Despite plenty of warnings, critics say, Georgia never got around to developing a water management plan to handle a severe drought. Now that reservoirs already are shrinking and water supplies are threatened, lawmakers are scrambling to cope. Complete Story...
It was billed as a rain festival to fight Georgia's drought, and even included a rain dance, but turnout was slim and precipitation was even scarcer than people.
Peeking out over the office buildings and utility poles in this Atlanta suburb, a towering gray drill bores down in search of what everyone in north Georgia seems to be seeking these days: Water.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne met with Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue on Friday with the aim of keeping a tri-state fight over waning water supplies amid a severe drought from spilling into court.
Gov. Sonny Perdue on Wednesday banned the washing of state vehicles and ordered inmates to take one quick shower a day as part of an effort to reduce water use in the drought-stricken state.
With water supplies rapidly shrinking during a drought of historic proportions, Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency Saturday for the northern third of Georgia and asked President Bush to declare it a major disaster area.
With the South in the grip of an epic drought and its largest city holding less than a 90-day supply of water, officials are scrambling to deal with the worst-case scenario: What if Atlanta's faucets really do go dry?
The Army Corps of Engineers sidestepped the governor's demand to stop draining reservoirs Wednesday, setting up a legal showdown between the federal government and state officials who blame the policy for intensifying a record drought.
If there's a ground zero for the epic drought that's tightening its grip on the South, it's once-mighty Lake Lanier, the Atlanta water source that's now a relative puddle surrounded by acres of dusty red clay.
Australian wheat farmers suffering under the worst drought in a century were preparing to reap their smallest harvest since the mid-1990s, a commodities forecaster said Friday.
Australia's worst drought in a century has affected more than half of Australia's farm and ranch land, making more than 70,000 farmers eligible for special federal relief, the government said Tuesday.
Farm-state senators are increasing their request for drought relief dollars by half, saying the nation's farmers now need an estimated $6 billion or more in assistance.
More than 60 percent of the United States now has abnormally dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to Arizona and across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin, said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
Potentially huge battles over water are looming in the Great Lakes region as cities, towns and states near and far fight for access to the world's largest body of fresh surface water, all of it residing in the five Great Lakes.
An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn't have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York's reservoirs have dropped to record lows.
Australia is locked in a drought of drastic proportions. In recent years, rivers have reached record lows. Temperatures have spiked to record highs. Cities are running out of water. Wildfires are burning. Ecosystems are suffering.
Georgia goes head to head with FLorida and Alabama over dwindling fresh water supplies
We compiled a comprehensive database of large wildfires in western United States forests since 1970 and compared it with hydroclimatic and land-surface data.
This Blogger is raising awareness of the plight of the Wood Stork which is being threatened by the US Fish and Wildlife Services attempt to remove it from the endangered species list, despite that its numbers are down this year due to severe drought conditions.
Images from NASA satellites illustrate how quickly wildfires have spread throughout Southern California. Powerful Santa Ana winds have fueled more than 10 large wildfires stretching from Santa Barbara to San Diego.
The worst drought in 100 years has decimated Australia's wheat harvest, reducing output by a quarter. Mark Hoskinson, the third generation in a farming family to work this land, hopes his son will be the fourth. But six consecutive years of drought may force a change of plans.
The catastrophic fires that are sweeping Southern California are consistent with what climate change models have been predicting for years, experts say, and they may be just a prelude to many more such events in the future -- as vegetation grows heavier than usual and then ignite …
Here's the thing about being overrun by fire: It is like being caught in a flash flood of flame.
Half a million Californians have been ordered to evacuate their homes and flee the spreading wildfires blazing across southern California Tuesday, US media reported.
The response to the worst drought on record in the Southeast has unfolded in ultra-slow motion.
For more than five months, the lake that provides drinking water to almost five million people here has been draining away in a withering drought. Sandy beaches have expanded into flats of orange mud. Tree stumps not seen in half a century have resurfaced.
Everything's on the line right now, and suddenly we're all neighbors sharing one big backyard called Earth. Who's watering the lawn?
The San Diego NBC station is streaming video of the fires down there.
Kids in Jefferson, Ga., are shutting the tap off as they brush their teeth. Adults are doing bigger, but fewer, laundry loads. And just about everybody is glancing nervously at the puddle passing for the town's reservoir.
The West is the fastest-growing part of the country. It's also the driest. And climate change could be making matters much, much worse.
Scott Pelley did a report last night on 60 Min. that had a very interesting quote at the end. It was made by the man who is : Tom Boatner, who after 30 years on the fire line, is now the chief of fire operations for the federal government.
60 Minutes joined up with Tom Boatner, who after 30 years on the fire line, is now the chief of fire operations for the federal government.
It was also wrong to assume, he said, that cities could continue to grow without experiencing something akin to a religious awakening about the scarcity of water. Soon, he predicted, we would talk about our "water footprint" just as we now talk about our carbon footprint.
Scientists sometimes refer to the effect a hotter world will have on this country's fresh water as the other water problem, because global warming more commonly evokes the specter of rising oceans submerging our great coastal cities.
DUE to the drought, the State Government has no choice but to urge households to limit their water use. But by doing so, it risks financial disaster after committing almost $5 billion to new water infrastructure
Scientists sometimes refer to the effect a hotter world will have on this country's fresh water as the other water problem, because global warming more commonly evokes the specter of rising oceans submerging our great coastal cities.
Scientists sometimes refer to the effect a hotter world will have on this country's fresh water as the other water problem, because global warming more commonly evokes the specter of rising oceans submerging our great coastal cities.
Alabama, Florida and Georgia lawmakers are upping the ante in a feud over water rights, a fight fueled by Atlanta's explosive growth and worries that drought-stricken regions of the Southeast are months away from running out of water.