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.
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Huffington Post: Climate Science in 1956 and 2015
December 10, 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."
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Huffington Post: Damn Dams
November 4, 2015
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.
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National Geographic ScienceBlogs: Breaking Water Taboos
October 26, 2015
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United States — and California in particular — has shined a spotlight on a range of water-management practices that are outdated, unsustainable, or inappropriate for a modern 21st century water system.
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National Geographic ScienceBlogs: Impacts of the California Drought, Part 2: Net Agricultural Income
September 3, 2015
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.
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National Geographic ScienceBlogs: Impacts of the California Drought: Agriculture
August 26, 2015
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?
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Huffington Post: The New UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Fresh Water
August 12, 2015
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.
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New Data Show California Cities’ Progress towards State-Mandated Conservation Requirements
August 4, 2015
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.
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National Geographic ScienceBlogs: Down the Drain: The Power and Potential of Improving Water Efficiency
July 9, 2015
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.
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Huffington Post: Laudato Si’ and Water: The Vatican’s Encyclical Letter and Global Water Challenges
June 18, 2015
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 ...
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National Geographic ScienceBlogs: The Future of Desalination in California is Still in the Future: California, Israel, and Australia
June 10, 2015
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.
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National Geographic ScienceBlogs: The California Drought: Almonds and the Bigger Picture
May 28, 2015
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.
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Huffington Post: Where Does California’s Agricultural Water Go?
April 29, 2015
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.
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New Data Show California Cities’ Response to Drought Is Highly Uneven
March 24, 2015
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.
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National Geographic ScienceBlog: The Impacts of California’s Drought on Hydroelectricity Production
March 17, 2015
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.
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National Geographic ScienceBlog: Tackling Global Sustainability: A Need for Integrated Systems Approaches
February 27, 2015
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.
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Knowing and Showing that Companies are Respecting the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation
February 18, 2015
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National Geographic ScienceBlogs: The State of the California Drought: Still Very Bad
January 14, 2015
While we do not know yet what the rest of the wet season will bring – and while we hope for the major storms needed to recharge our rivers, groundwater and reservoirs – it seems increasingly likely that California will not see enough precipitation to get out of the very deep deficit that three years of drought (so far) have produced.
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National Geographic ScienceBlogs: The Growing Influence of Climate Change on the California Drought
December 8, 2014
Over the past three years (and indeed, for 10 of the past 14 years) California has experienced a particularly deep drought. How bad is the drought? Is it the worst in the instrumental record? The worst in over a century? The worst in 1200 years? The worst “ever”? And why has it been so bad?
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New Data Show Residential Per Capita Water Use across California
November 18, 2014
New monthly water use data for California water utilities shows that residential water use varies widely around the state, and that the response to the drought has been uneven.
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National Geographic ScienceBlogs: Peak Water: United States Water Use Drops to Lowest Level in 40 Years
November 5, 2014
The most important trend in the use of water is the slowly unfolding story of peak water in the United States and elsewhere.
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