Residents of a small Victorian town realised that delicious water can be a curse as well as a blessing, when they lost a legal battle to stop a local farmer shipping groundwater to a nearby bottling plant.
Places such as Berri were affected by Millennium Drought, caused by low cool-season rain. New materials and techniques are now being used to observe drought causes and water patterns in Australia’s history to help the future.
Gary Sauer-Thompson/flickr
Australia has always suffered heat and flood, but a detailed seasonal rainfall reconstruction of the last 800 years shows the extremes are intensifying.
Rose’s mountain toadlets mate in small puddles. Here is a male with a string of eggs in the water.
Francois Becker
We looked at ten countries in East Africa and found poverty and politics were much more important drivers of conflict and displacement than climate change.
It was a hot year for many Australians.
ABCNews/David McMeekin
An annual assessment of the health of Australia’s environment shows mostly stable conditions in 2017, but ecosystems on land and at sea suffered ever higher temperatures.
The Berg River Dam on 7 March 2018 about 48% full.
Author supplied
A new international report makes for bleak reading on the state of the world’s soils. It predicts that land degradation will displace up to 700 million people worldwide by mid-century.
A new report finds concerns about water infrastructure tops the list for Canada’s water providers.
(Shutterstock)
World Water Day shines a light on the importance of safe, clean drinking water, but a new report finds Canada’s freshwater systems are under stress.
The Iguazu Falls in Brazil are part of the Guarani Aquifer, one of the world’s major underground reserves of fresh water. The 8th World Water Forum, part of 2018 World Water Day, is being held in Brazil, home to the most fresh water on Earth.
(Shutterstock)
Water is one of our most precious resources, yet it’s in danger. World Water Day reminds us of the need to develop policies and governance to avoid squandering water.
A blizzard in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, in 2005.
Greg Younger
Governments and private companies have been seeding clouds to create snow for decades, without proof that it actually works. A recent study peered into clouds in search of answers.
A fisherman at work in the White Nile. Half the river’s flow is lost to evaporation from the Sudd swamps, a large wetland.
Arne Hoel/World Bank/Flickr
We think of Canada as a water-rich country, but we are not immune to water shortages or disasters. With some advance planning, Canada can avoid a water catastrophe.