To combat California’s third consecutive year of drought, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today declared a state of emergency and ordered immediate action to manage the crisis. But the governor fell short of instituting mandatory water rationing – at least for now.
Water has long been called the “best medicine”. Considering that today it is contaminated with some of the pharmaceutical industry’s best (and worst) medicines, I wonder if that title still fits.
The Bush administration has taken steps to open the Californian coast to oil exploration and drilling in as few as three years. The move could potentially tap more than 10 billion barrels of oil, enough to power the U.S. for 17 months.
The National Intelligence Council forecasts that the world would see tremendous economic growth but it would come at a big environmental and human cost.
A high profile Congressional committee investigation has revealed that, since 2006, the outgoing Bush administration has dropped or stalled enforcement actions on more than 500 cases of severe water pollution.
Argentinian President Cristina Fernández vetoed a previously passed bill aimed at protecting Argentina’s glaciers.
After being chided over remarks he made in August about renegotiating the Colorado River Compact, John McCain said at a recent campaign stop that he would “never, ever” try to take more of Colorado’s water. But has the damage already been done in this water-sensitive state?
With the recent election of Tzipi Livni to the leadership of Israel’s Kadima Party (the leading party in Israel’s ruling coalition), she has the opportunity to become Israel’s first female Prime Minister since Golda Meir and its second ever.
Two election cycles ago there were no Republican governors, today there are seven western states with Democratic governors, and if you include the plains-states of Kansas and Oklahoma, the total becomes nine Democratic governors west of the Mississippi.
John McCain has again said something to cause his fellow western-state Republicans to wince at his political inexpedience and apparent naivete, stating last week that he wants to renegotiate the Colorado River compact to re-appropriate water from the upper basin states where the river originates and give it to lower basin states like California, and his home state of Arizona. Even though the Senator has now recanted and begun damage control, Democrats are hoping that this one will cost him, some arguing that the gaff was so severe, he may have just lost Colorado.
According to the CIA World Factbook we have 1/22 of the world’s population but use 1/4 of the world’s oil!
The United Nations and the World Health Organization share that the average person in the developing world uses 2.64 gallons of water a day. The average person in the United Kingdom uses 35.66 gallons of water per day…
Earlier this week two members of Congress sent a letter citing “grave concerns” over the implementation of the Clean Water Act to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson.
While the Act protects wetlands from urban development for water conservation, the court ruling challenges water protection provisions and upholds individual’s rights to build over wetlands.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought today, following two straight years of below-average rainfall, very low snowmelt runoff and the largest court-ordered water transfer restrictions of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in state history. The governor also issued an Executive Order meant to address related problems caused by the water shortages, such as extreme […]
A California State Assembly committee last week declined to entertain a controversial bill set to build a canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and shelved it until next year. Senator Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, has worked on gaining approval from various parties for Senate Bill 27 for two years. Ultimately, farmers, environmentalists and Delta locals […]
Five years have gone by. The U.S. casualty toll is now 4,000. It is estimated that some 80,000 plus Iraqi civilians have lost their lives in the war. Photo Courtesy of Luke Plunkett @ Kotaku.com There isn’t a body count for wildlife, native plants, or eco-systems that have been killed in the struggle. War takes […]