Sam Spade's San Francisco

(Updated December 2010)

UN Water ( a program of the United Nations)

Water for Life (International decade for action, 2005-2015)

UNESCO Water (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
Water for People (Water For People helps people in developing countries improve quality of life by supporting the development of locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities, and hygiene education programs.)

UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (Almost fifty per cent of the developing world’s population – 2.5 billion people – lack improved sanitation facilities, and over 884 million people still use unsafe drinking water sources. Inadequate access to safe water and sanitation services, coupled with poor hygiene practices, kills and sickens thousands of children every day, and leads to impoverishment and diminished opportunities for thousands more.)

USGS: Water Science Resources for Schools (offers information on many aspects of water, along with pictures, data, maps, and an interactive center where you can give opinions and test your water knowledge.)

Water.org (The water and sanitation problem in the developing world is far too big for charity alone. We are driving the water sector for new solutions, new financing models, greater transparency, and real partnerships to create lasting change. Our vision: the day when everyone in the world can take a safe drink of water.)

Food and Water Watch (works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control.)

Elementary grade lesson plan: Earth's Water: a drop in your cup -- by the California Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (Students will learn that the Earth has a finite amount of fresh water, consider ways to conserve this resource, and brainstorm ideas to increase usage of untapped water resources in their local area.)

Science Today: the Future of our Oceans -- video by the California Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (Academy researchers and biologists discuss the possible future of the world’s oceans.)

Developing Solutions -- by California Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (Scientists are always coming up with high-tech ways to develop alternative energies or clean water. But often these solutions are cost prohibitive or impractical for many of us, especially those in developing nations. Scientists from two southern US universities have recently announced low-tech plant-based solutions to modern problems, hoping they’ll translate to the developing world.)

Center for Applied Biodiversity Informatics -- a project of the California Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (Human activities are changing the Earth faster than at any other time in the history of our species. Natural history museums play a critical role in understanding these changes. Their scientific collections serve as a record of life on Earth and provide a baseline against which we can measure change.

Discovering and documenting life on Earth requires gathering and managing large amounts of information. In the Center for Applied Biodiversity Informatics (CABI) we apply information technology to the full life-cycle of biodiversity information, from gathering data in the field and laboratories, through integration, interpretation, and dissemination. We are also conducting projects that integrate biodiversity data with spatial information about the Earth, such as climate and topography, to understand changing patterns of biodiversity. Our mapping and modeling projects contribute to some of the most exciting conservation initiatives of our time.)

Water for Food -- (More than 300 people from 13 countries participated in the 2010 international Water for Food Conference May 2-5 at the University of Nebraska)

Water and Food Security Country Profiles -- (The Water and Food Security Country Profiles provides focused and localized information on the state of water resources and food security globally in a country-specific format. The site harvests valuable information from FAO databases and information systems as well as those of its partners, to give users enriched results to enhance decision-making and promote advocacy in these areas.

FAO and its partners are concerned with the sustainable use and conservation of water in agriculture with a particular focus on water policy formulation and the promotion of irrigated agriculture and efficient water use. In addition, food security is a central FAO mandate aimed at helping those living in developing countries to improve their food security through rapid increases in food production and productivity, reducing year-to-year variability in food production on an economically and environmentally sustainable basis and improving people's access to food.

The interdependency of these two areas is evident. By combining them in this multi-stakeholder platform, the Water and Food Security Country Profiles strive to facilitate and catalyze innovative and effective use of the wealth of information currently available.)

Water and Sustainability -- The Pacific Institute (We envision a world where the basic needs of all people are met, where resources are managed sustainably and the natural world protected, and where conflicts over resources are resolved in a peaceful and democratic fashion.The Pacific Institute works to create a healthier planet and sustainable communities. We conduct interdisciplinary research and partner with stakeholders to produce solutions that advance environmental protection, economic development, and social equity—in California, nationally, and internationally.)

The Global Water Crisis  - USAID (The world faces an unprecedented crisis in water resources management, with profound implications for global food security, protection of human health, and maintenance of aquatic ecosystems. Water shortages threaten to reduce global food supply, while the world’s population grows by 80 million people each year. With current trends, by 2025, one-third of all humans will face severe and chronic water shortages. Industrialization, irrigated agriculture, massive urbanization, rising standards of living, and, of course, more people are pushing the demand for freshwater to new heights, undermining already fragile water security for many nations.)

San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (an entity within the California Environmental Protection Agency. The job of the five Regional Water Quality Control Boards is to balance all water needs of the State.)

Water: the Key to our Freedom or the Chains of our Enslavement (Our future as a society may not be very rosy. Indicators suggest the United States of America is on the same decline glide path as was the Roman Empire. In the new post-American-Empire world, the United States will be a major player, but more in the way that the UK, which was once arguably the world's greatest superpower, is still a major world player today. In this coming society the U.S. will be important, but not dominant.

Whomever owns water will be the world's dominant power. Water will be the key to our freedom or water will become the chains that enslave us. Here is the evidence and it demands a verdict. You be the judge.)

Water for People Water For People helps people in developing countries improve quality of life by supporting the development of locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities, and hygiene education programs. Our vision is a world where all people have access to safe drinking water and sanitation, a world where no one suffers or dies from a water- or sanitation-related disease.

GlobalWater.org (Global Water is an international, non-profit, humanitarian organization founded in 1982. Global Water is focused on creating safe water supplies, sanitation facilities and hygiene-related facilities for rural villagers in developing countries.)
 
The Water Project (builds and installs family water wells and sanitation equipment in developing countries free of charge to the recipients)

International Human Right to Water (a movement within the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. Supports civil and grassroots groups that oppose and battle water privatization.)

Climate and Water Justice (Fights for the rights of the public to retain or gain ownership and control of our water. A project of the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of California)

The Bay Institute (The Bay Institute is one of the leaders in protecting, restoring and inspiring conservation of the San Francisco Bay and its watershed -- from the Sierra to the sea. For nearly 30 years, the Bay Institute has been developing and leading model scientific research, education and advocacy programs to preserve California's most important natural resource.)

The Watershed Project (workshops, teaching and educational programs to explain that we all live in a watershed. All around us and underneath us water trickles and runs and flows on its journey to one of the world's greatest estuaries -- San Francisco Bay)

Save the Bay (Since 1961 this organization has been a pioneer in the water conservation and sustainability. Save The Bay was started nearly 50 years ago by three brave women who had an "impossible" idea – that people, working together, could prevent the Bay from being destroyed.