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Story Archives of 'water'
Groundbreaking for Largest Stimulus-Funded Water Project
By Amy Quinton on Tuesday, November 17, 2009.Officials in Seabrook, New Hampshire broke ground today on construction of a new drinking water treatment plant.
Five million dollars in federal stimulus funds are helping to pay for the project.
As New Hampshire Public Radio’s Amy Quinton reports, it’s the largest amount of Recovery Act funds any town in the state has received to improve drinking water.
H20: Film on Water
By Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, October 13, 2009.From the water problem to water as metaphor. Our story begins in a former woolen mill on the banks of the Sugar River in Newport, NH. To get there, I drove past The Dollar Store and strip malls, the spray-painted signs advertising cord wood and coal, and onto South Main Street, where space for rent signs fade in store front windows.
Newport is one of the American towns where Sturm, Ruger and Co. has been manufacturing guns since 1949. Firearms magnate William Ruger, Jr., meticulously restored the old mill to house his extensive collection of antique cars. Bill Ruger then turned over an entire floor - 20,000 square feet – of the mill bulding to H20: Film on Water. It’s a collection of films, video, photographs and contemporary installations linked to the Connecticut River waterways.
The Newport Mill is the main exhibition space. I visited the grand brick building on a sparkling fall afternoon. The windows were blackened. Muffled sounds of buoy bells, sparse lighting, and the movement of projected films created a sense of dark immersion.
Cynthia Reeves runs the contemporary art gallery Cynthia Reeves in New York City, and Spheris Gallery in Hanover. A decade ago, she started Great River Arts based in Bellows Falls, Vt. To mark its ten-year anniversary, Cynthia opened up a juried competition centered on water. Her team pared more than 200 submissions down to 75 works of video, photography and site-specific works to create H20: Film on Water.
There’s a great variety of work. One film evokes Hurricane Katrina, another, the effect of oil on water. Some are direct, others more subtle. On Saturday, the top three juried H20: Film on Water videos will be awarded at the mill in Newport. The exhibition, and Saturday’s awards event are free and open to the public.
Boston Globe: Shimmering downriver: Exhibition’s four venues celebrate sight, sound of water
Keene State College's Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery is also hosting an exhibition on water titled Downstream: Current Works on Water By Six Artists.
Water: Facts and Predictions
By Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, October 13, 2009.
Water is quickly becoming the most critical natural resource of this century. Not oil, not gold, but water. In some parts of the world, water seems so plentiful that people don’t think twice about running the tap. Outside of our kitchens, the picture is more dramatic.
Yesterday, the World Bank reported that water will become dangerously scarce in the Middle East within decades unless it is radically better managed. In the world’s driest regions, “per capita water availability is predicted to halve by 2050 even without the effects of climate change.” Previous World Bank reports underscore the current severity: 80 countries now have water shortages that threaten health, economies, and increasingly, geopolitics.
Dr. David Howell is professor emeritus at Stanford University and a former geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. We’re also joined by Susan Marks, journalist and author of the new book Aqua Shock: The Water Crisis in America.
(Photo by Renata Virzintaite via Flickr/Creative Commons)
How can I make better use of rainwater?
By EarthTalk on Sunday, September 20, 2009.
EarthTalk®
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine
Dear EarthTalk: How can I make good use of the rainwater that runs down my roof and into my gutters? -- Brian Smith, Nashua, NH
Calculating Your Water Footprint
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, August 27, 2009.
Here’s an eye-opening statistic: that mid-day cup of coffee you were about to grab took 37 gallons of water to produce. If your lunch today is a hamburger, that’s another 634 six gallons. Many of the foods we eat and the products we use are much more water intensive than we might realize. From irrigation to assembly to transportation, nearly every step of a supply chain uses water.
In fact, only 6 percent of the water Americans consume actually comes from household use like dishwashers and laundry. So how do we use the other 94 percent? Arjen Hoekstra wants both consumers and corporations to know where the rest of that water goes. He’s the scientific director at the Water Footprint Network and Professor of Water Management at the University of Twente the Netherlands. He joins us from his home in the Netherlands as part of our “next green thing” series.
Calculate Your Water Footprint
Mother Jones: What's Your Water Footprint?
(Photo by Keith Barlow via Flickr/Creative Commons)
FIJI Water's Dark Side
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, August 26, 2009.FIJI is America’s leading brand of bottled water. Maybe you’ve seen the square bottle with the bright hibiscus flower in photographs of presidential cabinet meetings – it’s Obama’s favorite – or heard of its many celebrity fans. Maybe you even drink it yourself.
FIJI Water has had some PR trials on its way upstream. Environmentalists charged that shipping bottles made of Chinese plastic halfway around the world cost too much carbon. Human rights advocates railed that Fijians were dying for lack of access to clean water while FIJI pillaged the aquifer.
The FIJI company responded with an aggressive campaign trumpeting its carbon offsets and charity work - "every drop is green" became the new tagline. The $5 million FIJI green campaign told consumers that drinking FIJI would help fight climate change.
Investigative reporter Anna Lenzer traveled to Fiji to visit the source and uncover just how green the water could be. She reported on her trip for Mother Jones, supported by a special fund of The Nation Institute, and joins us on the line with more.
Mother Jones: FIJI Water: Spin the Bottle
FIJI Water Responds to Mother Jones Article
Mother Jones Responds to FIJI Water
(Photo by strfireblue via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Green Forests = Blue Water
By Dave Anderson on Thursday, July 16, 2009.Forests keep our lakes clean.
Does our drinking water contain birth control chemicals?
By EarthTalk on Sunday, June 7, 2009.
EarthTalkTM
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine
Pungent Products
By Todd Bookman on Thursday, June 4, 2009.Here’s something we recently sniffed out...some food and beverage companies are “enhancing” their products in a novel way: with smell.
They infuse scents in the packaging that convince you you’re consuming something sweet and tangy. One business, Aroma Water, sells plain bottled water with a fragrant cap.
Solar Hot Water
By Rick Ganley on Tuesday, May 19, 2009.More Granite State homeowners are installing solar hot water systems.
