Subway Reefs: Bringing Coasts Back to Life

New rainwater harvesting system in rural India

via Make Magazine:

Dr. BP Agrawal has won the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability, and for good reason! He’s innovated a new rainwater harvesting system for communities in India:

Tapped

Get Off The Bottle

It’s world water week and so much is happening I hardly know what to focus on first, but I couldn’t resist the efforts of Tapped, the film, website and home of the off the bottle tour. Check out their info on the stew of plastic in the Pacific (and Atlantic it turns out now), water infrastructure, farming and much more.

Happy World Water Day

Today isn’t just about the history passage of the healthcare bill in the U.S., it’s also World Water Day. there are lots of ways to celebrate, but in particular, I feel strong about expensive bottled water and why it’s, well, evil.

Here’s a great video from the Story of Stuff People. Today, raise a glass of delicious, and perfectly safe tap water.

New Life Found In Oceans

some that feast on toxic gases.

new favourite: Neocyema

Most of the sea floor is mud, says Dr. Carney. But there is so much of it, with so many rare species of small clams, crustaceans and worms that it may have greater biodiversity than the tropics, he says.

Moving Stars and Earth for Water

The phenomenal poetic social mission created by Guy Laliberte encompassing a global water awareness happening took place last night and will be rebroadcast by NASA this weekend.

Here’s where and when:

NASA to Rebroadcast Global Event from the Space Station

WASHINGTON — NASA Television will rebroadcast the Oct. 9 global event International Space Station resident Guy Laliberte designed to raise awareness about the need for clean water. Laliberte, who founded Cirque du Soleil, hosts the event from aboard the station.

“Moving Stars and Earth for Water,” will take place in 14 cities across five continents between 9 and 11 p.m. EDT, and will be streamed live on the Web site of Laliberte’s ONE DROP foundation at:

http://www.onedrop.org

NASA Television will re-air the entire broadcast beginning Saturday, Oct. 10, at 1 p.m. with encore broadcasts Oct. 11 and 12. For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA signed a memorandum of understanding with Cirque du Soleil regarding the event, which will include video from aboard the space station and also discussion about water recycling aboard the station and about NASA technologies affecting everyday life. Event participants include former Vice President Al Gore, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette, actress Salma Hayek and singers Shakira and Bono.

Laliberte flew to the station for a nine-day stay under an agreement between the Russian Federal Space Agency and Space Adventures, Ltd. He and two station crewmates, Mike Barratt and Gennady Padalka, will return to Earth on Sunday, Oct. 11.

For more information about the space station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

Nevermind acid rain

Threats to corral and other oceanic wildlife have been documented already in various other sea-cologies and today an announcement came about the acidification of the Arctic ocean.  Give us about ten more years of business as usual carbon dumping and the acid levels of the Arctic will actually eat through the shells of mollusks and sea creatures who live in it.

Gibson, Acker, your mercury seas were not hallucinations after all.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/04/arctic-seas-turn-to-acid

Welcome to my little part of the ocean

This is where you can find all manner of things from and about the Freshwater Mermaid. There aren’t many corners or categories I easily fit into, instead I just flit between whichever ones I fancy at any given time. My good friend the Urban Ichthyosapien is far more in touch with her rage and articulate passion than I am, so it isn’t uncommon for me to turn to her for a point well made. Like my friend Julia, I’m in awe of great thinkers who aren’t afraid to turn their gooey brains to big, giant thoughts, thoughts so big the only way to think them is to make your own mind bigger.

I can’t offer a particular direction or theme for this underwater space nor can I predict at what rate it will expand. But it will be fun, at least for me.