Tag archives for Sandra Postel
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Water Currents’ own Sandra Postel, National Geographic’s Freshwater Fellow, will be talking live with the public today at 2 p.m. Eastern time on a special Google Hangout for Earth Week. The conversation, Clean Water For All, is being hosted by Whole World Water and is moderated by Billy Wilson. Sandra will be joined by David de…
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Following April 22nd’s kick-off Earth Day Hangout on Air, National Geographic will launch of series of daily Hangouts- each one tackling a key environmental issue.
We’re Heading Into the Rapids All Wrong
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on January 4, 2013 
My experience running a rapid on the Payette River in Idaho offers a metaphor and lesson for our time. Lately, as I ponder our societal response, or lack of it, to the challenging times ahead – the droughts and floods and heat waves and crop failures, which we’ve tasted only as appetizers so far –…
A River in New Zealand Gets a Legal Voice
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on September 4, 2012 
It speaks the language of riffles and babbles, not legal rights and codes, but the Whanganui River, New Zealand’s third largest, has received something no other river in the country – and possibly the world – yet has: a legal voice. In a framework agreement signed last week between the Crown and the Whanganui…
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World Water Week—an annual conference in Stockholm dedicated to discussing the management of global water resources—opened Monday with a message about cleaning your plate.
Food waste, according to experts at the conference, accounts for significant water waste.
A third to a half of all food grown globally either sits untouched on our plates or rots before it even gets there. A new report from the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) states that 40 percent of food purchased in the U.S. is thrown away. And a new documentary called Taste the Waste highlights the problem. Watch the trailer.
An Aquatic Surprise at BioBlitz 2012
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on August 26, 2012 Ecologist Evan Thomas of the University of Colorado looked for a decade for a green algae called Volvox. At this year’s BioBlitz, surrounded by volunteers eager to catalog the water bugs of Lily Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, he found it! I asked Evan to explain his find. Sandra Postel is director of the…
Counting Water Bugs for Rocky Mountain BioBlitz
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on August 25, 2012 Tiny bugs called macro-invertebrates help make freshwater ecosystems tick, and as a team of volunteers found out at Lily Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, they’re diverse, abundant and just plain cool little creatures. Rachel Harrington, a freshwater ecologist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, led the BioBlitz volunteers in identifying the water…
Posted by Sandra Postel, Freshwater Fellow of the National Geographic Society and director of the independent Global Water Policy Project, is at the Rocky Mountain National Park BioBlitz today. In this video she talks about the critical importance of freshwater for all the species in the park, and the role of the park and the Rocky Mountains…
If built, the Belo Monte dam in northern Brazil will be the third largest in the world.
But that is a big “if.” The Brazilian courts have suspended the $17-billion project once again, saying indigenous people whose lives would be affected by the enormous hydroelectric operation were not properly consulted.
In Remembrance of Wangari Maathai
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on October 15, 2011 
Anyone who had the privilege of meeting Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai knows that a good dose of the inspiration she so generously imparted emanated from her amazing smile. As courageous as she was warm, Maathai stood tall and strong in the face of incredible adversity in her Kenyan homeland, just as she hoped the…
Conservation in San Antonio is Saving More than Water
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on July 14, 2011 
Who would believe that a translucent blind salamander that dwells only in dark underground caves could force a big Texas city to not only slash its water use but make water waste illegal?
But the four-inch amphibian did pretty much just that – and that’s the crux of an unusual water story in San Antonio, where impressive conservation efforts are now being tested by one of the worst droughts in memory.
The Water Legacy of Kader Asmal Flows Far Beyond South Africa
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on June 29, 2011 
Reflections on South Africa’s former Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, who died on June 22 at the age of 76.
New U.S. Water Rules in the Making – A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity to Fix Past Mistakes
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on June 15, 2011 
Due to all the fertilizer-laden floodwaters washed into the Gulf this spring, scientists are expecting this summer’s dead zone to measure between 8,500 and 9,421 square miles — an area roughly the size of New Hampshire.
