Water

Despite Economic Gains, Peru’s Asparagus Boom Threatening Local Water Table

By Cynthia Graber ⋅ January 23, 2012 ⋅ 2 comments ⋅ Transcript

Peru has become one of the leading exporters of asparagus in the world. (Photo: Cynthia Graber)

Peru’s booming cultivation of asparagus for export to the US and Europe is causing water stress in the region.

Name That Strait!

By The World ⋅ November 23, 2011 ⋅ One comment ⋅ Transcript

The coast of Davis Strait in western Greenland (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Algkalv)

This waterway also links the Baffin Sea and the Labrador Sea. These waters are downright chilly and mostly covered with sea ice from December on to June. Northern mariners have long known about the fierce tides here.

The Battle for Australia’s Water – Part II

By Jason Margolis ⋅ September 28, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

A watering hole. (Photo: Jason Margolis)

Ranchers and environmentalists form an unlikely alliance in the dry Australian Outback to avoid the water wars.

The Battle for Australia’s Water – Part I

By Jason Margolis ⋅ September 27, 2011 ⋅ 6 comments ⋅ Transcript

The battle for water grows in Australia’s agricultural heartland.

Waiting for Water

By Daniel Grossman ⋅ May 20, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

Steep conical hills of brown sand and stone ring the city of Lima. Massive cement water tanks cap many of the summits, some bearing a slogan of the city’s powerful water utility, Sedepal: Agua Para Todo (water for all). To an inhabitant of the eastern United States, where water is generally plentiful, and where few lack a working tap, the motto appears at first to be either simply a statement of fact or an easily achievable promise [...]

Lima’s Brown Coast

By Daniel Grossman ⋅ May 20, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

Lima and its contiguous suburbs and shantytowns sprawl between a sand-brown desert of undulating hills on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west. Today, accompanied by my translator, Dado, and driver, Juan Carlos, I sped down an avenue that hugs the shoreline [...]

Glacier Closeup

By Daniel Grossman ⋅ May 19, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

Nearly all the world’s tropical glaciers cap mountains of the Andes. If you wonder why, look at where the highest peaks in the tropics are located and you’ll have your answer. About three quarters of these glaciers top Peruvian peaks providing the South American country with a natural resource of immense value and justifiable pride. But Peru’s glaciers, like most glaciers in the world, are melting at an alarming rate [...]

Lima’s Future Water Shortage

By Daniel Grossman ⋅ May 19, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

As I type these words, I’m flying 39,000 feet over Ecuador. Shortly, I will land in Lima, a sprawling city of about nine million people. Lima is one of the cities of the world most immediately threatened by global warming. The city was built on the edge of a desert, one of the driest in the world. And its primary source of water is a small river, the Rimac. The Rimac’s water trickles of glaciers high in the Andes which, unfortunately for Limeños, are rapidly melting. Peru has lost about 30 percent of its glacial ice in the last 40 years [...]