GreenWatch

B. McPherson Texas is getting fracked by BigOil The ongoing drought in Texas has cattle ranchers worried. Severe to exceptional drought has spread across 65% of the state. Water levels in reservoirs are expected to reach record lows in the coming weeks. Ranchers are reducing herds in an effort to keep pastures from overgrazing. In spite of this the majority of pastures in Texas are in poor shape. Texas cattle herds are their lowest since 1967. In addition to the lower levels in the reservoirs, the ground water is scarce and lake levels are falling. Some lakes are down to a third of their capacity. To preserve drinking water supplies, some farmers have been cut off from irrigating their parched fields leading to a worsening of the grazing and grain production. Water authorities are frantically drilling for underground aquifers to deal with the disaster Texas governor Rick Perry has declared hundreds of counties disaster zones WHEREAS, record high temperatures, prece...

No water no life B. McPherson Growing cities, agriculture, industry are all taking their toll on limited resources. Florida, Georgia and Alabama are locked in a decades long fight over water. Florida has now filed court action with the US Supreme Court over water use in Lake Sidney Lanier. Florida is claiming a foul in Atlanta’s continuing use of the lake water for the growing metropolis. Lake Lanier was created in the ‘40s by damming the Chattahoochie River. It has become the largest lake in Georgia. The lake started filling in 1956. Since 1990 the three states have been squabble over water usage. In 2007 water usage by the Atlanta region had drawn the lake level down to record levels. It was not until 2008 that Georgia settled on their first water use plan. At stake is the health of the oyster industry in Florida’s Apalachicola Bay which supplies the US with 10% of its fresh oysters. At least it did until recently. Starting in 2007 a steep decline led to a drastically...

B. McPherson     Many parts of the globe are facing another season of exceptional drought. Crops have failed in Argentina, parts of the Ukraine and north and central China. Farmers in the Great Plains are facing yet another growing season with severe water shortages. NOAA is predicting another year of above normal temperatures and lower rainfall again this year. Some of the drought may be relieved in the east, but is expected to continue in the mid-west and spread to California and southern Oregon. The Hawaiian Islands are also experiencing a continuation of drought conditions. No area of the world seems to be immune from changing precipitation – from Greenland to South Africa. At the same time the world’s reserves of ground water, some laid down thousands of years ago are being depleted faster than they can be recharged. Global climate is changing and along with warming is a change in precipitation patterns. Argentina is currently coping with torre...