| | | Rows of almond trees extend to the horizon in Kern County, California. Orchards like this one have sprouted in the last decade in areas of California’s Central Valley that are already water stressed. Photo © Brett Walton/Circle of Blue |
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| American agriculture is a behemoth, a world-leading industry that, while meeting extensive domestic demands, still exports around $140 billion in farm products each year.
Some of that production rests on a risky and unstable foundation, a new study finds. It takes water to grow those crops, and an increasing portion of the country’s irrigation water is unsustainably mined from groundwater sources that are being depleted.
The study found that, between 2002 and 2012, unsustainable groundwater use increased by 32 percent in products traded domestically. The increase was 38 percent for exported goods. |
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| | | A screenshot of the U.S. Geological Survey’s water availability tool. Dark blue indicates areas where the amount of water stored in soil, shallow groundwater, and snowpack is very high compared to the long-term average. Dark brown areas have very low storage. |
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| Where is the water?
A new mapping tool from the federal government’s top Earth sciences agency aims, with greater frequency and detail, to answer that basic question about the nation’s water resources.
Updated daily, the map displays a nearly complete picture of water storage in the Lower 48 states. It shows water currently held in snowpack, soils, and shallow groundwater compared to the long-term average. It also incorporates moisture trapped in the tree canopy and wetlands, but it does not include rivers, reservoirs, and deep groundwater. |
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Mediators gathered in Berlin over the weekend to plant the seeds of a peace deal between Libya’s warring parties. If negotiations are successful, the talks could end the country’s civil war, which has raged since 2011.
Hosted by delegates of Germany and the United Nations, the meeting represents a concerted attempt to end a nine-month attack on the capital city Tripoli, a siege organized by rebel leader Khalifa Haftar and the Libyan National Army (LNA).
Shortages of basic amenities like power and water have become commonplace in Tripoli in the last year. |
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What's Up With Water - January 20, 2020
“What’s Up With Water” condenses the need-to-know news on the world’s water into a snapshot for the start of the workweek via podcast.
This week's episode features coverage on In the Australian state of Queensland, where regulators have granted a multinational company an unlimited license to extract groundwater for one of the largest coal developments in the world. For further international coverage, listen on how in Vietnam’s Mekong River delta, low water levels are contributing to worsening water quality. Finally, this week's featured story from Circle of Blue looks how technology is offering answers to the ageless question: Where is the water? A new mapping tool from the U.S. federal government’s top Earth sciences agency aims to visualize the nations’s water resources with greater frequency and detail.
You can listen to the latest edition of What's Up With Water, as well as all past editions, by downloading the podcasts on iTunes, following Circle of Blue on Spotify, following on iHeart Radio, and subscribing on SoundCloud. |
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| From Circle of Blue's Archives: |
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| | | An irrigation well in southern Kern County, California, is located across the road from a small residential subdivision. Photo © Brett Walton/Circle of Blue |
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| To locate sufficient supplies of fresh water, the nation’s groundwater wells are being drilled deeper and deeper, according to an analysis of more than 10 million well records since the 1950s. “No matter how you slice it, we’re drilling deeper across the United States,” Debra Perrone, a study co-author and assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told Circle of Blue. |
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