my precious-s-s-s-s-s-s

There has been a lot posted about water in the last few days, that I thought I would do a group post for all of the articles.

If you read here often, you know that I care a great deal about water and its longevity as a resource. Having grown up in California during the 70′s, I was exposed to a state that was in constant awareness of our water supply.  Even in times of plenty, the scarcity mentality has remained.  I worry about the rumors I hear of large corporations buying up large supplies of water, so that they can one day make a profit out of our need for a basic life building block, just as much as I worry about sea levels rising and wiping out communities that have every right to exist.

I hope when I post articles about water that you read from the perspective that water is life.  

AP IMPACT: Tons of released drugs taint US water

 

U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water – contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press investigation.

Hundreds of active pharmaceutical ingredients are used in a variety of manufacturing, including drugmaking: For example, lithium is used to make ceramics and treat bipolar disorder; nitroglycerin is a heart drug and also used in explosives; copper shows up in everything from pipes to contraceptives.

 

 

Effective July 1, the board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California reduced supplies its member public agencies for the first time since 1991.

The financial impacts of higher Delta costs due to supply reductions caused by new regulatory restraints also were primary factors behind a rate increase approved by the board in a separate action. The rate increase will take effect Sept. 1.

“Up to 19 million Southern Californians this summer will feel the impact of a new water reality that has been in the making for years, if not decades,” said Metropolitan board Chair Timothy F. Brick.

Changing Rains, via National Geographic

Warm air holds more water vapor—itself a greenhouse gas—so a hotter world is a world where the atmosphere contains more moisture. (For every degree Celsius that air temperatures increase, a given amount of air near the surface holds roughly 7 percent more water vapor.) This will not necessarily translate into more rain—in fact, most scientists believe that total precipitation will increase only modestly—but it is likely to translate into changes in where the rain falls. It will amplify the basic dynamics that govern rainfall: In certain parts of the world, moist air tends to rise, and in others, the moisture tends to drop out as rain and snow.

Blue Gold: Have the Next Resource Wars Begun, via The Nation

 

It has often been said that water is “blue gold” and the next resource wars will be fought, not over oil, but over water. Maude Barlow, senior advisor to the United Nations on water issues, wrotethat the way in which we view water “will in large part determine whether our future is peaceful or perilous.”

The British nonprofit International Alert released a report identifying forty-six countries where water and climate stresses could ignite violent conflict by 2025, prompting the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to affirm, “The consequences for humanity are grave. Water scarcity threatens economic and social gains and is a potent fuel for wars and conflict.”