Lessons from Easter Island ignored?

Marcus Stephen wrote an Op-Ed piece in today’s NYTimes that his tiny Pacific Island nation, Nauru, may not exist in another century.

Coal plants are a step in the wrong direction?

Guest Blog by Luke Wilson, Jasmine Woods, and Jaqueline Stogner

The recent drought and influx of people in SC has caused the state-owned utility company, Santee Cooper, to propose the construction of two 660-megawatt coal-fired power plants in Florence County in order to keep up with SC’s growing electricity demand. Coal burning plants emit carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas and contributor to global warming, nitrogen oxide, a component in smog, sulfur dioxides, a contributor to acid rain, and mercury, a highly toxic metal when converted to methyl mercury. These proposed plants would annually produce over 8 million tons of CO2 and discharge 300 pounds of mercury into the Great Pee Dee River as a byproduct of burning coal. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control has already issued a high mercury level advisory for the consumption of many fatty fish caught in the Great Pee Dee, and adding another coal plant would only exacerbate the problem.

“The disappearing nutrient”

An interesting article in Nature says that we’re running out of phosphate across the world.  Phosphate is a very critical nutrient that’s required for plant growth and is usually mined in some parts of the world.  Apparently, there’s less than 50 years worth of high quality phosphate available that could be mined.  Running out could lead to a massive disaster as food production would have to increase with the increasing population.  Some are considering recovering phosphates from animal waste – but that’s still a long a way to go.

Estimates of groundwater depletion in the “bread basket” of India

It’s very hard to assess how fast groundwater is being removed for agricultural use and how much is being recharged.  This is even more difficult when no centralized records are maintained regarding groundwater usage.  No such assessments are available for northwestern India, which is often referred to as the “bread basket” of India as they produce nearly all wheat consumed in India.  Over the past several years, the unsustainable growth and agricultural practices combined with climate change have severely depleted the groundwater in the region.  Until now no one had any idea how serious the problem was.  The latest issue of Nature published a study where some researchers used satellite data to estimate the groundwater depletion rates.  They say

During our study period of August 2002 to October 2008, groundwater depletion was equivalent to a net loss of 109 km³ of water, which is double the capacity of India’s largest surface-water reservoir.

Imagine, how this could affect over 114 million people that live in those areas and entire South Asia in general.

Recycled drinking water?

Most of you are aware of the current severe drought situation in southeastern US. A lot of people in the southwestern US have been experiencing the drought for several years now. Some of these areas have their groundwater and surface water resources on the verge of exhaustion. In a recent study, researchers from Sand Diego have calculated that Lake Mead, which impounds the Colorado River near Las Vegas and supplies drinking water to most of Arizona and Nevada, could go dry in 13 years if the current climate change trend and indiscriminate use of water continues. Incidentally, these are some of the fastest growing regions in the US as well.When all fresh drinking water runs out, what will we turn to? There are already plans afoot to turn your own toilet waste into drinking water! Orange county in California approved a plan last year to recycle sewage into drinking water (link, link). It’s not as bad as it sounds – this recycled water may be fairly safe to drink. Eventually, we’ll face similar shortages of fresh water right here in in our neighborhood (think Atlanta). Will you be prepared to drink out of your toilet (not literally)? What do you think will lead to such shortages? Can we learn any lessons from the problems in the Southwest?