agricultural research

Troubled Waters  

Two aerial photos show a winding river through a rocky, desert landscape. The top image shows higher water levels, while the bottom image shows significantly lower water, revealing exposed land and riverbanks.

We’re seeing increasing signs of a malfunctioning US water system.

Water problems are popping up all over. Literally so, in at least one case. In the Permian basin, geysers of toxic wastewater are erupting. The water was pumped underground as part of the basin’s massive fracking operations. Fracking produces five or six barrels of wastewater for every barrel of oil. High pressure underground is pushing wastewater into oil and gas basins as well as threatening drinking water aquifers. We’ve been taking our ability to obtain water and manage discharges for granted, just as we tend to take plumbing for granted except when it starts leaking or breaking down.  It appears that our neglect is beginning to catch up with us.

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Guess Who’s Coming For Dinner?

We need research to feed a larger population without plowing the whole planet.

Who’s coming for dinner? The answer, in case you’re wondering, is “two billion more people.”  That’s the population increase predicted for 2050.  How are we going to feed those people? One method is to cut down a lot of the world’s remaining forests and plow the world’s remaining grasslands. That’s a bad approach environmentally: it will …

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