Local governments in Nevada are seeking a permit from the Department of the Interior to kill endangered species so they can “develop” 200,000 acres of desert habitat.

Nevada’s Clark County and the cities of Boulder City, Henderson, Las Vegas, Mesquite, and North Las Vegas were authorized in 2001 to destroy 145,000 acres of fragile desert habitat. That is, they have permission to “take” 78 species of animals and plants - including the threatened desert tortoise - in order to further develop the overbuilt Nevada desert.

But they want more.

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Sunday March 22, 2009 is World Water Day. With the world water crisis representing one of the most significant public health issues facing the world today, we need to find ways to conserve this precious resource now more than ever.

The UN expects that 3.4 billion people will be living in countries defined as water-scarce by 2025. When water is scarce, people are forced to consume contaminated water.

Here are ten simple things you can do to cut down on your water consumption today:

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Diamond mining has nearly destroyed many African nations. In Sierra Leone, for instance, diamonds are what fueled an 11-year civil war, which killed or injured nearly 100,000 people and displaced millions. The conflict was popularized in the Oscar-nominated blockbuster film, Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCapprio.

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In Melbourne, rail lines buckled in the heat as trains were canceled citywide, while in Adelaide free water bottles were being handed out to help keep parched travelers hydrated while they waited out major transportation delays. Over 140,000 homes were left without electricity as the electric grid strained to keep air conditioners running.

Even the Australian Open tennis tournament had to suspend its outdoor games due to the sweltering conditions. Novak Djokovic, the Open’s defending champion, dramatically pulled out of his quarter-final match against Andy Roddick because of the heat.

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“Water is the new carbon,” said Gil Friend, President and CEO of Natural Logic, during his moderation of a session on “The Outlook for Water Supply Shortages.”

The conference, held December 2 and 3 and organized by Green Power Conferences, engaged corporations to discuss how to become more proactively involved in the water management of their facilities. Companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo International, Nestle Waters, MillerCoors, and Cadbury were represented. Professors, water experts and consultants from a variety of firms, including Business for Social Responsibility and Natural Logic, also participated in panels.

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As the world continues to be shaken up by horror stories on Wall Street, it might be worth taking a few steps back to consider your immediate quality of life.

SustainLane, a San Francisco based green media company has just announced its brand new U.S. city rankings today. Starting in 2005, SustainLane went through an exorbitant examination of sustainability initiatives in U.S. cities looking at a variety of factors: average traffic commutes, affordable housing, waste diversion, green space, energy usage, green buildings, natural disaster risk, air quality, water quality, public transportation, local food sources, and government innovations. James Elsen, the founder of SustainLane explains it in his article What’s A Sustainable City, Anyway ?

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From  Green Options’ sustainablog

In SustainLane’s first city ranking, released in spring 2005, Portland came out on top, with San Francisco and Seattle not far behind. In the words of James Elsen, West Coast cities and “blue” cities (New York, Chicago, Boston) turned out to be way ahead in the green game than “red” ones. The latest city rankings report benchmarks each city’s performance in 16 areas of urban sustainability, including an essential new measurement this year: Water Supply.

>> Read the rest of this post at sustainablog 

A fleet of scientists, business leaders, and policy makers have convened at the 2008 World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden for the past week to exchange views on the world water crisis and promote initiatives to build a clean and healthy world.

Organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the conference this year focuses on sanitation and hygiene issues related to water, which compliments the United Nations’ 2008 International Year of Sanitation theme.

“Sanitation is one of the biggest scandals of all times,” Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who heads the UN Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, was quoted in an article by news agency Agence France-Presse. “It’s something that we have to put on our radar screen. Some 7,500 people die every day due to this lack of sanitation,” he added.

According to the UN, 2.6 billion people around the world lack access to adequate sanitation, while half the world’s population lacks access to clean water. Consequently, citizens in underdeveloped countries experience premature deaths, illness, a degradation of living quarters and damage to the environment and local economies at alarming rates. Combined with the effects of global warming and the world water crisis, this creates cause for alarm.

A goal of World Water Week is to encourage the 2,500 international conference attendees to strategize ways to advance best practices, scientific understanding, and policy making processes related to water, health, poverty, and the environment.

Using preventive medicine, building sustainable cities, changing human behaviors, and comprehending sanitation’s link to global warming are other items highlighted during the week.

Another honorable mention for WWW is its commitment to arranging an environmentally responsible conference; using less bottled water, promoting carbon off-setting, recycling, providing organic and fair trade food, and supporting eco-hotels are all part of the conference’s plan to bring the issues home.

More information on conference topics:
WWW press releases

Photo: Stockholm International Water Institute