Alaskan Glaciers are Melting and Adding to Sea Level Rise

In Alaska unprecedented heat is melting glaciers and causing sea levels to rise. According to a new study the amount of water from melting glaciers could cover the entire state of Alaska in a foot of water every seven years. This is the finding of the authors of a study called "Surface melt dominates Alaska glacier mass balance," published in the peer-reviewed Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

Antarctic Glaciers Pass the Point of No Return

A recent report concludes that Antarctica's ice sheet has reached a tipping point from which it will not be able to recover. Scientists predict that the glaciers in the western part of Antarctica will melt and raise sea levels by four feet or 1.2 meters. These sea level rises will displace tens of millions of people from coastal areas around the world.

As explained by NASA glaciologist Eric Rignot, the glacial retreat "appears unstoppable." Rignot is the lead author of a joint NASA-University of California Irvine paper that used 40 years of satellite data and aircraft studies to come to the conclusion that Antarctic glaciers are now "past the point of no return."

The rate at which the area's ice is melting has increased 77 percent since 1973. According to researchers the melting is being precipitated by warmer ocean currents which have begun a chain reaction. Although first observed around glaciers in the Amundsen Sea-area, the effect is expected to spread to other Antarctic glaciers.

Video - Watch the Disintegration of the Largest Glacier Ever Recorded on Film

Glaciers are melting at an ever expanding rate all around the world and this video documents the disintegration of the largest glacier ever recorded on film. This glacier has ice spires that are two or three times taller than the tallest buildings in New York City. In the last ten years it has retreated more than in the previous century.

Video - Global Warming is Melting Ice and Raising Sea Levels

The science is clear, the planet is warming and our waters are rising. With the help of satellites, lasers, radar in space, and researchers on the ground, NASA and other research organizations have clearly demonstrated that the seas are rising. If all the ice on Earth were to melt sea levels would rise by 75 meters. Scientists known that global warming is already melting ice around the world, particularly at the poles, in addition to climate impacts this will raise sea levels. Very rapid sea level rises, three to four times as fast as current rates are expected if we continue on our current trajectory.

Video - World Water Day: What Individuals Can Do

United Nations Regional Information Centre (UNRIC) - Video in English created by United Kingdom based students at the University of Creative Arts in Farnham, for World Water Day. The contribution is part of UNRIC's partnership with Fabrica.

To help promote a series of UN International Days, prestigious European design schools and academies produce short videos part of a partnership between UNRIC and Fabrica, the Benetton research centre on communication.

The schools belong to a network established by Fabrica to promote youth creativity. Video content produced by the students is promoted by the UN and showcased on Benetton storefront Live Windows.

Author: Rory Tatton
Tutor: Craig Burston
Institute: UCA Farnham, United Kingdom
Cover: Gastón Lisak (Fabrica resident)
Music: Jhon William Castaño (Fabrica resident)

Video: World Water Day: Problems and Solutions Animated Short

This animated short video offers a condensed review of water related issues in the developing world and what we can do to address it.

Video - The Big Thirst the Business of Water

The golden age of water—where water is unlimited, safe, and free—is over. Award-winning investigative journalist Charles Fishman reports on his three-year odyssey to uncover how the world of water is changing and the enormous implications for each of us, no matter where we live. This video briefly explores the cutting edge of waters bio-chemistry. Our relationship with water is one of the deciding things of the next century.

Water is not only a matter of life and death. Dirty water is not only deadly, treating water-born illnesses is a very expensive proposition. India spends more on diarrhea than the total economic output of half of the nations in the world.

The US uses more water in a day than oil throughout an average year, and more water in four days than the entire world uses oil in a year. However, the US uses less water than it did in 1980. In the last 25 years the country has more than doubled its water productivity. This makes the point that it is possible to be a modern economy and use substantially less water.

We need to pay attention to what businesses are doing, this includes both risks and the opportunities. Positive change starts with putting a price on water. This will not only reduce use it will drive innovation. Fishman goes on to cite three examples of water innovation by businesses around the world.

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Video - World Water Day 2013: Message from UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon

World Water Day (22nd March 2013): Video Message from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the importance of Water Cooperation, the theme of World Water Day 2013.

Documentary - Water on the Table

This documentary about water was the Winner of the Best Canadian Feature Film at the 2010 Planet in Focus International Film and Video Festival.  The film features Maude Barlow, who has earned the nickname “Water Warrior.” She is the National Chairperson for the Council of Canadians and former Senior Advisor on Water at the United Nations General Assembly. Maude cares about the environment and she won’t back down from a fight with corporations who threaten the access to clean and free water.

