Archive of entries posted by jfleck

Lund on a call for a new environmentalism

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Smart Jay Lund piece on the shortcomings of old-school environmentalism in the new world: Classical environmentalism is mostly about stopping new harmful human influences, not reversing the harmful effects of past changes or shaping a more environmentally friendly future. Environmentalism has not substantially reversed the widespread urban and agricultural destruction of wetlands or freed rivers …

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Cutting the Gordian knot of the Upper Colorado River Basin’s delivery obligations

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The folks at the University of Colorado’s Colorado River Governance Initiative have a clever idea to keep the Upper Basin states from getting screwed by climate change. Their new Upper Basin Voluntary Demand Cap white paper (pdf) offers a solution path for one of the stickiest problems in future Colorado Basin water management under climate change. In …

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Stuff I wrote elsewhere: in small-town drought, why the wells go dry

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We’ve seen a lot of news media attention in New Mexico’s drought of 2013 to the little village of Magdalena, where the wells earlier this month went dry. Small towns are especially vulnerable in drought. But as I dug into the data the last few weeks, I realized that journalistically swooping down on the town …

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The Great Mistake, 1928 edition

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With “Chasing Water” and “Moving Water” taken, the current working title for my Colorado River book-in-progress is “The Great Mistake.” It doesn’t have enough action verbiness for the final cut, but it seems to nicely frame one of my central themes – that the folks who built the elaborate plumbing system in the Colorado River …

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My own Salt Dream

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As we speak, there’s this screamin’ deal on ebay: This well known resort area is located in Southern California at the western end of Imperial County. Popular activities at the Salton Sea State Recreation Area include boating, water-skiing, fishing, jet-skiing, hiking, birdwatching, and sailboarding. It is estimated that over 1 million visitors spend time at …

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Scandalous Santa Fe Reporter cover

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This cover from the Santa Fe Reporter, New Mexico’s favorite alt-weekly, has created a bit of a ruckus: No, I’m not talking about the bikini-clad Lady of Gaudalupe. I’m talking about the saguaros, those two tall-armed cacti in the distance. This outrage must not stand. “New Mexico?” Chris Clarke wrote last year. “No tienen saguaros.” …

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An aqueduct to replenish the Ogallala?

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Wayne Bossert, who manages the Northwest Kansas Groundwater Management District No. 4, has a post up this morning about an idea being kicked around by his colleagues to the south to build an aqueduct to move Missouri River water westward to replenish supplies in depleted Ogallala-dependent communities: The proposal is to transfer high flows west …

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