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“We’re using tomorrow’s water to meet today’s food demand,” warned Sandra Postel, National Geographic Freshwater Fellow, helping to provoke a meaningful discussion on water as it relates to food at the Aspen Environmental Forum. Agriculture was a central theme as it consumes a disproportionate share of global water resources. Jon Foley from the University of…
Mississippi Floods Can Be Restrained With Natural Defenses
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on May 3, 2011 
As the Mississippi River threatens to deliver devastating floods (again), it’s time to enlist wetlands to reduce future flood risks.
California Farmers Go Deep into Water Debt During Drought
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on February 28, 2011 
We all know the dangers of not balancing our check books: we could withdraw from our bank accounts more than we’ve deposited, and get fined-or worse-for overdrawing. You’d think we’d manage our groundwater accounts at least as carefully as our bank accounts, especially given that the food security of this and future generations depends on…
Sandhill Cranes Are Home–for Now–in the Middle Rio Grande
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on February 7, 2011 
Here in the middle stretch of the Rio Grande, this time of year is an avian spectacle of sight and sound. The sandhill cranes are home for the winter. Many have journeyed long distances from their breeding grounds in the northern Rockies, and they’re here to spend a few quiet months along the river’s…
Worldwatch Institute released its annual State of the World report this week, with a clear message that the state of agriculture–both small- and large-scale, domestic and local–is a mirror from which we can gauge the health of the planet and the fate of our species. Traditional views toward hunger alleviation, for the more than 1…
History’s Wake-up Call for the Greenhouse Century
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on January 4, 2011 
In early December, as I motored away from Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, I glimpsed a sign for the Hohokam Expressway. The road was named after the Hohokam culture that had thrived in south-central Arizona for more than 1,000 years–and then abruptly disappeared around 1450 A.D. As I proceeded to drive past countless…
Why Rivers Need to Flow — High and Low — Again
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on December 1, 2010 
Don’t be surprised if the next time you head down to a river with a fishing pole you pull up a lowly carp instead of a prized native trout. Most rivers no longer flow the way they’re supposed to flow–and that’s changing the mix of fish and other organisms that call them home. That’s a…
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Three National Geographic Explorers–Albert Yu-Min Lin, Sandra Postel, and Roshini Thinakaran–joined a lineup of more than two dozen speakers on the theme “What If?” at today’s TEDxMidAtlantic event in Washington, D.C. In case you weren’t in the audience at Sidney Harman Hall or glued to your laptop watching the live stream, here’s some of what…
Australia Takes a Bold Step To Shape its Water Future
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on October 25, 2010 
Rains have returned to Australia’s drought-stricken Murray-Darling River Basin, with some parts of the watershed getting their first decent drink in a decade. But the region is nonetheless forging ahead with an effort few in the world have had the courage to undertake: asking farmers and communities to adapt to a future with less water…
Global water expert and National Geographic Fellow Sandra Postel outlines the world’s water challenges in a new book published this week by the Post Carbon Institute (PCI). “Our water problem turns out to be much more worrisome than our energy situation,” writes Postel , who is also a fellow with PCI. The Challenges Water, unlike…
Expect More Floods as Global Water Cycle Speeds Up
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on October 8, 2010 
A new indicator has joined the century-long rise in temperature to signal that the planet’s climate is changing: the global water cycle is speeding up. Using satellite observations, NASA and university researchers have found that rivers and melting ice sheets delivered 18 percent more water to the oceans in 2006 than in 1994. The findings,…
Groundwater Depletion Raises Likelihood of Global Food Crises
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on September 27, 2010 Out of sight, out of mind means deep trouble when it comes to the reserves of freshwater stored underground. New numbers are out on the rate of groundwater depletion around the globe, and if they hold up to further scrutiny, the world is almost certainly facing a future of food shortages. In an upcoming issue…
