be as harmful as burning coal or oil but it is harmful. Specifically harmful to fish populations and farmers. In the Pacific Northwest, we have seen our salmon populations largely diminish due to the fact that the first dam projects did not have fish ladders for the salmon to continue upstream. Most fish would get caught in turbines.

I'm not totally opposed to hydro power but I do think the larger the hydro plant and dam is, the more harmful it is to the surrounding ecological and human communities. Essentially it is the size of the projects that I oppose the most.

Having just visited Laos, I can see why hydro power looks attractive. It is easy to build and to maintain and the Laotians would really appreciate the electricity but is it worth sacrificing the traditional way of life on the Mekong?

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/dam-03142013184331.html

A great documentary I would recommend to check out is Flow.

In it a water expert says, "We need 1000 small solutions instead of one giant solution."
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I love stories like this. It's a chance for all of us to sit back at least for a minute and say "aw, see that's great." And... it is great! I wish there were more stories in the news like because I know there are more projects like this in the world. The billboard sign takes water molecules from and converts it to potable water. I'd love to see more of this type of technology out and about but I think it takes the right kind of climate i.e. a desert area but with a lot of humidity. Anyway, enjoy.

Magic Billboard

1 comment:

  1. I agree that Hydro power specifically harmful to fish populations and farmers. Mekong Delta is a example. It becomes worse every day from China build many Hydropower on mekong. The farmers on Mekong river are migrating. I things we will lost this delta on nearly day.
    "The population of the Mekong Delta has been growing relatively slowly in recent years, mainly due to out-migration " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekong_Delta#Demographics

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