Stories by Peter Gleick

Dr. Peter Gleick is president of the Pacific Institute, an internationally recognized water expert and a MacArthur Fellow. This post originally appeared in Gleick's City Brights blog at SFGate. subscribe to Peter Gleick's feed

Where Have All Our Drinking Water Fountains Gone? Find Them with 'WeTap'

Posted on: May 6, 2011, Source: Pacific Institute

It is time for a water fountain renaissance and new technology is available to help.

Peak Water: What Is it -- and Are We There Yet?

Posted on: Jan 27, 2011, Source: Pacific Institute

Increasingly, around the world, in the U.S., and locally, we are running up against peak water limits.

Unavoidable Climate Change: We've Passed the Point of No Return

Posted on: Nov 20, 2010, Source: AlterNet

How bad it gets depends on how much longer we fail to act and how much longer Congress and others hide behind ignorance, political ideology and religion to deny reality.

Sneaky Bottled Water Advertising

Posted on: Nov 10, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

One industry estimate says that bottled water advertising exceeded $150 million a year in 2005, and it has continued to grow substantially since then.

The Human Right to Water, at Last

Posted on: Nov 1, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

This is a first step, not a last step. Will finally acknowledging a human right to water and sanitation solve the world's water and sanitation problems?

Misusing California Water Numbers for Political Purposes: Jobs, Fish and Lies

Posted on: Oct 1, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

Central Valley Tea Partiers and right wing media are using a pack of lies to launch a full-scale assault on the environment of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Time for a Drinking Water Fountain Renaissance

Posted on: Sep 23, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

Wait a minute: free drinking water ISN'T available in all of our school cafeterias?? We have to pass a LAW requiring that free water be made available to children in lunchrooms?

Where California's Next One Million Acre-Feet of Water Should Come From

Posted on: Sep 10, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

We must do the most critical and effective things first, from a technical, political and economic perspective.

How Much Water Do You Use at Home? Here's a New Tool for Figuring Out Your Home Water and Energy Footprint

Posted on: Sep 2, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

How many of us really have a sense of what our water use is, or the energy and greenhouse gases embedded in that use?

'And During the Wet Years They Lost All Memory of the Dry Years': Time For a New Water Ethic

Posted on: Jul 15, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

We've acted as though there was no drought until it was too late and we failed to take steps to reduce our water use by serious efforts to improve efficiency and cut waste.

What Singapore Can Teach Us About Water Security

Posted on: Jun 10, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

What are the lessons for other parts of the world, including California?

Water and Misleading Advertising and Marketing -- Where are the FDA and FTC?

Posted on: Jun 3, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

Water bottlers are using all the tricks, despite federal laws that require them to use honest labels and restrict advertisers from making unsubstantiated health or medical claims.

Smart Water Meters, Dumb Meters, No Meters

Posted on: Apr 29, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

Every single water user — residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural — should have an accurate water meter.

Bottled and Sold: What's Really in Our Bottled Water

Posted on: Apr 22, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

What's been found in bottled water? Here's a few: benzene, mold, kerosene, styrene, algae, yeast, sand, fecal coliforms, glass particles, sanitizer and crickets.

Water and Energy -- Obey the Law on Cooling Systems

Posted on: Apr 13, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

Once-through cooling systems are an outmoded environmental disaster. So why are so many power plants still relying on them?

The Coming Crisis Over the Mekong: Unconstrained Development, Natural Droughts and Climate Change

Posted on: Apr 8, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

While the Middle East has the longest history of water-related violence by far, my biggest worries today are elsewhere: in Asia.

World Water Day 2010: A Trip Through One of the Worst Slums in the World

Posted on: Mar 22, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

I've seen some of the poorest parts of the world, but even for me, what I saw today was a shocking reminder of the wretched conditions that literally billions of people face.

The Best Argument Against Global Warming ... Oh Right, There Isn't One

Posted on: Mar 18, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

Deniers have never, ever produced an alternative scientific argument that comes close to explaining the evidence we see around the world that the climate is changing.

Water Scofflaws: Go Soak Your Heads (Under a Low-flow Showerhead)

Posted on: Mar 2, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

The DOE has announced that they intend to pursue enforcement actions against the manufacturers of water-using appliances that violate national water and energy savings laws.

