Monday was World Water Day - a day recognized by the United Nations to draw attention to the growing water crisis.
When you work on water for a living, every day sort of feels like “water day.” And it is easy to forget that while we in the U.S. have serious water problems of our own, some of which have been vividly illustrated in a terrific series in the New York Times this year and last, many of these problems pale in comparison to those in other parts of the world.
I spend a lot of my working hours fighting to pass clean energy and climate legislation that will reduce America’s global warming pollution. But I also take steps in my personal life to cut down my own carbon emissions.
I stopped eating red meat and stick with vegetarian options most of the week, I installed compact florescent light bulbs, I signed up for renewable power through my utility Con Edison, and I take public transit to work.
We're going to float
Through the criss cross of the mountains
Watch them fade to nothing
When the world ends
You know that's what's happening now
- Dave Matthews, “When the World Ends”
Overview
Enkidu, a man raised by wild animals in the classic Sumerian poem Epic of Gilgamesh, knew nothing of beer until a prostitute guided him to a shepherd's camp. Upon finishing seven full cups, "his soul became free and cheerful, his heart rejoiced, his face glowed.... He became human." Beer was so popular throughout ancient Mesopotamia that some historians argue it inspired the earliest farmers to domesticate grain.
On Tuesday, in an official letter to the UNFCCC signed by China’s climate negotiator Su Wei, China officially expressed its willingness to be associated with the Copenhagen Accord.
Over the next two decades, 2.6 billion new consumers will enter the ranks of the global middle class. This rise in global wealth is expected to test the ecological limits of the planet as demand for raw materials, food, and fuel rise, water becomes more scarce, and global warming makes the climate less certain.
Google Maps has added a new feature.
In addition to driving directions, walking directions, and public transportation directions, everyone's favorite online mapping tool now offers bicycling directions.
Yesterday, India agreed to join the world’s major emitters as one of the countries formally listed under the Copenhagen Accord. India submitted voluntary domestic actions to the United Nations in January, but it remained unclear if it would join the international agreement.
