Eager Beavers Enlisted to Fight Climate Change

Photo by Flickr user stevehdc With climate change expected to lead to longer and drier summers here in Washington State, the timing of spring and summer runoff from mountains has become a concern for communities and farmers. During spring runoff, water demands are generally low, and most of the water goes unused. In the late summer, runoff from snow melt decreases and many streams run low, even though this is the time when water demands for agriculture... Read More

Water Security and Conflict on a Changing Planet

Water on my mind (Photo: Scott MacKenzie) As the rains fall here in Northern California, and snowstorms pound the Northeast of the United States, water is on my mind. It is a topic that is of vital importance but continues to be misunderstood. Perhaps most importantly, it is at the center of considerations that must be taken into account in considering how humanity will adapt to climate change. A recent article in Reuters highlighted this very issue,... Read More

Weekly gRound-Up: 11/28/09

This week the gRound-up is a bit shorter due to the holiday break. We hope everyone had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving! East Antarctic Ice Sheet Losing Mass Quickly Of all of the major ice sheets, the East Antarctic has been thought to be the most stable – until now. New satellite data from NASA is showing that this sheet has been shedding mass the past three years. The scientists are quick to point out that the cause of this sudden mass loss... Read More

Waters Run Dry in California

   California’s Central Valley reaches about 400 miles, from Bakersfield in the south to Redding in the north, encompassing a stretch of land roughly the size of Tennessee. The region is also home to some of the most fertile and productive soils in the world. Over millennia, sedimentation from the Sierra Nevada mountains to the east has been deposited into the valley below through annual snow melt and run-off, delivering rich silt into what is... Read More