Actual or Virtual Water?
The wonks call it “virtual water” – the water consumed elsewhere that is embodied in an imported product. When I grow a tomato in my yard, it’s a bit hard to sort out, molecule by molecule, where the water comes from. Right now, about three quarters of the molecules come from mined groundwater, and one [...]
On Groundwater Management
New Mexico water law is a tangle in many ways, not least of which is our inability to adjudicate water rights and therefore implement priority calls to restrict usage when there is not enough water to go around. But in one area, we’re ahead of a number of other western states: the regulation of groundwater. [...]
Wait. I thought brown lawns were the whole point.
From the LA Times: A member of the Los Angeles City Council called for changes to the city’s outdoor watering restrictions today, saying the drought rules are causing residents to kill their lawns and trees. (h/t LPAwater)
Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: The Puzzling Politics of Air Capture
I’ve wanted to write about Klaus Lackner’s air capture ideas for a long time. They originated in his work at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the ’90s, and I met him and talked about the work at the time. But I didn’t really get it, and never wrote about it. In recent years I’ve been [...]
Water and Energy on the Colorado River
David O. Williams highlights what’s likely to be one of the central struggles in managing our twin energy and water problems – the water needed if oil shale is going to be tapped to head off peak oil. Peak water, in other words, collides with peak oil: But numerous studies have indicated full-scale commercial oil [...]
What Were They Thinking in the ’70s Again?
Peter Sinclair looks at the global cooling myth with some great old footage:
Science Communication: Understanding Audience
One of the most difficult parts of science communication is understanding what your audience knows and doesn’t know going in. Mark Justice Hinton recently steered me to a great blog that solves that problem with extraordinary grace. It’s Gambler’s House, a blog about Chaco Canyon, written by Teofilo, a seasonal employee at the park. Teofilo [...]
A Couple of Bits I Wrote Elsewhere
Friday bird blogging: in which I visit the sewage treatment plant and see nature. (Trying to lighten up the wonkery at the work blog.) Albuquerque’s water future: in which I invoke Zetland’s argument regarding the western approach to water planning, as it applies to Albuquerque’s mayoral politics.
New Mexico Gasoline Consumption Down
I haven’t had enough brainshare lately to track energy issues the way I was last spring and summer when thinking about $4 gasoline was such a teachable moment, but on popping in over at the EIA this evening, I note that we New Mexicans are continuing our frugal ways: By my quick calculation, consumption in [...]
Disjointed Water Management
Kelly Zito has an intriguing look at California water managemente in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, looking at the incredibly disjointed way urban-suburban Northern California’s system is managed as compared to the relatively centralized role of the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California: Ana Sarver jogs 5 miles along the Contra Costa Canal every day. But [...]
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