Coastal flooding events are escalating worldwide, relative sea-level rise, driven primarily by anthropogenic radiative forcing since the 1960s, has already transformed the likelihood of historically rare extremes. Globally, the median frequency of an historical 1-in-100-year extreme sea-level event has increased ~12-fold, with human-driven radiative forcing alone quadrupling the likelihood of such events. Natural variability still modulates regional patterns but has become secondary along most coastlines. England’s Eastern coastline as one instance is at severe risk of coastal erosion and sea level rise with the likelihood of coastal homes falling into the North Sea.
Military strikes that damaged two water storage facilities in Iran may constitute a war crime, military and legal experts say, after reviewing media reports and visual evidence of a 10 June strike on Bemani, a small district about 2 miles from the strait of Hormuz. It’s unclear if the strikes deliberately targeted the district’s water tanks, or if they unintentionally destroyed a key reservoir for about 20,000 people living nearby. Unfortunately there is no evidence that war crimes by powerful militarised states will be judged or punished.
Sao Paulo, the 22 million people city’s access to drinking water is fragile. Its and the country’s largest, 127 square kilometre urban reservoir Billings is one vital source of that access. Is becoming polluted. In a context of deforestation and weak urban infrastructure the water is being contaminated with household and industrial waste, microplastics and fecal matter.
Despite the evidence of elsewhere consequences of localized rain provocation techniques they continue to be used and smugly advertise themselves. One such is Rain Enhancement Technologies Inc operating its ionization rainfall generation device in Colorado in the USA and which is becoming increasingly prone to drought. Its chief technical officer says coyly “WE can’t force the rain but we can give it a little nudge.”
The Quilicura wetland, on the northern outskirts of Santiago, Chile is the largest concentration of datacentres in Latin America.. It is now “a wetland without water.” This has stimulated local opposition, the group Resistencia Socioambiental de Quilicura. Chile’s now with an uber-capitalist government, admirers of the torturer Pinocjhet is pushing to become the regional tech hub now faces backlash as datacentres have drained water from drought-stricken wetlands, consuming billions of litres annually. While companies such as Google and Microsoft defend their water use, residents highlight minimal job creation, high power consumption and failed environmental offsets.
In the Pennsylvania state of the USA a pushback against water privatizations and their higher bills of up to 84% has gathered pace. From the 1990s private companies have been aggressively purchasing and consolidating small water and sewage systems. Local fightbacks have involved packing public meetings; electing co-organizers to public office; and lawsuits. They have prompted the State Governor to issue a letter warning public utility companies that there would be a crackdown on “unnecessary” rate increases and pushing the state’s Supreme Court to bock the corporate takeover of the public water system of the town of Chester.