Op-Eds and Essays
Will We Have to Pump the Great Lakes to California to Feed the Nation? New York Times, August 5, 2024
Why California Will Still Have a Water Shortage No Matter How Much It Rains This Year, Los Angeles Times, March 23, 2023
From Droughts to Floods, Water Risk is an Urgent Business Issue, with J. I. Gallindo and N. Wertheimer, Harvard Business Review, November 9, 2022
A Map of the Future of Water, Pew Trusts Trend Magazine, Spring 2019
From the Spring 2019 ‘The Future of Water” issue of the Pew Charitable Trusts annual Trend Magazine,
Earth’s Dismal Water Future, Mapped. Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2018.
California Will be Short of Water Forever, with Michelle Miro, Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2017
Is the California Drought America’s Water Wake-Up Call?, Los Angeles Times, April 17, 2016
Water Crisis Calls for Immediate Action, The Desert Sun, March 17, 2016
Food Industry Needs to Step Up on Responsible Groundwater Use, San Francisco Chronicle, with Mindy Lubber, August 24, 2015
Up a Dry Creek, Los Angeles Times, March 13, 2015
How Much Water Does California Have Left?, Los Angeles Times, July 9, 2014
California’s Water House of Cards, Los Angeles Times, with Sasha Richey, September 23, 2013
Articles
Groundwater Depletion Accelerating in California’s Central Valley, Liu et al., Nature Communications, 2022
The Hidden Crisis Beneath Out Feet, Famiglietti and Ferguson, Science, 2021
Emerging Trends in Global Freshwater Availability, Rodell et al., Nature, 2018
Wet Land Areas Getting Wetter, Dry Land Areas Getting Drier, Reager et al., Science, 2016
Global Groundwater Stress and Uncertainty, Richey et al., Water Resources Research, 2015
The Global Groundwater Crisis, Famiglietti, Nature Climate Change, 2014
Colorado River Basin Water Security, Castle et al., Geophysical Research Letters, 2014
Water in the Balance, Famiglietti and Rodell, Science, 2013
Middle East, Tigris-Euphrates Groundwater paper, Voss et al., Water Resources Research, 2013
Central Valley Groundwater Depletion, Famiglietti et al, GRL, 2011
Satellite-based Estimates of Groundwater Depletion in India, Rodell et al., Nature, 2009
Reports
Global Assessment of Private Sector Impacts on Water, led by my USask team in partnership with Ceres, the sustainability non-profit. Released April, 2022.
Blog Posts
What Happens to Food Production in the US if We Don’t Protect Our Groundwater? Linkedin post, August 5, 2024
The Colossal ClusterF#*% of Investor Exploitation of California Groundwater, Linkedin post, April 11, 2023
Why Mitigating Water Risk Makes Sound Business Sense, with J. I. S. Gallindo, Water Technology, September 6, 2022
Water Shortages Must be Placed on the Climate Change Agenda, with J. I. Gallindo, World Economic Forum, August 24, 2022
Water is the New Carbon, Circle of Blue, April 7, 2022
Your Move California, Years of Living Dangerously, November 9, 2016
How the West was Lost,National Geographic Water Currents, July 24, 2014
Coping with California’s Water Future will Require a Sea Change in Perspective, Huffington Post, April 7, 2014
Just How Bad is California’s Epic Drought?, Take Part, February 22, 2014
Epic California Drought and Groundwater: Where Do We Go From Here, National Geographic Water Currents, February 4, 2014
Water and the Roots of Violent Conflict in Syria, Huffington Post, September 7, 2013
Water in a Changing Climate: Challenges, the New Blue Economy, and the Role of Modern Business, Huffington Post, July 12, 2013
Can We End the Global Water Crisis?, National Geographic Water Currents, June 10, 2013
Weighty Water Matters in the Middle East, National Geographic Water Currents, February 22, 2013
Wanted: Vision and Leadership to Ensure a Sustainable Water Future for America, National Geographic Water Currents, July 2, 2012
Spin Cycle: Will Changing Global Hydrology Throw the Geopolitical Machine Off-Balance? Water 50/50, November 22, 2011
Image and Cover Gallery
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- Parched California Misses a Chance to Store More Rain Underground https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/21/climate/california-storms-groundwater-aquifer-recharge.html. NY Times version of a key graphic from our 2022 paper on the acceleration of groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35582-x
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- https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2022-12-22/ groundwater-depletion-is-accelerating-in-the-central-valley. LA TImes version of a key graphic from our 2022 paper on the acceleration of groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35582-x
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- https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2022-12-22/groundwater-depletion-is-accelerating-in-the-central-valley. LA TImes version of a key graphic from our 2022 paper on the acceleration of groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35582-x
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- Ian James LA TImes cover story https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2022-12-22/groundwater-depletion-is-accelerating-in-the-central-valley on our 2022 paper on the acceleration of groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35582-x
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- Science cover in support of Scott Jasechko and Deb Perrone’s “Global Groundwater Wells at Risk of Running Dry” article and our invited Perspectives “The Hidden Crisis Beneath Our Feet.” Science, April 23, 2021
