As California enters another hot dry summer, policymakers from water and electric utilities are looking at ways to preserve these interdependent resources.
Go with the flow: scarce water has allowed Outback species to persist for millennia, where otherwise they might have died out.
Jenny Davis
The Outback covers 70% of Australia, and its water is precious and scarce. Yet there is no joined-up plan to monitor and manage Outback water, despite the wealth of species and communities that depend on it.
Cutting emissions will limit health damages and bring about important health improvements.
Pedro Ribeiro Simões/Flickr
Tackling climate change is the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century, a team of 60 international experts today declared in a special report for the medical journal The Lancet.
California’s heavy reliance on groundwater is raising worries.
General Physics Laboratory (GPL)
The majority of water that people use goes to agriculture. In a drier, hungrier future, we’ll need to use what water we have with less waste. Technologies being developed now will help.
The de-greening of America.
Dudarev Mikhail/Shutterstock
Americans love their lawns but are lawns good for America, particularly in drought-stricken areas? A look at our grassy love affair and what might be better alternatives.
Universities on the leading edge.
John Morgan/flickr
Doug Parker, University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Faith Kearns, University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
California is blessed with so much agricultural land that no matter how much the state conserves or produces, there will also be an economic incentive to consume more water.
Warming seas suggest El Niño is on the horizon.
dmytrok/Flickr
James Whitmore, The Conversation and Michael Hopkin, The Conversation
The Australian Academy of Science has warned that sick, older, poor and isolated Australians are at most risk from the health impacts of climate effects such as drought, fires, floods and heatwaves.
The Uvas Reservoir near Silicon Valley in California, photographed about one year ago.
Ian Abbot/ Flickr
Let’s start with some old news. Earth’s climate is warming, human activities are causing it, and as long as we continue to dump greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, the impacts on climate and…
Water in Western Australia is one of the Academy’s examples of where climate is having an impact, and where communities are already adapting.
Bram Souffreau/Wikimedia Commons
The Australian Academy of Sciences today released the new The Science of Climate Change: Questions and Answers. This is an extensively revised update of a similar publication in 2010. Its stated purpose…
Queensland’s drought conditions have been worsened by persistent high temperatures.
AAP Image/Dan Peled
Australia has been hit by two years of heat: 2013 was the hottest ever recorded and 2014 wasn’t far behind, taking third place. The country has also sweltered through several significant heatwaves, and…
Across California there are plenty of signs of just how dry it’s been, such as here in Topanga Canyon near Los Angeles.
wasim muklashy/Flickr via CC BY-NC-SA
Last January, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a State of Emergency following projections of severe drought. State bureaucrats and local officials jumped into action and mandated any number of…
Warragamba Dam, supplying drinking water to over four million residents of Sydney.
Summer is coming and, with it, dry conditions for many parts of Australia. While it may be difficult to imagine for city dwellers, parts of regional Australia will likely face severe water shortages over…
In 2012 and 2013 parts of New Zealand suffered the worst drought in 70 years.
Dave Young/Flickr
Jim Salinger, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Over 2012 and 2013, parts of New Zealand experienced their worst drought in nearly 70 years. Drought is the costliest climate extreme in New Zealand; the 2012-2013 event depressed the country’s GDP by…
Annual show: each spring, thousands of people make the road trip north from Perth to see the wildflowers.
Supplied
Spring has sprung. This time of year is peak wildflower season in the area around Perth, and the display is a major tourism draw card. People flock to places like Lesueur National Park and the Eneabba…