Nice little piece here about attempts to fill up the Dead Sea from the Red Sea. Most of it’s pretty good actually, it is something of a worry and yes, the best solution would probably be to abstract less water from the Jordan. However, it being The Guardian they can’t help themselves but snarl at

A NUCLEAR-POWERED submarine that ran aground off the Scottish coast two months ago broke down on its first day back at sea, it has emerged.

The EU should 'enlarge' its model to the Black Sea and help the area move towards higher environmental standards, experts said at a conference organised in Paris by the Assembly of European Regions (AER) on 15 and 16 February. For example, in an attempt to tackle groundwater pollution in the area, the EU is promoting sustainable and integrated water management in the Black Sea. T...

It's rare that I praise The Guardian - and today is no exception. In a piece about thinning Arctic sea ice, Juliette Jowit gets some exercise by jumping to conclusions. The findings, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, raise the possibility that the loss of the Arctic sea ice could accelerate, because as the ice recedes the water temperature rises. Really? What does the aut...

Water is an industry in need of reform, the last monopoly. Uniquely, water is the one utility essential to life itself. Our water supplier depends solely upon where we happen to live. Regional water boards became Public Limited Companies in 1989 and these were privatised the same year. There was no fundamental restructuring such as

I have just read in The Ecologist that lying off the coast of Papua New Guinea, the Carteret Islands are slowly being engulfed by a rising sea (see article here). Photo by Pip Starr. www.starr.tvAs the sea level rises the islanders drinking water and crops have been poisoned by salt and one entire island has been cut in half by the waves. The 1000 Islanders are now being evacuated and

So here’s a new thing for us to worry about. How much water in embedded in the imports that we use? The study by the environment group WWF is the first attempt to discover the full scale of UK water consumption, or its "water footprint". As well as water for drinking, cleaning and washing, it looks at

Flamanville, Normandy, northern France. Rounding the coast road, as blue-green breakers crash against the dark beaches, you can see a vast building site. It perches on the edge of the sea, on top of old industry, for here there used to be a granite mine and and an undersea iron mine. A few hundred yards out to sea there is a paler expanse of water in the shape of a flattened oval, while overhead s...

And while we are on water (see last blog entry) an important report, UK Water Footprint, was launched by WWF at this year’s World Water Week, held last month in Stockholm. It says the impact of the UK’s food and fibre consumption on global water resources tells the story of the water we use and where it comes from - it highlights the impact of the UK’s consumption patterns on global water

And so Ros and I are on our way home after an unexpectedly fabulous trip to Vancouver. We've been up a snow-covered mountain, crossed the water to an almost painfully cute island, drunk local beers and wine, eaten local seafood and met up with a sea otter. Vancouver and its surrounds is an amazing place, set between the coastal range and the sea, with float planes in the harbour and rich woodland ...