L and I took a drive out on the eastern side of New Mexico’s central mountains today, up the Pecos River through the little villages of Villanueva and Ribera. You can think of the Pecos as a dividing line between the country’s great flat middle and the broken geology of the southwest. The phrase “west …
Daniel Collins at Crikey Creek has a great suggestion for folks in the water blogging community: In the spirit of World Water Day, and in an effort to contribute towards transboundary cooperation, I propose that all us waterbloggers (and other bloggers too!) dedicate one or more of our posts that day or beforehand specifically to …
Spring? Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. I’ve got work to do this afternoon, but I’m completely distracted by the show outside. It’s been so dry here that I had to turn on some water in the backyard. That’s drawn the birds like nutso – juncos, sparrows and house finches mostly, but I saw a couple lesser …
Closing out a rainless February, Albuquerque ties the record for driest start to a year. update: Just for the record, while there was no rain at the official Albuquerque weather station, I did record 0.01 inch at my house Feb. 11.
Birds Flee Changing Habitats (ad/sub req.): Birds and butterflies offer the earliest signs that ecosystems are changing in response to a changing climate, according to Craig Allen, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. “They’re mobile,” said Allen, an expert on the effect of climate change on New Mexico’s environment. Climate has always changed, Allen …
Continue reading ‘More Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Back on the Bird Beat’ »
From the department of shameless self promotion, if you’re in the Albuquerque area you should block out some time this evening around 7 p.m.-ish to watch In Focus on KNME, public telly channel 5, where I will be trying to explain brackish groundwater issues. Then watch this space tomorrow, as I try to walk back …
On water policy, growth policy, and cooking dinner in the shower.
In this morning’s Albuquerque Journal (sub/ad req.): When I began my search for Leopold, I asked Witt and his colleagues at UNM’s Museum of Southwestern Biology whether they had any specimens in their vast research collection of plants and animals that might have been collected by Leopold himself. Witt, who is the curator of birds, …
I’ve been working for the paper on a piece about Aldo Leopold’s years in Albuquerque. It’s a setup for a conference next month, and an excuse to explore some of the issues Leopold’s legacy raises for use living in the desert Southwest today. Here’s a snapshot, from a walk around the University of New Mexico …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere, Aldo Leopold Edition’ »
If OPEC priced its oil based on how much it costs to get it out of the ground, we’d be swimming in it right now. Or, more precisely, we would have been swimming in it, until we used it all up. The peak would have come long ago. When the market prices oil, the cost …