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- Watching groundwater depletion from the sky Changes in total water storage are shown for regions within several mid-latitude aquifer systems from the NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and follow-on (GRACE-FO) satellite missions. Vertical dashed lines indicate the data gap between the GRACE and GRACE-FO missions. Monthly storage changes are reported as anomalies for the period from March 2002 to June 2020 with 24-month smoothing. Famiglietti and Ferguson, Science, 2021. GRAPHIC: DAVID FERRIS, UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN, ADAPTED BY N. DESAI/SCIENCE
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- Emerging trends in global freshwater availability from GRACE (2002-2016), Rodell et al, 2018, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0123-1
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- Accumulated change in water storage from the NASA GRACE mission, 2002-2015. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Calfiornia Institute of Technology
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- Princeton Alumni Weekly cover from March 16, 2016, photo in the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena by Steve Anderson
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- Washington Post front page story on Richey et al., 2015, Quantifying renewable groundwater stress with GRACE http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015WR017349/abstract
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- Trends in groundwater storage in the world’s 37 largest aquifers. Over half are past sustainability tipping points, meaning that more groundwater is extracted than is replenished on an annual basis. From Richey et al., 2015, Quantifying renewable groundwater stress with GRACE http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015WR017349/abstract
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- Water storage declines (mm equivalent water height) in several of the world’s major aquifers in Earth’s arid and semi-arid mid-latitudes, derived from the NASA GRACE satellite mission. The monthly storage changes are shown as anomalies for the period April 2002–May 2013, with 24-month smoothing. Image from J. S. Famiglietti, The Global Groundwater Crisis, Nature Climate Change, November, 2014
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- Fig. 2 (from Reager et al., 2016, Science) Storage trends partitioned into hydrologic gains and losses. (Left) As in Fig. 1, but separated by negative (top) and positive (bottom) land water storage trends. (Middle) The zonal average of the negative (top) and positive (bottom) trend map (gigatons per year per 1/2-degree grid). (Right) GRACE land water storage time series averaged for the negative (top) and positive (bottom) land water storage trend map (climatology removed). Estimated glacier trends are shown in the supplementary materials (44).
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- Science Magazine cover from September 26, 2014. Image after the ‘Water in the Balance’ paper by Famiglietti and Rodell, 2013.
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- NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission is providing new, space-based insights into the global nature of groundwater depletion. The ongoing California drought is evident in these maps of dry season (September–November) total water storage anomalies (in mm equivalent water height; anomalies with respect to 2005–2010) in the western United States. Image from J. S. Famiglietti, The Global Groundwater Crisis, Nature Climate Change, November,, 2014
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- Changes in total freshwater storage from the NASA GRACE mission, after “Water in the Balance,” Famiglietti and Rodell, Science, 2013.Overlay of county-level water use data from USGS. Composite figure from Climate.gov, October 15, 2014
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- Changes in total freshwater storage from the NASA GRACE mission. From “Water in the Balance,” Famiglietti and Rodell, Science, 2013.
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- Central Valley Irrigation Strengthens Southwestern U. S. Monsoon, Lo and Famiglietti, GRL, 2013
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- Satellite-based estimates of groundwater depletion in India, Rodell et al, 2009
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- Middle East, Tigris-Euphrates Groundwater paper, Voss et al., WRR, 2013
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- Central Valley Groundwater Depletion, Famiglietti et al, GRL, 2011
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- OC Weekly 11/13/14 cover in support of Matt Coker’s ‘An Inconvenient Thirst’
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- Over the years, the GRACE satellites have recorded massive water loss from aquifers around the world, as great as 4 cm per year (equivalent water depth) in some regions. From the papers by Famiglietti et al (2011), Voss et al (2013), and Rodell et al (2009)
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- Changes in total water storage in California from GRACE. Image appeared on NBC Nightly News (October 3, 2014)and in the Los Angeles Times (Oct 4, 2014).
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- Felicity Barringer’s feature story from May 31, 2011, on the front page of the Science Times.
Jay Famiglietti 
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