I ran across this Arizona Republic cartoon some years ago while working on my book Water is For Fighting Over etc. I found it in a 1985 book by Frank Welsh called How to Create a Water Crisis. It reared its head this week as I’m working with some colleagues on some stuff about Arizona …
Mary Harner and I tagged along yesterday morning out in the Rio Grande Oxbow with Wes Noe, a UNM Water Resources Program/Community and Regional Planning student who is doing his masters project at field sites there. Loyal readers will remember remember my travels with Mary, a University of Nebraska colleague studying the Rio Grande. Wes …
A robust July monsoon has allayed our worst fears about central New Mexico’s Rio Grande. Is it really a “monsoon”? Back in the days when my paid gig was writing newspaper stories, I loved writing about the monsoon, and every time I did I would get helpful feedback from readers anxious to explain that I …
Continue reading ‘New Mexico’s Rio Grande, bailed out by an impressive monsoon’ »
A most Albuquerque summer morning for a bike ride: Muggy monsoon dewpoint Muddy storm-fed Rio Grande The smell of green chiles roasting, early, in the El Super parking lot This lone green chile in the eastbound bike lane over the Rio Grande
By Brad Udall and John Fleck Earlier this year, we argued in a Science magazine editorial that Colorado River forecasting must take the growing risk of climate change seriously. The latest five-year projections from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation offer a practical example of the challenge. Published July 8 (see here and here) with an …
Continue reading ‘Is the Colorado River “Stress Test” stressful enough?’ »
Not gonna lie – watching Colorado River reservoirs decline so precipitously has been painful. But it is important to cultivate optimism, and there is, in fact, reason to be hopeful about our ability to deal with the challenges. That’s the message the University of Arizona’s Bonnie Colby and I shared in a recent conversation with …
Continue reading ‘Walking and chewing gum: mixing crisis narratives and messages of optimism’ »
While the historic June 15 low for Lake Mead has drawn headlines – “its lowest level on record since the reservoir was filled in the 1930” – we’re about to hit a similar milestone upstream at Lake Powell that has received less attention, but may in fact be more important. It was co-author Eric Kuhn …
Between the wildfire smoke and two important meetings for which I am unprepared, I intended to stick to a quick indoor Zwift bike ride this morning before getting on with my day. Until I checked the gauges. 57 cubic feet per second. It’s a morning ritual, the little iPhone app while I’m curled up in …
Brad Udall on twitter yesterday ran through a striking series of graphs of the current state of the Colorado River. With his permission, I’m posting them here along with a slightly polished version of his accompanying commentary. Some key points that grabbed my attention: Second-lowest Powell inflow in a period of record we use dating …
Continue reading ‘Brad Udall: Second-worst Powell inflows in more than half a century’ »
Thanks to Megan Kamerick and KUNM, our New Mexico public radio juggernaut, for offering the platform and leverage to help boost our message about climate change response on the Colorado River: [N]obody’s going to sort of voluntarily raise their hand and say, ‘Yeah, we’re happy to have less.’ And so negotiating those agreements where everybody …