Jennifer Veilleux
Dr. Jennifer Veilleux is a geographer, writer, and artist. For more than a decade, she has worked on scientific research and security issues facing water resources shared across political boundaries. Research and curiosity has taken her to more than 50 countries on 5 continents, often to remote locations and marginalized communities. Veilleux takes portraits of people she encounters in her field work and recently released a collection, Portraits from Rivers of Change, that can be viewed here: www.jenniferveilleux.com. These portraits highlight two separate communities, one on the Mekong River the other on the Blue Nile River, facing relocation due to dam development. Dr. Veilleux works for Florida International University as a post doctoral associate for the Institute of Water and Environment and manages SELVA, the Serengeti-Lake Victoria Sustainable Water Initiative, a research project on water security of the Mara River in the Upper Nile basin of Tanzania. She maintains a blog, The Way of Water, dedicated to news and commentary about development on the Nile and Mekong, general water resources issues, and special topics related to women in science. She lives in Miami with her cat Mr. FC Sweet Tea.
ever wonder how much carbon you produce?
I am so excited about this website: http://www.terrapass.com/ You can plug in information on your personal driving, flying, and household habits, numbers are calculated, and equivalent costs and information about how much carbon you have produced is given to you. Then you have the option to buy a TerraPass that…
Dumping once again
This morning I read this article about toxic sludge being dumped by a tanker in the ocean and washing up on the shores of the Ivory Coast. The kid in the picture above has sores on his body from exposure to this stuff. People have gotten ill from…
Sakhalin Island
Sometimes environmental victories come in unlikely packages. The Russian government announced this week that it is putting the nix on Shell Oil Company’s plans to pursue the “Sakhalin II” project, a project to extract, exploit, and transport fossil fuels through both on and offshore pipelines in a…
Backyard Miracles
The butterflies are migrating! I have noticed the delicate orange wonders flit joyfully through my neighborhood from one purple butterfly bush to the next for about 2 weeks now. They float along the sidewalks, the Potomac, and through our backyards. Today I counted about 13 of them float by my office window. The…
Fishtale
This week in DC, concern over a scientific study that found “intersex fish” in the Potomac resonated only briefly around my office and circle of friends. I have tried impress my concern upon them that we are, in fact, drinking Potomac River water here in DC (and in some of…
Global Warming Debate in Supreme Court
When I first read that the Supreme Court is debating global warming and whether the U.S. Government should have more stringent emissions regulations on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from automobiles, my heart skipped a beat. The Supreme Court is going to decide whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should treat…
Three Gorges Dam in Action
Within the last 24 hours, the final temporary retaining wall that held water intended for the Three Gorges Dam project was destroyed in order that the water may enter and discharge through the dam. Three Gorges Dam is on. This is the largest dam ever constructed in the world and is…
A Story No Less Important
All this talk about global warming and the current backlash from “anti-environmentalists” reminds me of something I experienced only months ago. Photo of Dr. Jim Hanson courtesy of the New York Times I attended conference at the New School in January 2006 entitled “Politics & Science” and the place was…
Women in Science Site
This month the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation in partnership with L’Oreal created and launched a website that serves as a platform for discussion about women in science. This website is a new piece of the ongoing Women in Science program sponsored by UNESCO and the French cosmetics…
Solar technology is lookin’ good…
Many people think solar panels are ugly and that they are an eyesore on the roof of otherwise attractive homes. Some more rigid housing communities have gone so far as to ban them because of this bias. But most of us are familiar with the story about the ugly duckling.…
