Southwest states have bought time with an agreement between California, Arizona and Nevada to cut Colorado River water use by about 14%. Now comes the hard part.
Sprinklers water a lettuce field in Holtville, California with Colorado River water.
Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images
Two decades of drought have reduced the river’s flow by one-third compared to historical averages. The Biden administration is considering mandatory cuts to some states’ water allocations.
Prompts like this sign in Coalinga, California, may get people to use less water – but paying them could be more effective.
Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Even after January’s storms, California faces a water-scarce future. An economist and an engineer propose a way to test higher water prices as a conservation strategy without hurting low-income users.
The Fulford Harbour sea garden clam bed was built by First Nations in the Salish Sea near Salt Spring Island, B.C. Despite growing recognition that lands managed by Indigenous Peoples are, on average, more biodiverse, biodiversity conservation has typically marginalized Indigenous Peoples.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
As we set conservation goals for the next decade, we need to evaluate what worked and what didn’t in our efforts to meet the 2020 biodiversity conservation targets.
Hundreds of freshwater basins across the world, including the dried-up Santa Olalla permanent freshwater lagoon, in Spain’s Doñana National Park, are the most likely to experience social and ecological impacts due to freshwater use.
(Donana Biological Station/CSIC)
While we know how global changes in freshwater pose risks to humans and ecosystems, we know less about how people and ecosystems will respond to these global freshwater challenges.
As climate change accelerates, Farmers’ vulnerability to drought will depend on his choice of varieties and cropping practices.
Raphael Belmin
As droughts intensify, how can we increase crop production in a sustainable way? This is a multidimensional scientific and societal challenge to ensure future food security.
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
Covering the state’s canals with solar panels would reduce evaporation of precious water and help meet renewable energy goals – all while saving money.
Water flows into a canal that feeds farms in Casa Grande, Ariz.
AP Photo/Darryl Webb
Debra Perrone, University of California, Santa Barbara and Scott Jasechko, University of California, Santa Barbara
The US has one of the highest groundwater use rates in the world. When wells run dry, households may opt to conserve water, find new sources or sell and move.
Aerial view of Lake Powell on the Colorado River along the Arizona-Utah border.
AP Photo/John Antczak
The Supreme Court recently dealt defeat to Florida in its 20-year legal battle with Georgia over river water. Other interstate water contests loom, but there are no sure winners in these lawsuits.
Given long-term forecasts for growing urban populations and an increasingly variable climate, local authorities will have to think about how best to encourage people to conserve water.
A center-pivot sprinkler with precision application drop nozzles irrigates cotton in Texas.
USDA NRCS/Wikipedia
An invisible crisis is brewing in US farm country as the overpumped Ogallala-High Plains Aquifer drains. The key drivers are federal farm subsidies and the tax code.
High-efficiency showerheads save water and energy.
mppix/iStock via Getty Images
The Trump administration is rolling back a regulation that requires showerheads to conserve water, which saved owners an average of US$70 and nearly 3,000 gallons of water yearly per showerhead.
As utilities upgrade their systems, some households are facing steep rate hikes for the cost of water.
(Shutterstock)
With partnerships between landowners, the government and businesses, South Africa can invest in its wetlands and boost the country’s potable water reserves.
The enthusiasm for recycling water that Australians had at the height of the drought little more than a decade ago has waned.
Shaney Balcombe/AAP
Cities relied entirely on conserving and recycling water to get through the last big drought. We now have desalination plants, but getting the most out of our water reserves still makes sense.
Chemicals poured down the sink or pumped into the atmosphere can eventually end up in the groundwater, which means less available fresh water for us to use.
Flickr/Kamil Porembiński
While making small volumes of pure water in a lab is possible, it’s not practical. The reaction is expensive, releases lots of energy, and can cause really massive explosions.
Samual A. Graham Dean, and William B. Stapp Collegiate Professor of Environmental Education, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan