The Pacific Institute is the media’s go-to resource for water-related information and analysis. We help shape critical debates on water use and management through articles from some of the top media outlets in the world.
Featured in Los Angeles Times
Wall Street’s reputation as one of America’s premier innovation machines can only be enhanced by a new futures contract that began trading publicly on Dec. 7. It allows investors to bet on the price of water in California.
Featured in The Desert Sun
President Donald Trump on Sunday signed a roughly $900 billion stimulus package meant to tackle both COVID-19 relief as well as federal spending. Tucked in the 5,593-page-long law, courtesy of Southern California Democrats, are provisions that hold the potential to unlock millions of dollars of new federal spending to address the Salton Sea.
Featured in Circle of Blue
Shortly after the networks called the 2020 presidential race for Joe Biden, a list of four priorities appeared on the president-elect’s transition website.
Until that point, the Biden campaign’s “Build Back Better” platform was anchored by a placeholder message, one that urged patience from the American people and noted that votes were still being counted.
Featured in Let's Talk About Water
Dr. Peter Gleick, co-founder and president emeritus of the Pacific Institute, believes Joe Biden could be the man to save American water policy, which has been foundering under Donald Trump. In his co-authored policy brief, Water Recommendations to the Next President, Gleick and his colleagues lay out the biggest issues with US water safety and access, and what President Elect Biden needs to do to guarantee clean water for all Americans and limit the global repercussions of climate change.
Featured in CapRadio
Benedicto Cazares does not turn on his tap. He and his neighbors of East Orosi, an unincorporated community of about 1,000 people in the San Joaquin Valley, have been dealing with unsafe levels of nitrates in their water supply for years – and paying for it.
Featured in Financial Times
Water futures are about to hit financial markets for the first time, with the launch of contracts tied to prices in California. But academics and investors fear the derivatives will offer a poor hedge for water users and may end up distorting prices for the vital resource.
Featured in indy100
The teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg has used the popular ‘how it started’ meme to show how levels of carbon dioxide in the air have increased in the last 800,000 years.
Featured in Reuters
From Yemen to India, and parts of Central America to the African Sahel, about a quarter of the world’s people face extreme water shortages that are fueling conflict, social unrest and migration, water experts said on Wednesday.
Featured in New Security Beat
When Farhad Ahma returned to his native country last year on a work trip, his first thought was of his small daughter back home. The air around him was so thick with pollution, he couldn’t imagine she would survive the climate in this region of northeastern Syria. Ahma himself struggled to breathe almost as soon as he arrived, nauseated by the heavy smell within a couple hours.
Featured in The Hill
Heat warnings and advisories have been in effect in many parts of the U.S. this summer and experts are predicting that above-average temperatures will dominate much of the country into September. This means higher energy bills for many Americans who are out of work and struggling economically.
Featured in The Mercury News
Hydroelectric power from dams usually provides about 15% of California’s electricity needs. But in 2015, at the zenith of the worst drought in California’s recorded history, it supplied only 6%.
Featured in CapRadio
Water is a big deal in California, and climate change is threatening the precious resource. That’s why Gov. Gavin Newsom finalized a broad plan this week to help prevent future water challenges, but some Californians say it relies on old thinking and harmful water storage projects.
