August 15, 2012

Scores on the Ocean Health Index ranged from 36 (Sierra Leone, in West Africa) to 86 (Jarvis Island in the Pacific).

AP reported today that thousands of fish died just last week in the Midwestern United States because the heat wave made the rivers too hot. At the same time a leading scientist said statistical analysis confirms the blistering heat is a result of climate change.

Scientists say the notoriously dry continent of Africa is sitting on a vast reservoir of groundwater.

They argue that the total volume of water in aquifers underground is 100 times the amount found on the surface.

The team have produced the most detailed map yet of the scale and potential of this hidden resource.

Writing in the journal Environmental Research Letters, they stress that large scale drilling might not be the best way of increasing water supplies.

With the world’s freshwater supplies under mounting pressure from pollution and galloping consumption, understanding the how, where and why of water use is more important than ever.

To that end, scientists from the University of Twente in the Netherlands have released a new study analyzing the quantity and distribution of global water use from 1996 to 2005.