If You Want to Know How to Maximize Your Water, Ask the Israelis
Bloomberg has an interesting story about the business of squeezing the most out of that last drop of water. Talk about having skin in the arid land survival game! Today, some 300 Israeli companies make equipment to deliver water or purify it with lasers or diffusion, putting them in a position to profit as climate [...]
Coal-to-liquids
One of my crude measures of the long range energy picture has always been coal-to-liquids. At some price (the usual number I hear is somewhere at or above $60 or $70 a barrel) it becomes economical to make liquid fuels out of coal. Given Appell’s Theorem, it has seemed inevitable to me that, regardless of [...]
Climate Change and Forecast Skill
I’ve made a healthy journalistic living off of the Climate Prediction Center’s long-lead forecasts, seasonal prognostications about whether we can expect things to be wetter or drier next winter. It got so bad for a while that my sister started calling me Niña-boy. The thing is, people want to know what to expect. Regular people [...]
This was me once
I’m in recovery.
Pumping the Colorado
One of the quirks of western water law is the variety of ways the different states treat groundwater. In New Mexico, for example, the law recognizes that groundwater and surface water are inextricably linked. This is merely a recognition of hydrological reality. Pump groundwater, and eventually surface water soaks down to replace it, depleting a [...]
stuff I wrote elsewhere
The science communication minefield. (And a shout out to Dot Earth readers who somehow found their way here on this fine summer afternoon – it’s nice out today! Quit the keyboard and go out and play!)
Eschew the Drive-through
Al Zelicoff’s energy tip of the week almost sounds like a no-brainer: skip the drive-through window. But it’s amazing how many of these really are no-brainers. The question: how to get them in people’s brains?
Energy Quote of the Week
I’m more interested right now in the correct questions than the clear answers: Is the price of oil today too high given the fundamentals? Could be. Is it too low? Could be. But one thing I’m sure that’s too high is the confidence on the part of those who insist they know the answer. James [...]
Evidence That My Boss Cares
I recently complained to my boss about the plastic forks he keeps in his desk drawer. I regularly steal them when I forget cutlery for my microwave lunches. But Charlie was getting those really crappy, flimsy forks. Totally unacceptable for eating microwave lunches. Yesterday, I noticed that he had gotten some of those beefy, sturdy [...]
Meat Demand Waning
As prices rise, the demand for meat in Korea is dropping, according to Bloomberg: “Korea’s corn demand cannot help but fall down the road because feed demand is falling,” said Nicholas Chung, senior manager of the commodity derivatives team at Korea Development Bank. “Cheaper imported beef is coming into the market and overall meat consumption [...]
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