Tag: Water

5 ways data centers endanger their local communities and the country as a whole

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Neha Gour, George Mason University; Ed Maibach, George Mason University, and Luis Ortiz, George Mason University (from The Conversation) Every internet search, streamed video and AI-generated response depends on a data center somewhere. Driven by rapid growth in artificial intelligence, cloud computing and cryptocurrency, data centers have become the backbone of the modern digital economy. But though their key role is in enabling virtual and…

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Drinking water quality is a chronic problem; what can phytoremediation do about nitrate and other pollutants? How does it work?

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Background: “Phytoremediation uses plants to clean up environmental contamination in soil, air, and water, offering a potentially cost-effective and less environmentally disruptive alternative to traditional methods of remediation. Phytoremediation methods include phytoextraction for inorganic pollutants, phytodegradation for organic contaminants, phytovolatilization for releasing volatile substances, phytostabilization for immobilizing pollutants, and phytostimulation for enhancing microbial activity in the rhizosphere.” From: Klein, M.A., Papoyan, A., & Kochian, L.V….

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Water conservation works, but climate change is outpacing it: Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas offer a glimpse of the future

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Renee Obringer, Penn State and Dave White, Arizona State University (from The Conversation) When a drought turns into an urban water crisis, a city’s first step is often to limit lawn watering and launch a campaign to encourage everyone to conserve. It might raise water-use rates or offer incentives for installing low-flow devices. While demand management techniques like these have had a lot of success…

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Nitrates and drinking water: Impacts and disparities. Is there a safe level? Cancer and health effects on children (Part 2)

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Nitrates in drinking water sources have become a chronic problem especially in areas of intensive corporate agriculture–like the U.S. Midwest. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not updated standards for nitrates in water for decades. Research indicates that health problems can be caused by levels far below the current U.S. Federal maximum. Background: “Nitrate (NO 3−) is a compound commonly found in fertilizers, animal manures,…

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Nitrates and drinking water: Impacts and disparities. Is there a safe level? Intensive, corporate agriculture and the United States (Part 1)

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Nitrates in drinking water sources have become a chronic problem especially in areas of intensive corporate agriculture–like the U.S. Midwest. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not updated standards for nitrates in water for decades. Research indicates that health problems can be caused by levels far below the current U.S. Federal maximum. Background: “Nitrate (NO 3−) is a compound commonly found in fertilizers, animal manures,…

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Data Centers water use in 2023

Data centers consume massive amounts of water – companies rarely tell the public exactly how much

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Peyton McCauley, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Melissa Scanlan, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (from The Conversation) As demand for artificial intelligence technology boosts construction and proposed construction of data centers around the world, those computers require not just electricity and land, but also a significant amount of water. Data centers use water directly, with cooling water pumped through pipes in and around the computer equipment. They also…

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Do you care? We need education, resolve, and action

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WMO report documents spiralling weather and climate impacts (March 2025). Land and water degradation, food and water supply shortages, drug-resistant infections from overuse of antibiotics, overuse of pesticides and disease, sea level rise affecting coastal areas, microplastics/single-use plastic pollution on land and in the oceans, rapidly melting ice at the Poles, heatwaves, droughts, extreme rainfall, powerful hurricanes, and more … leading to people and animals…

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What is an atmospheric river?

What is an atmospheric river? A hydrologist explains the good and bad of these flood-prone storms and how they’re changing

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Qian Cao, University of California, San Diego (from The Conversation) A series of atmospheric rivers is bringing the threat of heavy downpours, flooding, mudslides and avalanches to the Pacific Northwest and California this week [early 2024]. While these storms are dreaded for the damage they can cause, they are also essential to the region’s water supply, particularly in California, as Qian Cao, a hydrologist at…

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Climate change is intensifying the water cycle, bringing more powerful storms and flooding – here’s what the science shows

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Mathew Barlow, UMass Lowell (from The Conservation) Powerful storm systems triggered flash flooding across the U.S. in late July 2022, killing at least 25 people in eastern Kentucky as floodwater engulfed homes and set off mudslides. Record rainfall also inundated St. Louis neighborhoods, and another deluge in Nevada flooded the Las Vegas strip. The impact of climate change on extreme water-related events like this is…

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Cities and the lack of water

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“São Paulo. Cape Town. Now Santiago and Los Angeles. Cities around the world are being forced to live with less water, as global warming melts glaciers, diminishes snowpacks and exacerbates decades of water mismanagement. Not just less water for now. Maybe less water forever.” Read the entire article: Sengupta, Somini (2022, April 29). Climate Forward. New York Times. Real climate change with severe consequences is…

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