The Environmental Protection Agency has announced standards on a new set of toxic chemicals in drinking water, including perchlorate, a compound found in rocket fuel and fireworks that has already seeped into the drinking water supplies of 26 states. The decision to control perchlorate and other chemicals in drinking water reverses a 2008 Bush administration ruling that deemed the......read more
A team of experts asked to assess California's water situation have published their findings, and it ain't a pretty picture. "Our assessment of the current water situation [in California] is bleak," says an economist involved in the research. "California has essentially run out of cheap, new water sources." Not that we didn't already know that, but if we needed any confirmation, there it......read more
With summer in full swing, many among us will be heading to a body of water, where cooling off is just a splash away. But do you know what the water quality is at your favorite vacation spot? Us neither. Luckily, the ever-resourceful folks at the NRDC have done the work for us. NRDC's 2012 report on water quality at beaches around the US is a useful guide, not only for vacationers looking for a......read more
Biologists Kai Tiedemann and Anne Lummerich are finding ingenious ways to help people living in arid regions find and develop new sources of water. Bellavista, a small, hillside settlement near Lima, Peru that is unconnected to the municipal water supply is enveloped in fog through most of the winter. There, the pair designed a fog-catching system that captures and collects fog-water for use by......read more
What's the number one cause of disease in the world, causing more death than all forms of violence combined? If you guessed unsafe water, you're correct. Your reward is this sweet charity: water PSA. Check out the time lapse at 1:30, fantastic! ...read more
This is the discovery that could put the College of Wooster on the map: glass that swells like a sponge. Put together like a nano-matrix, the new glass can unfold to hold up to eight times its weight. The glass binds with gasoline and other pollutants containing volatile organic compounds but it does not bind with water, so it acts like a “smart†sponge, capable of picking and......read more
New York artist Roni Horn makes sculptures, drawings, photographs, and books informed by her frequent excursions to Iceland. The island nation's volatile geology, the volcanoes and the hot springs, the ice and the sea, suffuse Horn's work, which deals with metaphors of climate change and shifting identity. In one piece, columns of glacier water harken the core samples drilled by climate......read more
Visualizing the spill: From our friends at GOOD, an animated simulation of a 25,000-barrel oil spill — less than half the estimated daily amount gushing into the Gulf. Dropping the ball: A scathing account of the U.S. Interior Department's handling of the offshore oil industry. Oh phew, at least there's that: Oil-Splattered BP Promises Uninterrupted Flow of Art Funding. The......read more
In London, the "seriously water stressed" UK capital confronts summer water shortages with a creative — and very British — solution: A new bio-diesel desalination plant that will run partly on used vegetable oil from fish-and-chip shops. Also in London, the newly erected Speedo Swimsuit Pavilion is made from obsolete swim suits. True story. Upgrade the grid: The US......read more
Plug and play: The Yves Behar-designed GE WattStation will juice up electric vehicles and spruce up the streets. Oh, the humanity! When Humans Ruled the Earth explores the human consumption machine in animated form. An efficient water solution in the rural West: Farmers and ranchers are replacing windmills with solar power wells. Want to take an exotic holiday AND help the environment? Try one......read more