drought – Aquarius-Systems

December 2016 Newsletter

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 22:25:36 +0000

Lending a Hand

Lending a Hand

Bolivia Struggles with Drought

Drought Disasters Around the World

Devastating Drought Means Many Go Hungry

The Giving Season

May 2014 Newsletter

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 20:29:09 +0000

From Toilet to Tap

The Aquatic Plant Harvesters are Hitting the Water!

Maintaining Your Driveway Could be Hazardous to Your Health

A Little Boy Who Likes Frogs

Water Supplies Devastated by Drought

Weed Harvester Restores Water Flow in Yakima River Canal During Drought

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 17:00:14 +0000

With this drought season being a rough one, the Columbia Irrigation District tried their best to do everything they could to make sure they can get all their customers the water they need. A lot of weeds are clogging up the Yakima River preventing it from flowing into a canal near the Wanawish Dam.

The warmer water temperatures made more weeds grow and the water levels this year are almost down two feet. Normally the district would spend more than $200,000 to use chemicals to clear the weeds in the canal, but they hope this new option is cheaper.

An aquatic weed harvester has been called in to cut and collect aquatic vegetation. The harvester opened channels creating more water flow. The harvester worked very well.

Coffee’s Future Is at Risk as the Climate Changes

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 21:12:54 +0000

Coffee is the world’s most widely consumed beverage; it is relished by individuals from all races, backgrounds, and social classes. Over 1 billion individuals in the world drink over 2.25 billion cups of coffee every day. Finland is the world’s largest coffee consumer; 12kg of coffee is consumed by an average Finn yearly while Brazil produces and exports millions of tons of coffee annually making it the world’s largest producer by volume.

But what would happen if you could no longer afford a cup of Joe or if it was no longer available?

Coffee is, in many ways, a poster child of an industry facing a future crisis. Most coffee is grown from two different species — arabica and robusta — but there are 122 other wild species. Coffee’s already limited range of tropical growing region will likely dwindle, and 60% of wild coffee species face extinction. Millions of hectares of crops risk being lost in the space of a few decades and 25 million coffee growers risk losing their means of subsistence.

In many other types of crops, there are seed companies that drive breeding and care about conserving genetic diversity, but that doesn’t exist in the coffee industry. There is a disconnect between the numerous coffee roasters and the breeders who could turn crop diversity into new varieties able to, for example, withstand a drought or resist the latest pest outbreak.

Global Drought Impacts Are Escalating From Farms to Forests

Mon, 05 Dec 2016 02:07:30 +0000

Across the country and around the globe, the effects of drought are everywhere. Google the word “drought” and the news stories are endless; some with severe consequences.

In California, over 100 million trees have died due to the drought. In Tennessee the drought is posing a huge threat to the cattle industry. Pastures have dried up and farmers have resorted to feeding the cattle hay which is normally saved for the winter months. Similar stories are reported out of Georgia as well.

Wildfires have ravaged over 54,000 acres of forest, protected areas and farmland in parts of Peru. Peru is experiencing the regions worst drought in at least half a century. Wildfires have burned over 100,000 acres of land across seven southern U.S. states leading to mass evacuations.

As devastating as those issues are; other countries are faring much worse. The severe drought in Madagascar has left 330,000 people on the brink of famine.

As Bolivia faces its worst drought in at least 25 years, the government has been forced to declare a state of emergency. It is estimated that the drought has affected 125,000 families and threatened 716,605 acres of agricultural land and 360,000 head of cattle.

How Drought, Policy, and Economics Can Push Nations Toward Conflict

Fri, 11 Dec 2015 01:50:32 +0000

The line from drought to war is not nearly as straightforward, though on the surface it doesn’t seem to involve any leaps of faith. It makes sense that a severe drought would lead to massive crop failure, and that in a country heavily dependent on agriculture the results would be disastrous.

The drought lasted several years and forced hundreds of thousands of poor farmers off their lands and into cities that were already overcrowded by refugees (1 million or so, by most accounts) from the war in neighboring Iraq.

However, the drought alone may not have been what forced the farmers from their land. The cancellation of diesel and fertilizer subsidies also had a crippling effect on the farmers. Political, economic and technological forces at work in the modern world also play a major role in economical collapse.