By Dr. Robert Thorson Earth’s most precious fluid is not gasoline, but the tiny fraction of Earth’s water that is neither frozen nor vaporized, low enough in salinity to be considered fresh and free enough of contaminants to be legally potable. By mid-century, its price will be on people’s minds the way liquid fuel is […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Living in a coastal region with beautiful hills and valleys, very few residents of southern New England focus their outdoor attention on lakes. But more attention is needed, if only because lakes are an important part of our national freshwater resource. A major boost to that crucial focus is being provided […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson I’m on a road trip, blogging my way from Maine to Montana in search of stories about Earth’s most precious fluid – fresh water. I stumbled across something so cool in Eaton, N.H., that I ditched my planned column about the new Connecticut Science Center. (I’ll get back to that one.) […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Is there a higher power? There is. I found it nearly everywhere west of the Adirondacks during my freshwater journey from Maine to Montana. The higher power I speak of is the iconic water tower of the Midwestern sky. It holds Earth’s most precious substance in its liquid phase. That’s what […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson. ‘Unquenchable” is the title of Robert Glennon’s scorching critique of U.S. historical water policy. The word also applies to the University of Connecticut’s seemingly unlimited thirst for water. To ensure the growth of its Technology Park, hedge against drought and deliver on its commitments, the university wants to build a pipeline […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Residents of the Lone Star State and federal taxpayers should think twice before rebuilding the hundreds of homes that were swept away several weeks ago by Hurricane Ike. I realize that Texas pride includes the Alamo where – though greatly overpowered – every man fought to the last. I hope that […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Boulder, Colorado. Both of these names derive from torrential river flows. So why the media hysteria about the floods there last month? The city of Boulder was named for Boulder Creek, which was named for the abundance of large boulders. How did they get there? By torrential stream flows giving rise […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Sometimes it’s the footnotes to a larger text that catch the most attention. So it was when I suggested in an offhand aside during a speech last month that we get rid of the word “watershed” — a word that’s been confusing environmental scientists for the last century. For at least […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson The Swedish Academy’s Announcement was stunning: “The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2016 is awarded to Bob Dylan ‘for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.’” I was delighted because the award was for his bardic poetry, rather than for his vocals, which sound like doggerel to […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Let Hurricane Sandy be our tipping point toward a better America. First, we’re all in this together. As the wind strengthened and the hurricane neared, the political negativity and hostility waned. There’s nothing like a common adversary to unite us, even a benign atmospheric one. It wasn’t just that Sandy wreaked […]