Archive for March, 2009
« Previous Entries Next Entries »One Year of Aguanomics
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Today is the first anniversary of aguanomics! [Here's the six month update.]
So how are we doing?
In the past year, I have averaged about 3.5 posts/day. Why?
There’s a lot to be said.
I like to say it.
You all want to hear it. (Keep those emails coming!)
Current readership is divided into about 700 RSS/email readers [...]
Mulroy Channeling Mulholland’s Sprawl?
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
In response to this post, LR says:
Great column on Pat Mulroy’s dreams of becoming the next William Mulholland. (Really. She loves the comparison.) One of the things that too many mainstream news organizations have omitted is the cost – not financial, although I think the credible estimates bring the pipeline cost to [...]
Report: Water Conservation Forum
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
As promised, I went to PG&E’s forum in San Francisco. I had the chance to attend two talks, and neither was very satisfactory.
(Someone just told me that it’s hard to blog when you may say something that upsets the boss. My boss is dead, so I get to say what I want.)
Blaine [...]
Water and the Central Valley
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
via PB, Richard Howitt (my dissertation adviser) and others have a write-up [pdf] of their estimates of the impacts of lower water supplies on the economy of the central valley.
Yes, it’s the 80,000 lost jobs and $2 billion reduction in gross receipts study.
I have two comments:
Their results rely on serial simulations (SWAP [...]
Plasticless Snacking
Submitted by PlasticLess.com Blog
I don’t usually go out for snack food late at night. Last night we were wide awake at our usual bedtime because of the loud music next door. I went for a walk up the street and came back with this…
The packaging is a page from a magazine.
It was a little odd [...]
Garblogging is all the rage
Submitted by everydaytrash
Case in point.
P.S. Tumblr seems to have crossed some sort of tipping point lately from a platform for the naval-gazing of friends of the founder to a dynamic format to share bits of info that nimbly dart about the internets, nourishing our curiosity.
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]
Garbage Moguls
Submitted by everydaytrash
DVR alert for anyone who gets the National Geographic Channel! A new show called “Garbage Moguls” will launch next month (timed with Earth Day). The premise: follow around Tom Szaky, the 27-year-old CEO of TerraCycle who started his empire selling worm poop as organic plant food from his Princeton dorm room before dropping [...]
The Scavenger’s Manifesto
Submitted by everydaytrash
I’ve been digging AlterNet lately, lots of great articles on all kinds of issues. Here’s one fellow trashies might appreciate as well.
While consumer culture drowns us in debt, you can count every cent you save while liberating would-be trash.
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]
Robert Glennon on the Diane Rehm Show
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Robert Glennon, Professor of Law & Public Policy at the University of AZ, was on the Diane Rehm Show today discussing the “water crisis” in this country. For those that are familiar with water issues in the west and elsewhere, it may not be worth a listen, which is why I do [...]
Mississippi Pipeline to Colorado?
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
This story made me laugh.
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
I understand the fear that Gary Hausler has about urban users slowly sucking dry the farms in CO. But how does he rationalize $22,500 per acre foot? That pencils out to a delivered cost of about $.07 per [...]
Poll Results — Better Blogging
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Hey! There’s a new poll (farmers and water) to the right! —>
Making a Better Blog (choose 3)
I like the day’s posts appearing in the morning
11 votes
I like the day’s posts appearing throughout the day
8 votes
Posts are generally too short
0 votes
Posts are generally too long
3 votes
Posts are generally the [...]
Water and Population
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
In response to this post, JR writes:
You’ve said many times that there is no water “shortage” in the southwestern U.S., and that instead there is only a failure to set sufficiently high prices for water and market it appropriately. The implication seems to be that all water-related problems would be solved by [...]
Watershed Plans
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
JC sent me a thumbdrive with a 490 page draft of a plan [230MB ZIP]:
The Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA) officially launched this Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) planning effort during a meeting in which 178 officials representing more than 100 agencies in Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties met to [...]
Trivial Lattes
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Thirsty in Suburbia questions water footprints — with good reason. They are useless if opportunity costs are not explicit (i.e., if we do not have to choose between different “water consuming” actions).
One stat burning the wires over the past several months: one cotton t-shirt = 2,700 litres of water.
[snip]
Many “water footprints” strike [...]
Speed Blogging VII
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
National Geographic has an article on the environmental, economic and social impacts of Alberta’s tar oil tar sand industry. There’s also an interesting article on a reporter’s struggle to reduce his family’s CO2 emissions to “sustainable.” They reduce their output by 50%, but that’s only 50% of the way…
“A coworker who considers [...]
The Next Five Years
Submitted by R-Squared Energy Blog
Peak Lite and the Current Oil Picture
A few years ago, after spending a lot of time thinking about peak oil, and then watching the price of oil break out of its historical trading range and head higher, the idea of Peak Lite came to me. Over time the price of oil [...]
Garbage Dreams
Submitted by everydaytrash
Recommended by unconsumption and SXSW.
Rating 4.00 out of 5
[?]
Practical Optimism
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
In the interests of practical optimism, here are a few suggestions on coping with economic crisis, environmental stresses, and water shortages:
Remember the big picture: your health, your family and friends, and all the other luxuries of life.
The environment is still pretty amazing and beautiful — get out to enjoy a sunset, a [...]
San Diego Update
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Mayor Sanders has announced San Diego’s updated drought program [PDF].
The new plan is better than the old plan [PDF] (which I criticize here and here) because it exempts water misers (less than 6 units of water/month/METER) and penalizes “heavy” users.
Before I get into the problems with the new plan, let’s take a [...]
Tariff Turnabout
Submitted by R-Squared Energy Blog
This is a timely story, coming on the heels of the previous story on the tariffs the U.S. applies to Brazilian ethanol:
European tariffs stun U.S. biodiesel industry
The U.S. biodiesel industry will suffer from new trade barriers that threaten to end its lucrative export business to Europe, and in Texas the measure [...]
My Definition Of A Boombastic Industry Statement
Submitted by PlasticLess.com Blog
This is the closing paragraph on the front page of a Canadian plastic industry website:
The Canadian plastics industry has had a decades-long commitment to product stewardship and environmental responsibility to ensure the wise use and recycling of plastic shopping bags.
In case you are confused, the word ensure means to make sure, certain [...]
13 Days of Waste Market
Submitted by everydaytrash
Mark your calendars for April 18th-May 1st, NYC-based trashies. The 13 Days of Waste are sure to be a specacle worth attending. Details and an explanation of this amazing image at the ever-stimulating Visible Trash.
via Visible Trash
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]
Guayaquil II
Submitted by everydaytrash
cleaners
This one was taken by my mother, who after years of traveling with me has also been conditioned to document trash related sights. Thanks, mom!
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]
Guayaquil, Ecuador
Submitted by everydaytrash
recycling station
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]
Elizabeth Royte…
Submitted by everydaytrash
has a blog!
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]
« Previous Entries Next Entries »