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.
National Geographic ScienceBlogs: Water, Security, and Conflict: Violence over Water in 2015
Since its founding in 1987, the Pacific Institute has worked to understand the links between water resources, environmental issues, and international security and conflict.
Moving from Theory to Practice: A Synthesis of Lessons about Incentive-Based Instruments for Freshwater Management
There has been growing interest in applying incentive-based instruments, such as pollution charges and tradeable permits, to address the twin challenges of accessing enough freshwater to meet our needs while also preserving the well-being of freshwater ecosystems.
Huffington Post: The Most Important Water Stories of 2015
In early 2015, participants at the World Economic Forum, a who’s who of the political and business elite, ranked water crises as the top global risk. Water was also a key factor in the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a blueprint for international development over the next 15 years.
Sanitation and Water for All Partner Perspectives: One Year On: Companies and Respect for the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation
2015 was a historic year for sustainable development. The world came together and adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a new framework that will guide development for the next 15 years.
Huffington Post: The Historic, Unprecedented, Landmark Climate Agreement
Historic. Unprecedented. Landmark. Also, the world’s greatest diplomatic success. A turning point for the world. This is some of the language used to describe the global climate agreement reached this week in Paris.
Huffington Post: Climate Science in 1956 and 2015
Despite the apparent inability of many of our current policy makers to accept the scientific reality of climate change, the science is not new. Fifty-nine years ago, on October 28, 1956, the New York Times ran a story in their Science in Review section entitled “Warmer climate on the earth may be due to more carbon dioxide in the air.”
Huffington Post: Damn Dams
The history of water development around the world, and especially in the western United States, is really a history of the construction of massive infrastructure, particularly large dams.
National Geographic ScienceBlogs: Breaking Water Taboos
The recent severe drought in the Western United States — and California in particular — has shined a spotlight on a range of water-management practices that are outdated, unsustainable, or inappropriate for a modern 21st century water system.
National Geographic ScienceBlogs: Impacts of the California Drought, Part 2: Net Agricultural Income
Last week, the Pacific Institute published the first comprehensive analysis of the impacts of the drought on California crop revenue and agricultural employment through 2014.
National Geographic ScienceBlogs: Impacts of the California Drought: Agriculture
California is in a severe drought – four years long now. But what does the drought really mean for the things we care about: food production, fisheries, industrial activities, rural communities?