Brown and barren land: Bolivia’s historic drought – in pictures.
Towards the end of last year, the government of Bolivia declared a state of emergency after the worst drought in 25 years affected at least seven of the country’s major cities.In November and December 2016 and January 2017, photographer Marcelo Perez visited reservoirs that supplied drinking water to La Paz, the capital, and neighbouring city El Alto to document the critical levels they had reached.
The Inkachaka, Ajunkota and Hampaturi dams supply drinking water to more than 30% of the population of La Paz.
I expected to see military or personnel from the water company, but the place was totally empty.
Bolivians staged protests in major cities, mirroring the demonstrations of the Cochabamba ‘water war’ in 2000.
Moreira resigned in January.
Water rationing was used for the first time in La Paz, affecting 80,000 people.
The Chacaltaya glacier – once the world’s highest ski resort – has already completely disappeared.
The two Tuni-Condoriri glaciers that provide water to El Alto and La Paz lost 39% of their area between 1983 and 2006.
Here, a rubber emergency channel drains water from a lagoon to ease water shortages.

It is carrying nine families and what is left of their herds: some sheep, goats, and donkeys.
This is what pastoralists have done for centuries, following the movements of their animals and the changing seasons.
The region was hit by an 18-month drought caused by El Niño and higher temperatures linked to climate change.
There are increasing concerns that the situation will get much worse, as rainfall in March and early April was very low in places.
This left survivors without the means to feed themselves or make a living.
Soon, it is going to ‘sweep away’ people.
If they don’t get food, clean water, and medicines, they will die like their animals.” Right up to six months ago, his family used to have over 1000 animals: 400 sheep, plus goats and camels.
Then, they started moving in search of better pastures and more water for their animals.
“We have moved four times in the last four months.
If the rains don’t come, none of us will survive.” Oxfam is launching a humanitarian response to the drought in Somaliland where, together with our long-standing networks and partners, we can have the most impact as quickly as possible.

What do Americans think about their water?
In its 2017 survey, Gallup found that 63 percent of Americans worry a “great deal” about pollution of drinking water, and another 22 percent worry a “fair amount,” as shown in the figure below.
In both 2016 and 2017, the Conservation in the West Poll from Colorado College’s State of the Rockies Project has found that 51 percent of people in seven Mountain West states believe “low levels of water in rivers” is a very or extremely serious problem.
Water-related problems top climate change concerns Climate change is already manifesting through an amped-up hydrological cycle that is delivering deeper droughts and more extreme floods.
In the United States, there were some regional differences in concerns about climate change.
Nationally, 50 percent of Americans said drought was their top worry.
The figure below, based on 2016 data, shows water pollution is the top environmental concern among both Democrats and Republicans.
In July 2014, the Water Foundation asked a bipartisan team of pollsters to analyze Californians’ views on groundwater.
Non-white and lower-income Americans are especially worried about water Worries about water pollution are widespread in the United States, but surveys show that non-white and lower-income Americans are particularly concerned.
When asked if their community should be spending more on water infrastructure, 68 percent of those surveyed in 2016 said yes.

Renowned climate change scientist joins Buffalo protest rally.
Hundreds of Buffalo voices were joined Saturday by an influential international voice during a rally to protest President Trump’s stances on climate change and environmental protection.
Michael E. Mann, a Nobel Prize winner and climate scientist, was among the roughly 300 people who gathered in Niagara Square to decry Trump’s reversal of long-standing federal policies that offer greater environmental protections.
"Never before have we experienced an assault on our planet like we are today."
"The current warming spike is unprecedented as far back as we can go," he added.
His study of historical climate data was the basis for the controversial “hockey stick” graph, which showed a sharp uptrend in temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere since 1900.
Those in the crowd carried signs with slogans such as "The oceans are rising and so are we" and "There is no Planet B."
Their criticism was aimed at Trump, who wants to curb the federal government’s enforcement of climate change regulations.
The program also relocated Lockport families from a neighborhood contaminated by toxins, removed contaminated sediment from Scajaquada Creek in Buffalo and identified microplastics pollution in Lake Erie.
"Today we see this great resurgence on the Buffalo waterfront and in the river," said Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, who has championed the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative as a program that helps clean the environment and spur the region’s economic revival.

A team of international researchers led by University of Freiburg hydrologist Dr. Andreas Hartmann suggests that inclusion of currently missing key hydrological processes in large-scale climate change impact models can significantly improve our estimates of water availability.
The study shows that groundwater recharge estimates for 560 million people in karst regions in Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa, are much higher than previously estimated from current large-scale models.
The team has published their research findings in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Groundwater is a vital resource in many regions around the globe.
The researchers have compared two hydrological models that simulate groundwater recharge.
One is a long-established global model with limited accounting for subsurface heterogeneity.
The other is a continental model the researchers have developed themselves that includes, for example, variability in the thickness of soils and different subsurface permeabilities.
A comparison of the models’ calculations with independent observations of groundwater recharge at 38 sites in the regions has shown that the model that accounts for heterogeneity produces more realistic estimates.
The researchers explain the reason for the difference between the two models as follows: In simulation, their newly developed model shows reduced fractions of surface According to the new model, a farmer in the Mediterranean region would potentially have up to a million liters more groundwater for extraction available in a year than the established model estimates, dependent on actual subsurface composition and the water demands of the local ecosystems.
Enhanced groundwater recharge rates and altered recharge sensitivity to climate variability through subsurface heterogeneity.

