Posts Tagged ‘world water week’
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Shell Shock: Sounding the Alarm for Freshwater Turtles
As World Water Week continues in Stockholm and CI expands our focus on freshwater security and species contributions, the results of a new analysis of the survival prospects for freshwater turtles were presented this week. Mention the word ‘turtle,’ and the instant reaction from most people is, “Oh, I love them! It’s so amazing how they nest on the beach. They’re going extinct, right?” In the shadow of their charismatic sea turtle relatives, freshwater turtles rarely bask in the spotlight of public attention. Maybe it’s because, at least in the United States, freshwater turtles can still be seen without too much ... -
From Beer to Blue Jeans, Calculating the Freshwater ‘Footprint’ of Consumer Products
Did you know that it takes roughly 160 pints of water to make one pint of beer? Or that if you consider the water used to grow ingredients such as sugar cane, as much as 492 liters of water are used to make a single 2-liter bottle of soda? How about that it takes roughly 500 gallons – including water used to grow, dye and process the cotton – to make a pair of stonewashed jeans? Calculations like these are part of the growing trend of indentifying a product’s “water footprint.” Modeled partly on carbon footprinting, these estimates take into account not only ... -
Threats to freshwater species highlighted at World Water Week
One out of five freshwater species in Africa is threatened with extinction, putting at risk millions of people whose food supplies and livelihoods would be harmed by major species loss. That’s the alarming message from a new report by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) – released just in time for this week’s celebration of World Water Week. The report is based on a five-year assessment of 5,167 African freshwater species like fish, mollusks, crabs, dragonflies, damselflies and some aquatic plants. By showing the plight of Africa’s disappearing freshwater species, the report demonstrates the importance of taking steps to ... -
World Water Week 2009 Wrap-up
World Water Week is an annual meeting to discuss the planet’s most urgent water-related issues, held in Stockholm, Sweden. This year’s conference ended August 22. To learn more, visit http://www.conservation.org/water2009. Read a dispatch from Lina Barrera, policy manager at Conservation International, below. We were part of three sessions, the first described in Ian's post a few days ago on environmental flows, another on assessing vulnerability to climate change as an input to decision making around land uses, protected area siting, construction of dams, and lastly a presentation of the innovative Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) as useful for decisions with freshwater ... -
Dispatch From World Water Week 2009
World Water Week is an annual meeting to discuss the planet’s most urgent water-related issues, held in Stockholm, Sweden. This year's conference ended August 22. To learn more, visit http://www.conservation.org/water2009. Read a dispatch from Ian Harrison, CI scientist and conference attendee, below. On Saturday August 16, a seminar session on Environmental Flows for Sustainable Development, Poverty Alleviation, and Biodiversity Conservation was convened by the Global Environmental Flows Network (eflowNet), USAID Global Water for Sustainability Programs (GLOWS), Conservation International, Deltares, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Swedish Water House (SWH), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), UNEP-DHI Centre for Water ...
