In general, if you ask people if they would prefer to pay less, or more, for a given product, the answer is likely to be “less”. Democracy is, at root, the process of asking such a question. This, Manny Teodoro argues, is at the heart of the U.S. infrastructure problem: The trouble is that, in …
Continue reading ‘Is democracy to blame for our infrastructure problems?’ »
We lost the daily direct flights between Albuquerque and Tucson a decade ago when the economy tanked, which left me in a shuttle yesterday morning at sunup driving north on I-10 from Tucson to Phoenix to catch a flight home after a couple of very intense, very productive days discussing water.* It’s a beautiful stretch …
Continue reading ‘Some thoughts on “the West’s Disappearing Water”’ »
While historically, water has been depicted as something that has driven a wedge between communities, “I think it should be something that ties our communities together,” Mueller said. “We all need it, we all depend on it, we all want it in one way or the other. If we can work together (on water) we’re …
Thursday at 4: With another dry year setting in across the West, the challenges of meeting the water supply needs of a growing population while maintaining our rural communities and a healthy environment are again being thrown in sharp relief. The continuing decline of Lake Mead has become a symbol of deepening problems, but there are also …
Continue reading ‘Hey Tucson, I’ll be yammering at the University of Arizona Thursday’ »
I’ve a piece up at Better Burque about our adventures today trying to find a way to cross the interstate on our bicycles. Don’t try this kids, we’re professionals. No, not professionals, dangerous amateurs.
Tom Philp had a great piece in Water Deeply last week about the language we use: Water policy becoming a prisoner of its own limited vocabulary, particularly when it comes to the weather. Here is a case that “drought” and “normal” belong in the dustbin of history, for their overuse can lead to the wrong conversation. …
Continue reading ‘“drought” – Philp on weather, water, and yesteryear’s language’ »
The preliminary Feb. 1 forecast for runoff on New Mexico’s rivers, out this evening, is now projecting record or near-record low flows for the 2018 runoff season. It would take an epic wave of wet storms from here on out to bring the river to anything approaching a “normal” year, and no such epic wave …
Continue reading ‘The Rio Grande forecast keeps getting worse’ »
Sarah Tory had an interesting piece Friday about an effort to keep water in Colorado’s Crystal River, a tributary of the Roaring Fork (Carbondale area, or Aspen for those of a certain geographical bent). Tory’s piece does a good job of explaining the institutional complexities of an agreement that spans potentially both opportunities for exploiting …
Fixing our Broken Water Cycle: A Conversation with Authors Sandra Postel and Abbie Landis, Webinar Feb. 12