Little Victories
I just got a new cell phone. When I unplugged it after its first charge, the phone’s screen displayed a message reminding me to unplug the charger to save energy when not in use. Yes!
Archive of entries posted by jfleck
Groundwater Recharge in California
A lazyweb question for any of the Calfornia water geeks in the audience…. My old employer, the Pasadena Star-News, had an editorial over the weekend that raised the question of groundwater recharge in the following backhanded way: During a recent dust-up over city of Pasadena water rates, two of the conservation skeptics wrote an essay …
Will Canada and the U.S. go to war over water?
No. But a story by Mark Hume in the Globe and Mail illustrates the delicacies of transboundary water questions, and by coincidence is one of two interesting examples of the problem that scrolled across my monitor this morning. Hume’s story details objections by residents of British Columbia to a dam being contemplated in Washington state …
Continue reading ‘Will Canada and the U.S. go to war over water?’ »
What a Housing Bubble Looks Like
Here’s what a housing bubble looks like. Housing prices. Red is Arizona, green is Nevada, blue is us here in New Mexico. The three states track together since the 1970s (off to the left of what’s displayed in this graph). Prices in Arizona and Nevada shoot up beginning around 2004, then collapse pretty dramatically. Click …
“insufficient water to meet needs”, energy edition
“The Saudi Arabia of X” is a common new energy meme that has been applied, among many things, to the oil shales of the western United States. But its invocation requires some significant arm-waving over the question of water, as this report by Jeremy Miller points out: But it is water – or more specifically, …
Continue reading ‘“insufficient water to meet needs”, energy edition’ »
“insufficient water to meet needs”
I’ve repeatedly leaned over the years on Kelly Redmond’s definition of drought: “insufficient water to meet needs”. I was reminded of same today when a friend who lives in Massachusetts sent me a story about water shortages there: With lawn watering season just getting underway, the state says there are 160 rivers and streams in …
Preparing for a Colorado River call
There’s never been a “call” on the Colorado River – a need to curtail use in order to meet Colorado Compact delivery obligations. But folks in Western Colorado are preparing for the possibility. Via John Orr’s Coyote Gulch (a Colorado (state) water blog), a release from the Colorado River District explains how it works: [U]sers …
Buy My Book
The Tree Rings’ Tale: Understanding Our Changing Climate won’t be out until fall, but you can pre-order now! Don’t delay!
The Sin That Is Bathing
In his history of of American economic growth, Empire of Wealth, John Steele Gordon discusses the importance of the provision of clean municipal water supplies to the growing industrial cities of America’s east coast. The rich had cisterns, the poor hauled water from contaminated wells, and nobody had very much of the stuff. Indoor plumbing …
What Do News Audiences Want
One of the great advantages of the web for us on the content-creation side is the information web users give us, via their clicks, about their preferences. Usually I am not surprised (salacious crime, etc.). But if you had asked me if my little squib about El Nino’s arrival (sub. req. maybe sorta) would be …