2022.3.3
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A woman reaches for a hose from a water tanker in Rajasthan, India. Temperatures on this day in July 2016 exceeded 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue

IPCC Climate Report: Six Key Findings for Water

The United Nations climate panel issued a blunt and urgent warning to the world on Monday.

In summarizing its report on the consequences of climate change, the scientific body described a society running out of time to prevent unbearable damage to the planet’s lands and waters — and to the people and creatures that depend on them.

More than any previous IPCC report, it cast a light on the intersections between climate, communities, and economies, recognizing that risk from warming temperatures is not evenly distributed around the world.

To right those inequities, the report urges leaders to quicken the pace of emissions reductions as well as adaptation to expected environmental changes.

Circle of Blue breaks down the report's 6 key water-related findings.

What’s Up With Water — March 1, 2022

For the news you need to start the week, tune into “What’s Up With Water” fresh on Monday’s on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, i Heart Radio, and SoundCloud.

Featured coverage from this week's episode of What's Up With Water looks at:

In Germany, concerns about water supply are clouding the future of a Tesla factory key to the carmaker’s European expansion plans. The factory has been delayed for several reasons, one of which is a lawsuit filed by two prominent environmental groups. That lawsuit is now headed to court.
Legal challenges over groundwater are also playing out in the United States. In the town of Dimock, Pennsylvania, however, the issue is not the quantity of water withdrawn but the quality. The town is at the center of a long-running dispute over groundwater contamination caused by natural gas drilling and fracking.

This week Circle of Blue reports on a risky drinking water pathogen that has an outsized effect on Black Americans.

From the Archives:

A farmer in the Mekong Delta uses plastic, mud, and sticks to hold back the rising sea. According to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report published Monday, Southeast Asia coastal zones are among the world’s most climate vulnerable regions. Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue

Climate Change Is Intensifying the Water Cycle, New IPCC Report Finds

The sixth climate assessment from the IPCC, released last August, painted an alarming picture of the future of fresh water.

Man-made contributions to a warming planet are far-reaching, the report concluded. It found more evidence that severe weather events are linked to carbon in the atmosphere and are becoming more extreme. And it showed that certain trends such as rising seas and shrinking ice sheets will continue even if carbon pollution were halted immediately. But it also indicated that by swiftly and drastically cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the worst effects of climate change can be prevented, avoiding worst-case outcomes for water availability.