Archive of entries posted by jfleck

Ban Ki-moon: water should be source of collaboration, not conflict

Posted by on

Water resources ‘a reason for cooperation, not conflict,’ Ban tells Security Council Noting that three quarters of UN Member States share rivers or lake basins with their neighbours, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today highlighted the value of water resources as a reason for cooperation, not conflict. “The need for coordination in water management is …

Continue reading ‘Ban Ki-moon: water should be source of collaboration, not conflict’ »

A return to flood irrigation in search of environmental benefits

Posted by on

I’ve praised the successful shift from flood irrigation toward more efficient technology – meaning things like center-pivot and drip over flood irrigation – that has enabled a downward trend in the amount of water applied to a typical irrigated acre of farmland in the United States. According to the USGS, US farmers decreased their average …

Continue reading ‘A return to flood irrigation in search of environmental benefits’ »

on apocalyptic environmental discourse

Posted by on

Clearly, the apocalyptic imaginary is unlikely to disappear from the popular global psyche any time soon. Despite this, we must resist catastrophic hyperbole, including the increasingly alarmist discourses adopted by climate scientists in recent years. With the shock election of serial climate change denier Donald Trump to the Oval Office, the need for an effective, …

Continue reading ‘on apocalyptic environmental discourse’ »

talking water cooperation this morning on Colorado Public Radio

Posted by on

I’ll be on Colorado Public Radio this morning (Mon. 11/21/16) sometime around 10:30 a.m. mountain time, talking about the importance of water conservation and collaboration. CPR’s Rachel Estabrook, who spent some time talking with me last week about my book, did a nice writeup ahead of the interview: To avoid federally mandated cutbacks, Arizona, Nevada …

Continue reading ‘talking water cooperation this morning on Colorado Public Radio’ »

& the West – new offering from Stanford’s Lane Center

Posted by on

Worth bookmarking: We want to be a place where research findings about geology or sociology blend with our journalism about the world of the West, to give a multi-dimensional picture of the region’s life and issues. We will also introduce, and constantly update, a library of links you can use to explore the subjects we …

Continue reading ‘& the West – new offering from Stanford’s Lane Center’ »

federal dam operations in a Trump administration

Posted by on

A new paper on federal dam operations by my University of New Mexico colleague Reed Benson seems suddenly timely. It’s an exhaustive review of the legal structures surrounding Bureau of Reclamation and Corps of Engineers dam operations, with an eye toward finding a path to more flexibility in response to changing climate, human values, and …

Continue reading ‘federal dam operations in a Trump administration’ »

NAFTA and the Colorado River

Posted by on

With campaign rhetoric suggesting the likelihood of a changing relationship with Mexico, it is worth asking how a Trump administration might influence ongoing binational collaborations on the Colorado River. The important caveat here is that, as one of my friends put it in the days after the election, we chose Door Number Two on Nov. …

Continue reading ‘NAFTA and the Colorado River’ »