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The drought-stricken city, located about 170 miles north of San Francisco, recently declared a "stage 3" water emergency, which makes it mandatory for businesses and residents to reduce water usage.

While national leaders spout optimistic platitudes celebrating the great achievement of the globally unifying Paris Agreement on climate, environmentalists note that there is little in the way of substantial action plans behind the many promises made last December. Meanwhile, the most intense El Niño in history is leaving in its wake a world gripped by 7 months of record high temperatures; drought, water shortages, and famine (especially in India and Africa); wildfires (Fort McMurray, Canada); record coral bleaching; and a fast shrinking Arctic ice cap that set stunning early melt records this winter and spring.

The report ranks 171 nations in terms of their risk. It has two components: the exposure they face from extreme events like typhoons, drought and earthquakes, and their ability to deal with those catastrophes, or their vulnerability. Sea-level rise is a key driver of the assessment. Many of the top 10 nations facing high risks are located along coastlines.

Mattel recently became a California water agency's newest recycled water customer, which will save about 2 million gallons of drinking water per year in the drought-stricken state.

A giant solar receiver in California's agricultural region may offer some hope for farmers who have been denied water in a record-setting drought. Conservation policies to protect endangered fish species have have contributed as well.

Climate change could force Chipotle to temporarily stop serving guacamole, the fast-food chain warned in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The notification, which Chipotle described as a "routine financial disclosure," notes that climate-induced freezes and droughts can take a severe toll on food-based supply chains, leading to price spikes and product shortages

Genetically modified crops - that can feed 9 billion by 2050 and tolerate heat, drought and disease - are the future of sustainable agriculture, writes David Rotman, editor of MIT Technology Review.

The cost of doing business in California has risen for builders who, in the face of the severe drought, now need to find grey water to keep the dust down. In addition, many are building xeriscaping into home design to reduce water use. "We're addressing a social need -- that we have to find ways to live with less water," said Barry Grant, Northern California division president for Meritage Homes. American City Business Journals/Sacramento, Calif. (5/7) 

In other efforts to improve hospitals' efficiency, Michigan-based Spectrum Health saved $692,000 through Green the OR, a Practice Greenhealth initiative that focuses on reducing cost, waste and exposure to hazardous chemicals in the operating room.

With December 2013 ending without rainfall, California's driest year on record is hurting crops and cattle and will likely cause more water rationing in 2014.

But this success story has been underscored by a tense struggle over water, which Dow needs to keep production afloat, and which is in short supply in Texas amid the state's debilitating drought and its water users' increasing thirst. When Dow Chemical, one of the largest manufacturers of chemicals and plastics in the world, announced a multibillion-dollar expansion on Texas' Gulf Coast last summer, Gov. Rick Perry had yet another example to add to his list of explosive economic growth on Texas soil.

This year's World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report lists water as the number one risk in terms of impact. The impact of water can already be seen and felt across different parts of society, especially recent droughts in the western United States and Brazil, which have made international headlines, and are evidence of an underlying problem.

This time of year always brings wildfires. But what's unusual this fires season is where and how the blazes are burning-and it could be a warning sign of what's to come. Hotter-than-normal temperatures and drought across much of northern Europe and North America in June and July have resulted in wildfires burning in what are typically wetter, cooler regions.

the town of Corpus Christi, Texas, may be implementing what it believes will be a solution: offering large-scale industrial companies a $0.25 drought surcharge exemption fee.

Global warming will have a variety of effects on our planet, yet it may also directly impact our human biology, research suggests. Specifically, climate change could alter the proportion of male and female newborns, with more boys born in places where temperatures rise and fewer boys born in places with other environmental changes, such as drought or wildfire caused by global warming.

After years of unrelenting drought, federal forecasters reported there are better-than-even odds that the nation's largest reservoir will decline into shortage conditions by 2020, forcing Arizona, Nevada and Mexico to reduce their Colorado River water use.

Water supply, infrastructure, Ocean acidification and dought

Vegas still prides itself on selling unfettered indulgence. Round-the-clock gambling, high-end nightclubs and decadent restaurants are not going away. Yet the opening of the Strip's first green space last month is further evidence that, regarding its relationship to the environment, Sin City is turning a new leaf. Featuring native Southwestern plants, recycled metal furniture and fountains built with locally sourced quartz, The Park, as it's called, is designed to create a sustainable microcosm of the surrounding desert landscape and provide a leafy path away from the Strip's tourist-choked sidewalks. It's a bold move away from fabulist themes that ignore the local ecosystem.

Cape Town, the crown jewel of South Africa's tourism industry, has 100 days before it runs out of water.

Boston-based startup Cambrian Innovation has come up with water-cleaning technology that uses microbes to turn dirty water into clean energy. Cambrian has federal and private equity funding, including $365,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency. "It's where we will go in the future, where waste is a resource and we don't just want to get rid of it, we want to get energy out of it," said April Richards of the EPA's small-business innovation-research program