Water is synonymous with biological diversity. The UN’s International Day for Biological Diversity (IBD) is celebrated each year on May 22nd, it is designed to increase awareness of biodiversity issues. The theme for IBD 2013 was Water and Biodiversity and its goal was to raise awareness about the mutually reinforcing relationship between water security and biodiversity.
From its creation by the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly in 1993 until 2000, IBD was held on December 29 to celebrate the day the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) went into effect. The date was later changed to commemorate the adoption of the CBD on May 22, 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit.
Providing water access is a major challenge for sustainable development. Only a tiny amount of the water on our planet is easily available as freshwater and demand is increasingly outpacing supply. In the U.S., the issue of water scarcity is widespread with two-thirds of the country suffering from extreme drought last summer. The UN estimates that 1.2 billion people or almost one fifth of the world’s population live in areas of physical scarcity.
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After three years of ongoing research by an international team of scientists, a study commissioned by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme for a first-ever comprehensive 
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Driven forward by Obama Administration actions on energy policy, the US is finally beginning to try to tap into and harness the tremendous clean and renewable energy of its offshore ocean winds and waters in earnest. On January 3, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced it is seeking to determine whether or not there’s competitive interest in leasing an area offshore New York that the New York Power Authority (NYPA) has proposed as a site for an offshore wind power farm. The request also seeks to gather public comments on the proposed project’s environmental impacts and consequences and how the area is being used at present.
