Science, Tech & Environment
PRI's The World
March 07, 2016
The current drought in southern Africa is the worst in decades, and likely a harbinger of things to come as the region warms up and dries out as its climate changes. The drought is having real impact on one resident in a Pretoria township, and what governments in the region can do to help prepare for a hotter and drier future.
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Science, Tech & Environment
El Niño is back, and global temperature records are in danger
PRI's The World
May 13, 2015
Updated
El Niño is back. That could mean trouble for crops from Africa to Australia, drought relief for Brazil and California — and new record global temperatures as the Pacific Ocean warms up and brings the heat along with it.
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Science, Tech & Environment
Agriculture is thriving in bone-dry California, and that's not a good thing
Living on Earth
May 04, 2015
Everyone in California is feeling the crunch as the state tries to cope with its massive drought, but farms aren't suffering quite as much as the rest. That's good for business, but bad for the state's dwindling water resources.
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Politics
Famine haunted his childhood in Ethiopia. Now he sees food running out again.
PRI's The World
May 05, 2016
An Ethiopian expat worries for his homeland as drought and climate change threaten to trigger another famine.
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Science, Tech & Environment
The worst droughts in 1,000 years may be on the horizon for the American West
Science Friday
February 28, 2015
Since 2011, California has been in the grip of one of the worst droughts in recent history. It's shrinking water reserves, intensifying wildfires and, so far, costing farmers billions of dollars in agricultural losses. But all of that may be just a preview of what’s to come later this century.
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Politics
Here's a new climate change reality that Trump's new policies ignore
PRI's The World
March 30, 2017
As President Trump turns US government policy away from the realities of climate change, a new scientific study confirms a link between climate pollution and dangerously extreme weather. The irony of the timing is not lost on the study's lead author.
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Science, Tech & Environment
'Little Teresa' helps São Paulo women fight drought and male domination — with rain barrels
PRI's The World
February 24, 2016
Brazil's largest city, São Paulo is coming out of a searing drought. But its impact wasn't all bad. One woman saw the drought as an opportunity to empower women and bring her community closer together.
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Science, Tech & Environment
São Paulo residents demand their city take a new attitude about water
PRI's The World
March 13, 2015
The unprecedented water crisis in South America's largest city is leading citizens to change everything, from how they use water to how they engage with politics. But while the government is taking action, residents say it's not nearly enough.
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Science, Tech & Environment
How California is surviving its new water crisis
Science Friday
April 28, 2015
With California entering its fourth year of drought, one of the state's water managers has devised an innovative way to deal with what experts are calling the "new normal."
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Science, Tech & Environment
We're running out of water. Is desalination the answer?
WGBH News
July 21, 2015
Desalination plants aren't just a California thing. Low groundwater levels are a problem for communities everywhere.
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Science, Tech & Environment
These Chinese cave inscriptions tell a dramatic 500-year-long story
PRI's The World
August 18, 2015
The writing in Dayu Cave explains the impact of seven different droughts between 1520 and 1920. Even today, groups come to the cave to gather water, but they're no longer allowed to write on the walls.