Climate

A handshake and the Colorado River.
Climate

The New Colorado River Proposal Buys Valuable Time

An interview with Dave White, a water expert at Arizona State University, about what a breakthrough along the Colorado River really means

Climate

The Forgotten Scientists of the Grand Canyon

An interview with science writer Melissa L. Sevigny about Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon

Green
Technology

Don’t Be Too Chill About Your Air Conditioning Dependency

People without air conditioning fare better during blackouts. Here’s why.

A man with an air conditioner as a head.
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images</p>

I am, in the summer, the human equivalent of a slightly overcooked noodle.

This is especially true in a coastal city like Washington, D.C., where I live. The heat and humidity seep into my bones and I attain a semi-liquid state in which, despite my enthusiasm for hiking and kayaking and swimming and all those other good summer activities, I find myself craving exactly one thing every time I go outside: Air conditioning.

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Technology

So, How Do You Actually Refill an Aquifer?

Inside California’s audacious plan to stash more than a trillion gallons of water underground

A sign for California's Central Valley.
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images</p>

The world is slowly but surely running out of groundwater. A resource that for centuries has seemed unending is being lapped up faster than nature can replenish it.

“Globally speaking, there’s a groundwater crisis,” said Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment. “We have treated groundwater as a free and limitless source of water in effect, even as we have learned that it’s not that.”

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