Ancient Mayan civilization used advanced water treatment technology

The oldest known example of a water treatment system in the Western Hemisphere was recently discovered in Guatemala. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/ancient-mayan-civilization-used-advanced-water-treatment-technology…

Beach water quality testing stops in England due to coronavirus crisis

People swimming at beaches and lakes across England this summer will not know if the water is dirty because officials have stopped sampling to test water quality Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2243833-beach-water-quality-testing-stops-in-england-due-to-coronavirus-crisis/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

The Municipal Bond Market Is Using Geospatial Data For Climate Risk Evaluation

mikeebbbd shares a report from Los Angeles Times: The $3.8-trillion municipal-bond market has found a new tool in its effort to understand the effects of climate change: satellites orbiting Earth. Assessing climate risks is a particularly vexing problem given that U.S. state and local governments tend to give investors information that’s too little or just too late. But the use of…

Neonicotinoids Disrupt Aquatic Food Webs and Decrease Fishery Yields, Says Study

A team of researchers from Japan has found compelling evidence of two fisheries collapsing due to use of neonicotinoid pesticides by nearby rice farmers. “In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes their study of fishery water quality data over two decades and what they learned from it,” reports Phys.Org. “Olaf Jensen with Rutgers University has published a…

Venezuela’s Water System is Collapsing

In Venezuela, a crumbling economy and the collapse of even basic state infrastructure means water comes irregularly — and drinking it is an increasingly risky gamble. Venezuela’s current rate of infant mortality from diarrhea, which is closely related to water quality, is six times higher than 15 years ago, according to the World Health Organization. From a report: But the government…

The Water Crisis Cities Don’t See Coming

Aging water treatment systems, failing pipes and a slew of unregulated contaminants threaten to undermine water quality in U.S. cities of all sizes. Still, with only a handful of exceptions, “water systems aren’t designed to focus on health, they’re focused on cost-containment,” says Seth Siegel, whose book “Troubled Water,” released this month, examines the precarious state of water infrastructure in the…

The last mammoths died on a remote island

A new study suggests that about 4,000 years ago, a combination of Isolation, extreme weather, and the arrival of humans on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean killed off Earth’s last population of mammoths. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/last-wooly-mammoths-died-on-remote-island…

Why the Amazon is burning: 4 reasons

Nearly 40,000 fires are incinerating Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. Apocalyptic as this sounds, science suggests it’s not too late to save the Amazon. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/amazon-rainforest-fires-burning-4-reasons-why…