Environment

U.N. creates first map of world's aquifers | UPI.com

For the first time, the world's freshwater aquifers will soon be charted on a map, the United Nations announced Wednesday in New York.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's map of the world's underground water resources will be submitted to the U.N. General Assembly last week.

The UNESCO map will identify 273 aquifers shared by at least two countries, using data compiled since 2000 by its international hydrological program. It will include information about water quality and rate of replenishment.

Sixty-eight of the aquifers are on the American continent, 38 in Africa, 65 in eastern Europe, 90 in western Europe and 12 in Asia.

By Dave Lindorff

It’s going to be interesting to see how much longer the vicious decades-long US embargo of Cuba lasts, whichever person wins the White House this November.

The main reason the US has stubbornly refused to trade with Cuba, and has used sanctions to bully other nations into refusing to trade with Cuba, while enthusiastically trading with and investing in China, Vietnam and other communist regimes, is that Cuba has had little to offer the US, either in terms of products or markets.

That’s all about to change dramatically, with word that the Communist island just 90 miles to the south of Florida may possess oil reserves equal to or greater than all the oil reserves left in the United States.

By Dave Lindorff

Okay, I was going to vote for Ralph Nader this November 4.

It was an easy decision. I live in Pennsylvania, which is now, according to all the polls, reliably in the Obama column, with the Democratic candidate holding an insurmountable lead in the polls of 14 percent over Republican John McCain—enough to overcome even the most devious Republican vote suppression techniques and voting machine chicanery.