President Trump’s first 100 days have been devastating to environment, say green activists.
Out of all the groups in the liberal coalition, environmentalists may have had the worst of it during the first 100 days of the Trump presidency.
Leading green activists say President Trump has already done a full term’s worth of damage, rolling back Obama-era regulations and installing one of their chief critics as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Since his confirmation in February, the EPA has already started to dismantle the Clean Power Plan — federal rules limiting carbon emissions from power plants — and a host of other regulations.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Pruitt are intent on reversing eight years of EPA policy under the previous administration, transitioning the agency away from its Obama-era focus on climate change and expanding its regulatory reach, toward enforcing existing protections against air and water pollution.
“I would call this an extreme agenda that for someone who didn’t even win a majority of the vote is out of line with the values of the American people,” said Erich Pica, president of the environmental group Friends of the Earth.
He didn’t run on any of that, yet that’s what his extreme agenda is doing right now.” Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said this week that “the hallmark of the president’s first 100 days” has been a relentless “assault on our climate, environment and national heritage.” On the heels of the executive order reviewing national monuments, other environmental activists accused the president of using his first months in office to sell out the country to the fossil fuel industry.
Environmental groups also are suing the administration over virtually every move it makes on the energy and climate front, meaning many policies, ultimately, will be set by federal courts.
“The rules and the regulations will be litigated over the course of time, but it’s the budget stuff that could have the long-lasting impact on how these agencies operate,” Mr. Pica said.
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Climate change means too much water for some, too little for others.
Scientists say most people on Earth will first experience climate change in terms of water — either too much or too little.
Along with population change, pollution and overuse, climate change has resulted in much of Earth’s freshwater becoming contaminated.
A report by the World Economic Forum warns that by mid-century one in every three people on the planet will live in water stressed countries.
Recent droughts in the U.S. have Americans thinking about water conservation in ways they never have before.
A vast and ecologically diverse country, India suffers from water problems found across the globe: flooding, drought, pollution and lack of access for the poor.
In Israel, a combination of cutting-edge technology and sweeping government policy has largely solved the nation’s long struggle with water scarcity.
But the benefits of abundant water are not shared equally throughout Israel and the West Bank.
"Thirsty Planet," an APM Reports documentary, explores some of the most salient problems and solutions regarding water by looking at these two countries.
To listen to the documentary, click the audio player above.

In science news this week: Follow the flow: The state of the San Lorenzo River; Ancient groundwater may not be as clean as once thought; Research suggests climate change likely to cause significant shift in Colorado River vegetation; Mystery of the missing mercury at the Great Salt Lake; Rising water temperatures endanger health of coastal ecosystems, study finds; and Trillions of plastic bits, swept up by the current, are littering arctic waters Follow the flow: The state of the San Lorenzo River: “Flow has long shaped the relationship between Santa Cruz, California, and the San Lorenzo River, which runs through the city. The memorable “Christmas Flood” of 1955 sent 10 feet of water surging through downtown Santa Cruz, and prompted the construction of flood control levees that channelized the river. A spate of heavy winter storms earlier this year put San Lorenzo River flow back on people’s minds, with February flows hitting levels nearly 30 times greater than the long-term average. Fittingly, flow was also the focus of this year’s State of the San Lorenzo River symposium, which FISHBIO’s Santa Cruz staff attended earlier this year. The series of talks highlighted where the San Lorenzo River’s water comes from, the influences of flow on fish, and challenges in the watershed. … ” Read more from FishBio here: Follow the flow: The state of the San Lorenzo River Ancient groundwater may not be as clean as once thought: “Most of the groundwater that is accessible by deep wells is old, but still vulnerable to modern contamination, reports a study published today in Nature Geoscience by researchers from University of Calgary, Stanford, and other institutions. The world’s groundwater provides drinking water and irrigation for billions of people around the world. Some of this groundwater is young and easily affected by pollution and changes in climate. But much more is old groundwater that has been stored beneath the Earth’s surface for thousands of years. Old groundwater is more difficult to…

Claim disputed.
On Monday, Trump’s EPA administrator Scott Pruitt reportedly asked a powerful coal lobbying group to request that the U.S. pull out of the Paris pact.
According to a report by Politico, a source said Pruitt asked the group to press Trump to pull the U.S. out of the accord.
The report was "strongly denied" by a National Mining Association spokesman, the report said, "despite a source telling Politico that he did."
Whether or not the request was made, the committee reportedly voted 26 to 5 to ask the president to leave the Paris accord.
Some would accept U.S. participation if the administration works to boost research into carbon capture, or so-called "clean coal" technology, that could allow coal to continue as a fuel burned to generate electricity.
CHECK OUT: U.S. exit from Paris climate pact unclear; Trump team clashes on policy Other coal companies, including Murray Energy—run by wealthy Trump backer Robert Murray—are adamant in their opposition to any carbon-reduction efforts, and indeed to climate science as a whole.
As numerous journalists have reported, President Trump and many of his appointed agency and department heads deny the science of climate change.
And the Environmental Protection Agency is now run by a man who sued the EPA more than a dozen times to prevent it from enforcing emission rules against fossil-fuel producers in his home state of Oklahoma.
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PANEL DISCUSSION: ESA & Climate Change: Collision Course?.
With a new administration in Washington, DC that has taken a different view of environmental regulation, changes in the Endangered Species Act perhaps seem more possible than in prior years.
Is the Endangered Species Act broken?
Should the environment have a water right?
My view is the Endangered Species Act as legislation is not broken.
The ESA is one law.
It is one approach, but we have a practice in California and the West of doing things like de-watering rivers entirely – the second major river in California, for example.
Moderator Doug Wallace asked Bob Wilkinson, “Do you see a place where market structure in water rights that is specifically giving a water right to the environment could be a useful tool – a specific water right that’s not really negotiable as far as making tough decisions and managing for species and ecosystems?”
If ESA is not broken, then how do we use it now to deal with this problem?
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