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Water resources
Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful to humans. It is important because it is needed for life to exist. Many uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. Virtually all of these human uses require fresh water. Only 2.5% of water on the Earth is fresh water, and over two thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. Water demand already exceeds supply in many parts of the world, and many more areas are expected to experience this imbalance in the near future. It is estimated that 70% of world-wide water use is for irrigation in agriculture. Climate change will have significant impacts on water resources around the world because of the close connections between the climate and hydrologic cycle. Due to the expanding human population competition for water is growing such that many of the worlds major aquifers are becoming depleted. Many pollutants threaten water supplies, but the most widespread, especially in underdeveloped countries, is the discharge of raw sewage into natural waters.
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Earth & Climate News
December 19, 2025
Dec. 19, 2025 New research reveals when glaciers around the world will vanish and why every fraction of a degree of warming could decide their ...
Dec. 18, 2025 Much of the western U.S. is overdue for wildfire, with decades of suppression allowing fuel to build up across millions of hectares. Researchers estimate that 74% of the region is in a fire deficit, meaning far more land needs to burn to restore ...
Dec. 15, 2025 Around 1,000 years ago, a major climate shift reshaped rainfall across the South Pacific, making western islands like Samoa and Tonga drier while eastern islands such as Tahiti became increasingly ...
Dec. 13, 2025 Researchers analyzing ancient fossils from caves across Western Australia have uncovered a completely new species of bettong along with two new woylie subspecies—remarkable finds made bittersweet by signs that some may already be ...
Dec. 12, 2025 New research shows that crops are far more vulnerable when too much rainfall originates from land rather than the ocean. Land-sourced moisture leads to weaker, less reliable rainfall, heightening drought risk. The U.S. Midwest and East Africa are ...
Dec. 12, 2025 A sudden, unexplained mass die-off is decimating sea urchins around the world, including catastrophic losses in the Canary Islands. Key reef-grazing species are reaching historic lows, and their ability to reproduce has nearly halted in some ...
Dec. 12, 2025 Fossils from Qatar have revealed a small, newly identified sea cow species that lived in the Arabian Gulf more than 20 million years ago. The site contains the densest known collection of fossil sea cow bones, showing that these animals once thrived ...
Dec. 11, 2025 Researchers found that eroded lava rubble beneath the South Atlantic can trap enormous amounts of CO2 for tens of millions of years. These porous breccia deposits store far more carbon than previously sampled ocean crust. The discovery reshapes how ...
Dec. 11, 2025 Scientists tracking young Arizona Bald Eagles found that many migrate north during summer and fall, bucking the traditional southbound pattern of most birds. Their routes rely heavily on historic stopover lakes and rivers, and often extend deep into ...
Dec. 10, 2025 Researchers have uncovered surprising evidence that the deep ocean’s carbon-fixing engine works very differently than long assumed. While ammonia-oxidizing archaea were thought to dominate carbon fixation in the sunless depths, experiments show ...
Dec. 10, 2025 Researchers discovered that unusually high temperatures can hinder early childhood development. Children living in hotter conditions were less likely to reach key learning milestones, especially in reading and basic math skills. Those facing ...
Dec. 9, 2025 Scientists discovered a small protein region that determines whether plants reject or welcome nitrogen-fixing bacteria. By tweaking only two amino acids, they converted a defensive receptor into one that supports symbiosis. Early success in barley ...
Latest Headlines
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Dec. 19, 2025 Cosmic “touchdown airbursts” — explosions of comets or asteroids above Earth’s surface — may be far more common and destructive than previously thought, according to new research. Unlike ...
Dec. 16, 2025 A rare, ultra-long earthquake in Myanmar revealed that mature faults can deliver their full force directly to the surface. The discovery could mean stronger shaking near faults like California’s ...
Dec. 10, 2025 New research reveals that Earth’s solid inner core is actually in a superionic state, where carbon atoms flow freely through a solid iron lattice. This unusual behavior makes the core soft, ...
Dec. 8, 2025 A newly analyzed set of climate data points to a major volcanic eruption that may have played a key role in the Black Death’s arrival. Cooling and crop failures across Europe pushed Italian states ...
Dec. 7, 2025 A century-old North Atlantic cold patch is now linked to a long-term slowdown in the AMOC, the climate-regulating conveyor belt of ocean water. Only weakened-AMOC models match observed temperature ...
Dec. 7, 2025 A new radiocarbon study has clarified the timing of the colossal Thera eruption, placing it before Egypt’s New Kingdom. Researchers analyzed artifacts tied to Pharaoh Ahmose, gaining rare access to ...
Dec. 6, 2025 Scientists have discovered that complex life began evolving much earlier than traditional models suggested. Using an expanded molecular clock approach, the team showed that crucial cellular features ...
Dec. 4, 2025 Fresh evidence suggests early Earth wasn’t locked under a rigid stagnant lid but was already experiencing intense subduction. Ancient melt inclusions and advanced simulations point to continents ...
Dec. 4, 2025 This year’s ozone hole over Antarctica ranked among the smallest since the early 1990s, reflecting steady progress from decades of global action under the Montreal Protocol. Declining chlorine ...
Dec. 3, 2025 Researchers recreated conditions from billions of years ago and found that Earth’s young atmosphere could make key molecules linked to life. These sulfur-rich compounds, including certain amino ...