Fifty years ago, the Salton Sea was a draw for boaters and fishermen; today it’s an ecological time bomb. Two water experts who served on a state review panel describe its proposed rescue plan.
The Carlsbad Desalination Plant in Southern California is the largest such plant in the Western Hemisphere, providing 50 million gallons of desalinated seawater per day.
Reed Kaestner via Getty Images
Soil underpins Australia’s economy – yet since Europeans arrived, the natural asset has steadily been degraded. A new national plan aims to change that.
Ghost forest panorama in coastal North Carolina.
Emily Ury
As sea levels rise along the Atlantic coast, saltwater is intruding inland, killing trees and turning coastal forests into marshes. Should scientists try to slow the process, or work with it?
River erosion in Bangladesh, Sept. 12, 2019.
Zakir Hossain Chowdhury / Barcroft Media via Getty Images
Bangladesh is on the front lines of climate change, but factors including money, gender and religion make some Bangladeshis much more vulnerable than others. Can it find inclusive ways to cope?
Of Australia’s capital cities, Perth has the saltiest tap water, while Melbourne, Hobart, Darwin and Canberra have the least salty. And while all are within guidelines, the variation is striking.
Experimental field of a salt-tolerant rice variety in Bangladesh.
IRRI
Rising seas and groundwater depletion, both driven by climate change, are making soils saltier in many parts of the world. Farmers will need help adapting, especially in developing countries.
An image from 1886 showing a group of Indigenous Australians posed around the lower Murray River in flood.
national_library_of_australia_commons/flickr
As the health of the Murray Darling Basin is in decline, fish ear bones recovered from ancient Aboriginal camp sites can provide vital data about river health in the past.
A family crosses a flooded street in Pakistan.
Asian Development Bank/Flickr
To address environmental degradation, including climate change, it is essential to take into account human rights and migration. Hybrid international law and regional thinking are both essential.
The numbat, Australia’s equivalent of a meerkat, is one of the unique mammal species confined to the south west.
Sean Van Alphen
Paul J Durack, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Surprising evidence from the oceans suggests they are responding to warming at a faster rate than we previously thought. These changes are expressed by patterns of freshening and enhanced salinity in the…
Scientists say the supply of freshwater in Australia could eventually be at risk.
AAP/Linda Silmalis
The cycle of evaporation and rainfall over the past 50 years has intensified at twice the rate predicted by climate change models, according to a report by US and Australian scientists of ocean salt levels…
Our thinly spread efforts to prop up the environment are failing and it is time for tough decisions about what we can realistically preserve.
Flickr/rexboggs5
Australian farmers take pride in their efficient and productive farming systems, competing in the global economy and without many of the large subsidies given to their counterparts in Europe and North…