Fresh Water Crisis Seen at Top of Clinton Global Initiative Priorities

At the Annual Gathering of Global Leaders, Clean Water Described as “Mother of All Global Health Challenges”.

J. Carl Ganter of Circle of Blue brings us the latest from New York

NEW YORK, September 28, 2009 — Ever so steadily the basic factors that make up the global freshwater crisis — pollution, disease, scarcity, and access — are making their way to the top of the list of international priorities. More evidence of the singular importance of the world’s diminishing supply of clean fresh water emerged last week when former President Bill Clinton opened the Clinton Global Initiative, his annual meeting on the world’s challenges, and described the need to address water and sanitation in order to solve many of the most important economic and social problems. This year’s conference featured an appearance by President Barack Obama, who issued a clarion call to respond to the world’s greatest challenges.

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Giant fish 'verges on extinction'

By Jody Bourton | Earth News reporter for The BBC

A number of fish species vie for the position of the world’s largest freshwater fish, including the arapaima (Arapaima gigas) of the Amazon river and the Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas).

At up to 7m, the Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius) is much longer than either, though it may not exclusively live in freshwater.

The fish is suspected to be anadromous, meaning it spends some of its life in marine waters before returning to the river to spawn. But it is so rare that little is known about its behaviour, life history, migration habits and population structure.

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Dozens dead in Philippines from tropical storm flooding

Breaking Story from CNN

(CNN) — At least 51 people have died and at least 21 others are missing after torrential rains and subsequent flooding pummeled the Philippines on Saturday, the government said.

Tropical Storm Ketsana spawned the flooding, which caused at least six of the deaths in Manila, the nation’s capital.

Manila and the nearby province of Rizal bore the brunt of the downpour, said Gilberto Teodoro, secretary of national defense and chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council.

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The Thaw at the Roof of the World

By ORVILLE SCHELL | NY Times

Because the Tibetan Plateau and its environs shelter the largest perennial ice mass on the planet after the Arctic and Antarctica, it has come to be known as “the Third Pole.” Its snowfields and glaciers feed almost every major river system of Asia during hot, dry seasons when the monsoons cease, and their melt waters supply rivers from the Indus in the west to the Yellow in the east, with the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong and Yangtze Rivers in between. (The glaciers on Jade Dragon Snow Mountain contribute much of their water to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.)

From a distance, Baishui Glacier No. 1 looks as immovable as the defiant mountain above. In reality, it is a fluid field of ice and rock in constant downward motion. Scientists speak about the reactive behavior of these glaciers as if they were almost human. The Tibetan and Naxi peoples who inhabit this region treat them, and their mountain hosts, as embodiments of deities and spirits.

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Big Splash: How Water on the Moon Was Found

Scientists Say Water Molecules Mixed in Lunar Soil, in Surprising Amounts

By NED POTTER | ABC News

Since the 1990s, scientists have been reporting indirect evidence of water, or at least its chemical components, from readings taken by passing spacecraft. The prevailing theory has been that there may be pockets of ice, mixed with soil in craters near the lunar south pole, where the sun never shines and the ice is always hundreds of degrees below zero.

But now Pieters and her colleagues have delivered a surprise. They say they found evidence of water — in small concentrations, but enough to add up to billions of gallons — virtually all over the lunar surface.

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