The discovery of a white dwarf star with hydrogen and oxygen in its atmosphere suggests water could be planted on stars and planets by bodies like asteroids.
The ultimate problem: intensive corn production.
corn harvest via www.shutterstock.com
A law signed into effect last week seeks to reduce fertilizer runoff that causes toxic algae blooms. But to really address the problem requires taking a hard look at how America farms.
The Onkaparinga River, part of the catchment that supplies around half of Adelaide’s drinking water.
Justin Ratcliff/Flickr
Imagine a future where the yearly flow into one of the largest water reservoirs of a major Australian city could halve within 70 years. This is a scenario that Adelaide could face if the world continues…
Wealth and privilege have long enabled better access to water in Perth.
jimmy_ray
What is the future of Australia’s wealthiest state? The Conversation, in conjunction with Griffith REVIEW and Curtin University, is publishing a series of articles exploring the unique issues facing Western…
One Nation’s Pauline Hanson says landholders’ constitutional water rights have been undermined by government changes – but is that true?
AAP Image/Tertius Pickard
The Australian Constitution says residents have the right to water from the rivers for irrigation and conservation purposes but governments have brought in laws that are restricting this – One Nation’s…
Shifting water around helped Rome’s rise – and fall.
Dan McKay
As all good Monty Python fans know, water technologies feature large in the legacy of benefits left by Roman civilisation. But while aqueducts, sewers and baths retain an obvious presence in the landscape…
A tangled web. Helping infrastructure make connections.
Zachary Scott-Singley
Every time we turn on a tap, switch on a light or drive to the shops we are relying on the infrastructures that make our modern economy work. These infrastructures are being developed to meet new challenges…
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…
Australia won’t be building anything as big as the Gordon Dam any time soon.
JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons
The agricultural green paper released last week proposes 27 new water and irrigation projects, which the government claims will be necessary for Australia’s agricultural expansion. The emphasis is firmly…
The Ord River dam, completed in 1971, formed Australia’s largest artificial lake in the far north west.
Graeme Churchard/Flickr
Some 27 irrigation and dam projects are highlighted in the green paper for agricultural competitiveness released this week by agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce. Six of the projects – five in Tasmania…
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…
It’s not just the daughters of CEOs that are likely to be subject to pay inequity.
Peter Werkman/Flickr
The Workforce Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has launched a campaign to send “daughter water” to the CEOs of approximately 3,000 companies who have reported to the Agency that they haven’t done a gender…
Since 1970, average rainfall in the south-west of Western Australia has decreased by nearly a fifth, and the science suggests that this is linked to human-caused climate change. Across Australia, CSIRO…
“Water makes you happier, more connected and better at what you do,” says Wallace J Nichols, a marine biologist and wild water advocate based at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. On…
Growing plants amongst photovoltaic panels could allow solar farms to not only generate electricity, but help produce crops…
A test mine for the Alpha Coal project in central Queensland, which appears likely to go ahead but with greater groundwater protections.
AAP Image/Greenpeace, Andrew Quilty
This week’s court ruling on the future of the A$6.4 billion Alpha Coal project in Queensland – set to be one of the biggest coal mines in the world – is of major significance for how mining projects are…
One of Saturn’s many moons, Enceladus seems to have a large body of water hiding under its icy crust.
NASA
An ocean of water has been found underneath the icy crust of Enceladus, Saturn’s sixth largest moon, according to observations of the Cassini spacecraft published in Science today. This result has come…
Professor of Civil, Environmental & Ecological Engineering, Director of the Healthy Plumbing Consortium and Center for Plumbing Safety, Purdue University
Professor in Practice on Environmental Innovation, School of Social and Environmental Sustainability, University of Glasgow, UK, National University of Singapore
Associate Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy, School of Environment, Science and Engineering, and Fellow of the Marine Ecology Research Centre, Southern Cross University