Deserts
I’ve always been attracted to the desert’s relative simplicity.
Archive of entries posted by jfleck
Stuff I wrote elsewhere: on the implications of a low snowpack on the Colorado
Over at the Lane Center, my latest on the progression of our Colorado River showpack: In December, I paid a visit to Boulder Harbor on the west shore of Lake Mead to see the results for myself. Boulder Harbor is one of those places where the dropping reservoir is made tangible. Two years ago, its …
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Another Nunes hypothesis
As the scratching of heads continues (“What exactly is Devin Nunes up to really?“) we have this explanation of his motiviation, from Michael Cannon: To create discord and strain relations. He is safe in his district, so he can do what he wants. He wants to fracture relations
The Times’ 99-year Hetch Hetchy critique
I love the New York Times for many reasons. This line from their editorial about Hetch Hetchy, the Yosemite reservoir serving Sacramento, is one of them: Ninety-nine years ago, this newspaper argued against the construction of the dam. We lost, but the much bigger loss was nature’s. That’s owning your heritage.
What’s Devin Nunes up to?
There are three interlocking fundamental federal water policy/politics principles that are important to understanding current discussions over California congressman Devin Nunes’ legislation aimed at reshaping the distribution of water flowing through his state’s Central Valley. First, federal subsidy has long been necessary for the big water projects that make the West as we know it …
“our San Franciscan water the cleanest water in the whole world!”
Just when you thought the clown car that is California water politics was empty, out pops a San Francisco ballot initiative to drain Hetch Hetchy: The measure, which would be submitted to the San Francisco city attorney next week, would require the city to embark on a process to put itself “on a path toward …
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Stuff I wrote elsewhere: not-Twain bait and switch
From the morning newspaper: One of the problems I have with the persistence of the not-Twain quote is a long history in the West of not fighting over water. Faced with potential conflicts among states over the rivers they share, for example, we developed a series of “compacts” — essentially treaties governing how to distribute …
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On data and incentives
I’ve long been suspicious of ski area snow reports, preferring to go with Snotel data when writing about storms. It turns out my skepticism was warranted. From Zinman and Zitzewitz (pdf): Ski resorts self-report substantially more natural snowfall on weekends. Resorts that plausibly reap greater benefits from exaggerating do it more.
Art as a verb
I am not a visual person. I’m a word guy. But I’ve lived essentially my entire life with visual artists. My dad’s a painter. My wife, Lissa, has worked in an enormous range of media in the nearly three decades I’ve known her. This has given me a life spent watching art happen. Art as …
Stuff I wrote elsewhere: nuke budget setup
As a journalist, I learned early to pay attention to the budget. It’s where we take all our policy ideas, goals and plans and make them real. Which makes tomorrow my journalistically favorite day of the year – the day the President’s annual budget proposal starts the process of deciding how our nation’s government will …
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