Archive for June, 2009
« Previous Entries Next Entries »Flashback: 14 - 20 June 2008
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
These posts are STILL relevant, so please comment (I’ll approve them ASAP.)
The Morality of Price… increases in an emergency.
BEST: Educating Water Managers: Managers are myopic to issues of economics and human behavior.
Texas Pump ‘em T Boone Pickens tries to harvest blue gold that’s not his. Midwestern Canary: Dead zones are a sign [...]
Oil Companies Acquire More Ethanol Plants
Submitted by R-Squared Energy Blog
As I noted in my essay Big Oil Buys Big Ethanol, I expected that we would see more oil companies buying up troubled ethanol assets. Per the Houston Chronicle, Sunoco has become the latest:
Oil companies shop for discounted ethanol plants
FULTON, N.Y. — When Sunoco closed this week on the acquisition of [...]
Waterflows II (Shawn for Spreck)
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Shawn Coburn (a Westlands farmer) wrote this:
This [image -- click for larger view] is what Spreck bases his claim that WWD is at 86% of normal, well why doesn’t he use the last five years of rescheduled water data, WWD would be at 1000% of normal. Cherry picking data from previous years [...]
Waterflows I (Claudia for Shawn)
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Claudia Goss (Communications Director at the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District) wrote this:
I noted the addition of the “Great Delta Toilet Bowl” graphic and information about the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta on Aguanomics recently. The creators of this graphic and its associated criticisms of wastewater discharges continue their campaign to divert [...]
Cash for Clunkers
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
This bill caught my eye, and I finally read the version the Senate is considering. (It’s H.R. 2751, search for it here, I cannot seem to link directly to the bill text.)
If your trade-in vehicle meets conditions (must be drivable, insured at least a year prior, get 18 mpg or less, and [...]
Congestion Politics
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
A truck crashed into a convoy of farmers. Why?
Ryan Ferguson says the convoy was organized by farmers to protest the lack of water being allotted to the west side of the valley.
[snip]
“Farmers out there are being denied by the state water to their farms, because of a little minnow,” Sean Hannity said.
[snip]
Hannity’s [...]
California’s Budget and University Education
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Although not about water, I must comment on California’s current budget mess and its effect on education. I received this email recently from the University of California. Although they lament the 9.3% tuition increase, undergraduate tuition is still cheap at Cal–just under $10,000 per year, compared to $40,000 per year at Carleton [...]
Poll Results: Water Bill Information
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Hey! There’s a new post (vacations!) to the right —>
My water bill tells me…(choose 1+)
How much water I use
24 votes
If my use is “good” or “bad”
3 votes
How the $ amount is calculated
14 votes
Nothing — just “pay us $x”
8 votes
Whatever (I don’t pay attention)
2 votes
Less than nothing (Can’t [...]
Interruption of service
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Hey folks
I’ve been overwhelmed recently. (I’ve got excuses. Really!) I’ll get some posts up later today.
Sorry about the delay
Rating 3.00 out of 5
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POET Sets the Standard
Submitted by R-Squared Energy Blog
In a recent post (but certainly not the first time I mentioned this), I wrote:
Corn ethanol producers have to move away from fossil fuel inputs - or they need to otherwise find inputs that don’t normally track gasoline prices. This is why the sugarcane ethanol producer can compete on a level [...]
Mulva on Replacing Oil
Submitted by R-Squared Energy Blog
My former CEO Jim Mulva spoke today at the National Summit in Detroit, and had some newsworthy comments. Bloomberg reported on his talk:
Conoco Chief Says Replacing Oil May Take a Century
June 16 (Bloomberg) — ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil company, said it may take a century for the nation to replace [...]
Speed Blogging
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
In Brazil’s Amazon region, “relative development, in terms of life expectancy, literacy, and standard of living, increases as deforestation begins but then declines again as the frontier passes through. As a result, pre- and postfrontier levels of development are similarly low, indicating a pattern of boom and bust.”
Good news [pdf]: Japanese scientists [...]
A Few Thoughts on the Crisis
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
…as in the crisis in California. No, not the budget crisis — the water crisis.
I asked for these while I was writing this piece on the same theme. Although I was not able to use them in the piece (word count!), I do want to share them with you.
Don Wood (Sr. Policy [...]
Masaru Emoto and Talking to Water
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Several times over the past few years, people have asked me what I think about the work of Masaru Emoto,
a Japanese author known for his controversial claim that if human speech or thoughts are directed at water droplets before they are frozen, images of the resulting water crystals will be beautiful or [...]
Green Wedding Ideas
Submitted by PlasticLess.com Blog
Some people probably won’t like my green wedding ideas. They mostly involve not doing things and not buying things.
My second wedding was a beach wedding with only our children, an officiant, a photographer and a photographer’s assistant present.
No flowers.
No wedding cake.
No presents for the guests.
We weren’t trying to be green. Frugality and [...]
Do We Need Plastic Pallets?
Submitted by PlasticLess.com Blog
According to the people who make plastic pallets, they are better that wooden ones in almost every way.
Plastic pallet has many advantages compared with wooden one as follows: less weight, neat and good appearance, no nails or splinters, no odour,no poison, impervious to acids & alkalis, no sparkles, explosion proof, skidproof, high [...]
Guest Blogging at Aguanomics?
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Dear Aguanauts,
I will be in Europe — with intermittent internet — from 20 June to 20 July. (I am going to a conference and visiting family and friends in the UK, Spain and Ireland.)
I am hoping to get some posts from guest bloggers like YOU.
Why? Because you are an expert at some [...]
Response to Green Algae Strategy Review
Submitted by R-Squared Energy Blog
I have received a response from Mark Edwards, auther of Green Algae Strategy: End Oil Imports And Engineer Sustainable Food And Fuel. I reviewed the book here recently, and as I indicated in the conclusion of the review I would gladly post any of Mark’s comments. So, here they are in [...]
Monday Morning Smile
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Some good engineering here:
Rating 3.00 out of 5
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Corrupt Politicians and Their Paymasters
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
A farmer told me that “there are 61,000 environmental lobbyists in Washington DC.” While I know that there are many lobbyists in many places, I had no idea of HOW many.
So I asked someone who knew, and this is what Marianne Lavelle at The Center for Public Integrity told me:
It is very [...]
The New Imperialism
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
The Economist discusses a BIG trend: Rich countries buying land in poor countries for food production:
Water shortages have provided the hidden impulse behind many land deals. Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the chairman of Nestlé, claims: “The purchases weren’t about land, but water. For with the land comes the right to withdraw the water linked [...]
Plastic on the Beach: Part Seven
Submitted by PlasticLess.com Blog
Rating 3.00 out of 5
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Weekend Discussion — Community
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
NOTE: This post will stay here until Sunday night. Posts for Saturday and Sunday morning go below this post.
Dear Aguanauts,
Discussion posts allow you to discuss a topic among yourselves — exchanging views, learning and teaching. (I only read the comments.)
If you are interested, take a moment to check out (and add to!) [...]
Life in a Tinderbox
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
SC sent me this email from R:
We live in a small city named Hidden Hills, it is a zoned equestrian community, and each home sits on a parcel of land that is a minimum of one acre, which by Los Angeles standards is rare. We also are adjacent to thousands of acres [...]
Speed Blogging
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
“Taipei has strived to achieve “zero landfill, total recycling” by 2010, 30 years ahead of the UN’s trash targets. It will probably fall short, but its policies are still exemplary. The city has encouraged the private sector to build composting facilities and recycling plants, and requires residents to pay for trash collection [...]