Water sustains life, but in many countries water has also become a commodity. Barlow wants to put a stop to considering water a profit-generating good and have it declared a human right. Marshall takes us on the road with Barlow as she works to preserve Canada’s freshwater systems. We travel with them to Canadian and international speaking engagements and get to watch as they crash political meetings. Marshall’s character-driven social commentary is a visually stunning meditation on the beauty and all-encompassing need for clean water.

For more information click here.

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The Carbon Trust's Water Standard

The Carbon Trust's Water Standard is a new resource that helps companies to measure and manage their water usage. Carbon Trust worked with Sainsbury’s, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Sunlight and Branston — the four companies that have already adopted the Carbon Trust Water Standard — to develop the methodology for the new standard.

To achieve the Carbon Trust Water Standard organizations must:

Infographic - Plumbing Heroes: Water Stewards for the 21st Century

Click Here for an interactive version - Able Skills Construction Courses

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World Water Day 2013: International Year of Water Cooperation

Water Efficiency: Stopping the Flow from Leaky Pipes

One of the most obvious keys to responsible water management is increasing water use efficiency (WUE) and this entails arresting the prodigious flow of water from leaking pipes. All around the world countries are facing massive water losses form leaking pipes. Thankfully there some innovative new solutions to this wasteful problem.

Even a small leak adds up over time. To illustrate the point a dripping pipe can lose about one litre of water per minute. Over eight weeks that amounts to approximately 80,000 litres of wasted water. A leaking faucet in anther source of water loss. A faucet that drips one drop per second, would waste 27,000 gallons of water annually.

In Asia around 29 billion cubic meters of urban treated water is lost every year due to leaking pipes. This is worth about nine billion dollars annually. According to the Asian Development Bank, "by cutting physical losses to half the present level, 150 million people could be supplied with already treated water."

Reducing Water Use in the United States

This op-ed was written for World Water Day by Danielle Nierenberg, Co-founder of Food Tank. The article offers five steps that we can all take to reduce water waste in the United States. Danielle has spent the last two and a half years traveling to 35 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, conducting research on environmentally sustainable ways of reducing hunger and poverty. Over the last fifteen years she has been published in hundreds of publications around the world, including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, the Houston Chronicle, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Seattle Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and dozens more. Her research has been featured on National Public Radio, Voice of America, ABC, and CNN.
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How Much Water is there on Earth

The graphic shows three blue spheres representing relative amounts of Earth's water in comparison to the size of the Earth. [The third is so small it is hard to see.] These images attempt to show three dimensions, so each sphere represents volume. Overall, it shows that in comparison to the volume of the globe the amount of water on the planet is very small - and the oceans are only a "thin film" of water on the surface.

If you took all the water on earth – in oceans, ice caps, lakes, rivers, groundwater, the atmosphere, and living things – and wrapped it into a sphere, it would have a diameter of about 860 miles. That 860-mile-high sphere is represented by the largest bubble in the picture, which stretches from Salt Lake City, Utah to Topeka, Kan. It has a volume of over 332 million cubic miles. If you popped this bubble with a giant pin, the resulting flow would cover the lower 48 states to a depth of about 107 miles.

Solutions to the World Water Crisis Requires International Cooperation

Sharing water across international boundaries is a complex international challenge that requires coordinated water policy formulation and responsible governance. To meet global water requirements governments at all levels need to work together to craft clear policies and enact enforceable laws. To address the world water crisis, governments, corporations and other concerned parties need an ambitious mission, long term vision, strategic goals and specific detailed planning.

Water is important for all living organisms. Without water, there will be no life. Entire civilizations have collapsed due to water shortages, therefore the pressing importance of finding international water solutions cannot be overstated.

People have been controlling water for more than four thousand years. The issue we face today is not about whether we should manage water resources, the issue is how this can best be achieved.

World Water Day 2013: International Year of Water Cooperation

World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.

Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. In 2013, in reflection of the International Year of Water Cooperation,/ World Water Day is also dedicated to the theme of cooperation around water and is coordinated by UNESCO in collaboration with UNECE and UNDESA on behalf of UN-Water.

Lawsuit to Protect Arctic Sea Ice as Critical Seal Habitat

Environmentalists are using the courts to try to protect vanishing Arctic sea ice. In September, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit intended to protect the critical habitat of two species of seals in the US District Court in Anchorage. Even though the agency proposed listing the ringed seal and the bearded seal as threatened in 2010, nothing has been done. The suit accuses the National Marine Fisheries Service of illegally delaying listings for the two species of seals under the Endangered Species Act.