Turf Wars

Posted on: Feb 23, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

Today, more than half of all urban water use in most western states goes to landscaping, and most of that goes to trying to maintain green turf.

The War on Tap: Stadium Where Cleveland Cavaliers Play Has Removed Water Fountains

Posted on: Feb 8, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

The only way for thirsty fans to get water now is to wait in line at the concessions counter for a free small cup or pay $4 for bottled water.

Where To Find 1 Million Acre-feet of Water for California

Posted on: Jan 29, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

A new report by the Pacific Institute points the way to how urban and agricultural users can save water.

Water For Haiti, Now

Posted on: Jan 14, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

In any disaster like this, after search, rescue, and immediate medical care, clean and safe water becomes a critical need.

Climate Change Is Heating Up Transboundary Conflicts Over Water

Posted on: Jan 12, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

New research from the Pacific Institute shows where climate change, water and international politics collide.

Our Tap Water Is Not As Safe as it Should Be -- But Don't Panic, Here's How We Can Fix It

Posted on: Jan 5, 2010, Source: Pacific Institute

The Safe Drinking Water Act regulates 91 chemicals. Yet there are tens of thousands of chemicals that can contaminate our waters and that haven't been assessed for their risks.

Stealing Water from the Future: California's Massive Groundwater Overdraft Newly Revealed

Posted on: Dec 18, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

California is heading for a catastrophe of huge proportions if the overdraft of groundwater continues at the same rate as the last few years.

What the Frack? Poisoning our Water in the Name of Energy Profits

Posted on: Dec 8, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

An estimated 77 billion barrels of contaminated water were generated worldwide in 2000 by oil and gas operations. In recent years this volume has increased.

The First Projections for Water in 2010 Are Out: Prepare Now for Another Dry Year

Posted on: Dec 3, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

California's water supply projections are grossly misunderstood by the media and the public and are misused by narrow water interests in the state.

Poseidon's Financial Shell Game: Why Is a Private Desalination Plant Asking for Public Money?

Posted on: Nov 19, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

After years of claiming that they needed no public support to build this plant, this claim has finally been proven false.

Is California's New Water Legislation Better Than Nothing?

Posted on: Nov 18, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

Despite the happy face being put on by some of the bill's supporters, including Governor Schwarzenegger, I doubt anyone is truly happy with the end result.

New Remarkable Numbers Released: Water Use in the US Has Dropped Per Person by 30 Percent Since 1975

Posted on: Nov 4, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

It is possible to improve the efficiency of water use and such improvements eliminate the need for expensive and environmentally damaging new supply.

Who Is Stealing California's Water?

Posted on: Nov 4, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

We must stop pretending that water is free and unlimited, available to anyone who can put a siphon in a river or drill another groundwater well.

Three Solutions to Our Water and Population Problems

Posted on: Oct 23, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

We must implement all three solutions in the right way to be effective.

We Must Stop Ignoring the Role of Population in Our Water Problems

Posted on: Oct 14, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

Addressing water problems comes down to three choices: increase the water supply, decrease the water demand per person, or change the number of people.

What Australia Can Teach Us About Water Efficiency

Posted on: Sep 28, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

Recently, Australia drastically reduced its per capita water usage. So what's the holdup stateside?

New McCarthyism: Fear of Science and the War on Rationality

Posted on: Sep 10, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

Parts of America are slipping back toward the Dark Ages, when fear of knowledge and science led to an impoverishment of civilization.

CA Tries to Spin Numbers for New Dam Project But it Will Be an Economic and Environmental Disaster

Posted on: Sep 9, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

The Bureau or Rec's new report actually shows the project is a bad idea, will create far fewer benefits than costs, and will be an ecological, recreational and economic failure.

Cooking the Numbers: The Misleading Use of Water Numbers

Posted on: Sep 4, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

There are people and groups who work to produce or disseminate bad numbers as a way of influencing policy decisions in their favor.

Peter Gleick: 'Drought Impacts on Unemployment Are Grossly Overstated'

Posted on: Aug 27, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

Exaggerating the role that water plays in unemployment will do little to improve farm jobs and much to hurt rational water policy in the region.

The U.S. Is Years Behind the Rest of the World on Water Issues

Posted on: Aug 20, 2009, Source: Pacific Institute

While remarkable and innovative efforts at sustainable water management are still being pursued here, these efforts are no longer either unusual or groundbreaking.

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