Tag archives for water scarcity
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 –…
Four Water Resolutions for a New Year
Posted by Brian Richter of The Nature Conservancy and University of Virginia in Water Currents on January 2, 2013 
Yes, it’s that time again – time to reflect on the year that has passed, and anticipate what could come of the year ahead. My head has been unusually full of water lately, to the point of distraction. Over the holidays I worked through two chapters of a new water book and set the course…
Water Privatization: Let’s Cut the Hysteria
Posted by Brian Richter of The Nature Conservancy and University of Virginia in Water Currents on November 1, 2012 
In an editorial published this week in Nature, Frederick Kaufman, a journalism professor at the City University of New York, cries out against the perils of a global water futures market. He cautions that “Financial forecasters perceive that much like traditionally traded commodities — precious metals, for example — the useable water of the…
Are We Running Out of Water?
Posted by Brian Richter of The Nature Conservancy and University of Virginia in Water Currents on March 14, 2012 
Early in 2001, the Rio Grande River failed to reach the Gulf of Mexico for the first time. With that nefarious event the Rio Grande joined a growing list of once-mighty rivers that are running dry from overuse: the Colorado River in the U.S., the Yaqui in Mexico, the Indus in Pakistan, the Ganges in…
