When it comes to our water footprint, the majority of us think that it’s just made up of the water that we drink and use to wash with, when actually this far from the case – only making up roughly 5% of our overall consumption. It may sound surprising but the other 95% of our water footprint, is ind...
The end of the rainy season is nearly here, and California faces a long, dry summer with a Sierra snowpack that is only 33% of normal. There is no significant precipitation in the forecast for California through April 25, but the state still has another shot at a decent round of heavy precipitation ...
Water scarcity was, until recently, considered by most of the developed world to be like James Hilton's Lost Horizon: "far away, at the very limit of distance." However, the convergence of aquifer depletion from increasing agricultural, industrial and municipal water use with more frequent and...
Water bottles, drinking fountains, toilet trips and hand washing – in manyschools, it is easy to take clean water for granted.
Yet the United Nations estimates that at least 780 million people around the world do not have access to safe drinking water – more than 2.5 times the population ...
With the threat of dwindling water and energy resources becoming increasingly real with each passing day, it is important for every person to contribute to the conservation of both. By adapting our daily behavior even just a little bit, we can reduce carbon emissions and can improve qualit...
The recent spritz of rain notwithstanding, California is in the midst of what Gov. Jerry Brown called “perhaps the worst drought [the state] has ever seen.” And yet, despite the desperate state of affairs, every day the city of Los Angeles flushes hundreds of millions of gallons of potenti...
On January 9 thousands of gallons of a toxic chemical used to produce “clean coal”, spilled into Elk River, leaving 300,000 with no water supply. Trish Kahle asks - how could this happen?
Imagine yourself in the rugged countryside of the Appalachian Mountains, where you and your neighbors have live...
Not surprisingly, the largest market for bottled water is here in the United States. In 2007, Americans purchased 8.8 billion gallons of water and bottled water sales netted a hefty $11.7 billion. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, bottled water costs 240 to over 10,000 times more p...
Massive flooding has made the streets of Boulder impassable and destroyed multiple homes in Boulder County, according to Officer of Emergency Management officials.
One person was killed in Jamestown when a structure collapsed because of the flooding, the OEM said.
The National Weather Service has ...
When did everything become Plastic?
When I was a kid, we collected shells on the beach, not plastic trash. There wasn't enough disposable plastic in those days for plastics to collect on the beaches. Plastic bags came into heavy use in American grocery stores when I was in high school in the late '...
Most people believe that golf courses do nothing but guzzle water, but experts say that during the rainy season, the green grass on the courses actually helps replenish the county's drinking water supply.
Golf courses use 2 to 3 percent of South Florida's water each year. But during heavy rains suc...
We all have a responsibility to think about the environment, and protecting the planet is just one of our daily duties. Your home is the only place you have total control over, so it's time for you to consider how you can cut back on your carbon footprint. Whether it's natural Essentia mattr...
By Codi Yeager-KozacekCircle of Blue
When it became clear last August that crippling heat and dryness would severely curtail U.S. corn production, prices for the grain shot to record highs. Now, eight months later, consumers in the United States are looking at a 3 to 4 percent inflation rate for fo...
One quarter of the US' rivers and streams have fish with elevated mercury.
At least our rivers don’t light on fire anymore. Inspired by a well-publicized fire on the Cuyahoga River in 1969, the passage of the Clean Water Act in the US led to huge reductions in water pollution. Despite those positiv...
Which is more important, pandas or pinot? Researchers say that is a question conservationists and wine-growers will have to answer in the coming years as climate change sparks a hunt for cooler places to grow wine grapes, even if those places are home to sensitive animal populations.
Already, big p...
Search the web and you’ll find myriad ways to conserve water in your home. Articles, blogs and downloads are long on how and short on why it matters. It seems obvious. It IS obvious even if you only read the headlines about drought, fires and regional water scarcity. But the questions often asked ju...
