This section explores the nuances of global water challenges, featuring insights by our researchers, collaborative pieces with our partners, and Q&A styled dialogues with industry experts. It complements our work by providing context, commentary, and a deeper understanding of our research findings.
Huffington Post: The New UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Fresh Water
For 15 years, the world community has worked to achieve a comprehensive set of goals and targets called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – launched in 2000 to tackle poverty, economic and environment inequity, and strategies for effective development.
New Data Show California Cities’ Progress towards State-Mandated Conservation Requirements
In response to the Executive Order Governor Brown issued in April, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted an emergency regulation requiring 25% savings in urban water use across the state, with a goal of saving 1.2 million acre-feet over a nine-month period.
National Geographic ScienceBlogs: Down the Drain: The Power and Potential of Improving Water Efficiency
Debates about water in California, the western U.S., and indeed, worldwide, have traditionally focused on the question of how best to further expand water supply to meet some hypothetical future increase in water demand.
Huffington Post: Laudato Si’ and Water: The Vatican’s Encyclical Letter and Global Water Challenges
The official text of the much-anticipated Vatican’s Encyclical Letter, “Laudato Si'” was released today. While considerable attention is being devoted to the sections of Pope Francis’s new Encyclical related …
National Geographic ScienceBlogs: The Future of Desalination in California is Still in the Future: California, Israel, and Australia
It’s only natural that during a crisis we look to single, “silver bullet” technical solutions, after all, they are supposed to be effective against werewolves, witches, and other monsters. For monsters like the ongoing severe California drought, the current favorite silver bullet is seawater desalination.
National Geographic ScienceBlogs: The California Drought: Almonds and the Bigger Picture
California is a wonderful place to grow food. The climate is highly favorable; soils are some of the best in the world, it is located well to serve global distribution markets with major ports and other transportation infrastructure; and normally, some regions are relatively well-watered.
Huffington Post: Where Does California’s Agricultural Water Go?
Water plays a vital role in California’s agricultural sector, using 80% of the water used by humans in the state. In recent months, water challenges imposed by the current severe drought have brought this agricultural water use into the limelight, raising new questions about how the water is used.
New Data Show California Cities’ Response to Drought Is Highly Uneven
As California heads into its fourth consecutive year of drought, and pronouncements about our water supply are increasingly dire, new data released by the state show that water use and water conservation efforts in cities across the state are highly uneven.
National Geographic ScienceBlog: The Impacts of California’s Drought on Hydroelectricity Production
California’s hottest and driest drought in recorded history has shifted the sources of electricity with adverse economic and environmental consequences. The Pacific Institute has just completed and released a report that evaluates how diminished river flows have resulted in less hydroelectricity, more expensive electricity from the combustion of natural gas, and increased production of greenhouse gas emissions.
National Geographic ScienceBlog: Tackling Global Sustainability: A Need for Integrated Systems Approaches
If there is anything that the past few decades of research and study of major global challenges tells us, it is that truly effective solutions to sustainability challenges require truly integrated approaches across disciplines, fields of study, data sets, and institutions. We are not going to solve 21st century global problems with 20th century tools.