It’s always more interesting than I think! After this morning’s quickie “wheat acreage lowest since 1919” post, I dusted off my USDA NASS data skills (I used to work with that data a lot, but it’s been ages). Why 1919? 1919, it turns out, was when USDA’s US wheat acreage record starts! So really what …
Agriculture officials estimate that total United States wheat acreage will drop to its lowest level since 1919 as farmers finalize spring planting plans under the shadow of a virtual shutdown in the Strait of Hormuz. – Trading Economics
But the peak will inevitably come, perhaps later this decade, perhaps now. The signs Gerth wrote about Feb. 24 may be the first signal that it is starting. “We simply don’t know,” Goodstein said. This is a problem New Mexico oil and gas producers have thought about a lot. Here, production peaked in 1969 and …
Continue reading ‘My career as an energy economics journalist in two figures’ »
University of Arizona economist Bonnie Colby on why the enduring opposition to water transfers out of agriculture goes beyond price: This is not surprising given third party economic effects when irrigated agriculture diminishes in a region. However, the enduring nature of the opposition is striking, even when seemingly generous compensation is included for third party …
Research comparing pedestrian behavior in Bryant Park and outside the Met, 1979-1980 versus 2008-2010: The biggest change in behavior was that lingering fell dramatically. The amount of time spent just hanging out dropped by about half across the measured locations. I personally am a fan of “lingering” and “just hanging out.” Via Tyler Cowen
Clouds and mountains were dancing this morning. I think they’re in love.
There’s an alley off Albuquerque’s Central Avenue, old Route 66, between the Southwest Capital Bank and St. John’s Thrift Store. You can’t go down the alley on Google Street View. Google Street View mostly doesn’t go down alleys. Alleys mostly don’t have names. You have to go there for yourself. Down past the “Drug Free …
The reflection of socioeconomics in Strava’s running heat map for my town is striking. It’s sort of Tiebout sorting?
A team out of Wyoming, including my Colorado River Research Group colleague Kristiana Hansen, has a new paper that reminds us that we need to be careful about how we thinking about conserving water that is being “wasted.” Their case study is an area on the New Fork in Wyoming, a tributary of the Green, …
Continue reading ‘A reminder to be careful how you think about “wasted” water’ »
A colleague sent me this neat paper by Nicholas Irwin and colleagues at the University Nevada Las Vegas about how water use patterns shifted under initial COVID lockdowns. As you would expect, home water use went up while institutional use went down. But was it just a one-for-one offset? No… [W]e find an initial and …
Continue reading ‘Changes in municipal water use under pandemic shutdown – a neat case study’ »