I recently discovered the USGS’s wonderful photo archive, which (among many other things) has a huge collection of the photography from the second John Wesley Powell survey of the Grand Canyon. Powell quote of the day: Many droughts will occur. Many seasons in a long series will be fruitless.
From K. V. Ramesh and P. Goswami last week in Geophysical Research Letters, evidence that India’s monsoon, bringer of the rains to feed the farmers who feed the residents of one of the world’s largest nations, may be in decline: We show here, based on an analysis of daily gridded observed rainfall data for the …
Walpi, Circa 1947 Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. This is from one of Dad’s old sketchbooks, which he gave me recently. It is not possible to adequately describe the importance his art has for me. It’s my whole visual language – the smell of oil paint and those remarkable paintings I stared at as a child, …
Seldom has a satellite image conveyed quite so much useful information quite so easily: From Yale Simkin, in the comments at the Arms Control Wonk. That’s one approach, I guess, to energy conservation.
Malcolm on the rains in Australia. The blessings of La Nina? Fortunately, things have definitely improved. The latest weekly report from the Catchmtent Authority shows that we have remained above 55% capacity for a couple months now and it is even ticking up slightly of late. The next mark of interest is 70%, which is …
I have always held a certain ambivalence toward my nation’s national anthem. For my parents’ generation, having participated in a war for our nation’s survival, it is a deep and important talisman. But to my generation, its theme (war) places it at the center of an unresolved struggle, making it an uncomfortable national icon. It’s …
Regular Inkstain readers will no doubt be aware of my ongoing search for “the solution space” – public policy options that unite those with disparate views in search of solutions to thorny problems that can actually be implemented – that are robust to underlying political disagreements. My friend Dave is pushing something in this regard …
Daniel Hall, drawing in part on the excellent reporting of Peter Spotts in the Christian Science Monitor, had a nice post today about pressure on the developed world to adapt to climate change, and on the mechanisms to pay for it: U.S. CO2 emissions are around 6 billion metric tons per year. If permit prices …
The monthly ENSO diagnostic discussion from the U.S. government’s climate prediction center, out today, shows a strengthening La Niña, likely to persist into the spring. That means rain in Bali: Expected La Niña impacts during December-February include a continuation of above-average precipitation over Indonesia and below-average precipitation over the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. For …
Gas prices have settled a bit around the $3 per gallon level. And, contrary to last week’s confusing post on this question (hey, I’m a newbie on this whole energy economics thing), apparently this enormous price of oil by the barrel means refiners are not making enough money to send their kids to private school …