Archive for December, 2009
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Submitted by R-Squared Energy Blog
I am so far behind on the things that I have been intending to write. It is hard to believe that it has already been over a week since the most recent US DOE biorefinery grants were announced. I have been meaning to list them and comment, but I have finally [...]
San Francisco’s Gucci Taps
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
San Francisco has announced (via DW) “bottled water refill stations” with lots corporate partners and so on…
Now you can get tap water out of a good-plated tap.
Nobel Peace Prize time?
Rating 3.00 out of 5
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Samuelson as the King of Autistic Economics
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Said so well:
Samuelson fashioned his models, which set the standard, after 19th century physics. Functions were assumed to be smooth and continuous. Economics was reduced to various types of the same calculus problem: finding a constrained extremum. The economist’s job was to state the objective function and the constraints, then grind out [...]
Poll Results — Obama Likes Danishes?
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Hey! There’s a NEW POLL (how smart are you?) to the right —->
Obama’s participation at the Copenhagen summit on climate change
Is useful
52%
32
Is a waste of time
23%
14
Doesn’t matter
11%
7
Wait! Don’t they have a lot of blondes there?
15%
9
62 votes total
No useful comments on these results. They match my (composite) view of what’s going on…
Bottom Line [...]
Living on the edge
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Addendum: I wrote this before I even thought of the post on groundwater yesterday, but it’s totally appropriate!
Humans are good at exploiting their situations, pushing up to the limits of constraints on their way to maximizing their consumption of benefits.
Thus, we see how people may spend as much money as they have, [...]
Liquid Assets — The Review
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
This was supposed to be published at H-Net, but it is caught in some sort of twlight zone of copy-edit hell. So you all get to read it first
Liquid Assets (RFF 2005) is an important and useful book. It is important because it addresses a very important topic: the use [...]
What’s your attitude towards organic?
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
If you care, fill in an academic’s survey on consumer attitudes and purchase behavior towards organic food.
Rating 3.00 out of 5
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Bleg: Who sells water in California?
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
SJ asks:
I need to get a reasonably comprehensive list of public (not regulated by CPUC) water agencies in CA and the rest of states if possible. I got a comprehensive list of CPUC regulated water agencies, but I’m unable to find a list of city-operated agencies. I found this, but this includes [...]
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Everyone knows that California farmers are overdrafting the groundwater in the Central Valley, in a desperate routine attempt to replace supplies lost to drought, growth and regulation.
We also know that regulation to end this unsustainable, environmentally-harmful, economically-suicidal practice was gutted by irrigators in the Legislature.(We even know how it should have looked.)
Perhaps [...]
World Policy Journal — Water Edition
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
“In the winter issue of World Policy Journal [FREE], Martin Chulov reports from Baghdad on drought: the next plague that Iraqis must contend with as American forces complete their pull-out. Peter Bosshard examines the way Chinese hydropower firms are rapidly damming the world’s great rivers. In a Q&A with the editors, one [...]
The Master Plan
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Note: Lots of personal thoughts and vagaries here. Mostly because I want you guys to know where I am coming from (and going!)
A week from today, I will be on an airplane for Jakarta, Indonesia. (I am giving my students their final tomorrow.)
There, I will meet up with Anne, my girlfriend, and [...]
Flashback: 5 — 11 Dec 2008
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
These year-old posts are still relevant, so please read — and comment!
BEST: Engineers Do It with Objects — the American Water Works Association will sell you a CD that will help you project water demand — using methods familiar to astrologers everywhere, and just as accurate.
Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries — [...]
Warren Buffett’s financial crisis
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
The article that appears first in this google search is interesting : “In Year of Investing Dangerously, Buffett Looked ‘Into the Abyss’ ” (I use the google link to the story because accessing it through their news service is free, thru WSJ not…)
Primarily, I found it interesting because of Buffett’s involvement with [...]
Copenhagen Suggests Climate Issue Not Going Away
Submitted by R-Squared Energy Blog
I have mentioned that I think ClimateGate will end up being one of the top stories of 2009. A number of people have commented or e-mailed me and said that the story will soon be forgotten. I don’t think so. I don’t think they realize the energy this gives to those [...]
Brainstorming the Year’s Top Energy Stories
Submitted by R-Squared Energy Blog
I am working on a few things right now that should be finished up in the next week or so. First, I am compiling a list of questions/comments for Bob Cohen regarding his recent guest post on ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC). I will post his answers. If you have a [...]
Sustainable Silicon Valley
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
I spoke at this mini-conference on Monday with two others, Dennis O’Connor (CA State Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water) and Kathleen Van Velsor (Environmental Planner and ex-member of ABAG). The session (”How We View and Value Water”) was moderated by Ed Quevedo (Paladin Law Group), and Ed was free with [...]
Climategate: A PR Disaster
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Fred Pearce discusses and concludes with:
I have been speaking to a PR operator for one of the world’s leading environmental organizations. Most unusually, he didn’t want to be quoted. But his message is clear. The facts of the e-mails barely matter any more. It has always been hard to persuade the public [...]
The global water crisis is a self-inflicted wound
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
A concise analysis:
As governments across the world, and especially the developing world, worry about a looming water crisis, Biswas dismisses it as a self-inflicted wound. The problem we have, he says, is not scarcity but mismanagement. The solution to shortages is simple: “Water must have a price. Anything that is free won’t [...]
Blowing smoke up our tunnel?
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
California’s Department of Water Resources has estimated that a “Peripheral Tunnel” that’s 43 miles long, 150 feet underground and has a 15,000 cfs capacity will cost $10.6 billion to build.* That’s only $1 billion more than the cost of a (surface) Canal.
I asked Steve Kasower, my comrade-in-bomb-throwing and author of a study [...]
Judge invalidates QSA
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Fleck reports. Seems that the judge is saying taxpayers should NOT pay for restoring the Salton Sea.
Anyone got a better interpretation?
Rating 3.00 out of 5
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Prius vs. BMW
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
I bought a 1998 BMW 323is about nine months ago for $7,000. Although I never considered buying a Prius (ugly! non-performance!), I’ve always thought that I never WOULD have, given the cost-benefit of price versus improved mileage.
Let’s actually work out the numbers.
Since I bought the BMW (which actually has a 2.5 liter [...]
A water chat with Lloyd Carter
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
After I spoke to Tom Birmingham, I had a two hour chat [42MB MP3] with Lloyd Carter,* who spent 17 years as a reporter before turning his hand to law and protecting rivers.
I was intrigued to hear Lloyd describe his “Road to Damascus” moment — encountering the massive environmental damages (and coverup [...]
Comment on corporate water?
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
“The Pacific Institute has been soliciting public comments on the public draft of the Corporate Water Accounting report and will be through December 11, 2009″ (tomorrow!).
Although I thought this report a silly idea before, I am persuaded that it can be useful as a means of putting pressure on countries/areas with poor [...]
Speed Blogging
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
These are good, really good:
Sheila Kuehl (former Assemblywoman) writes clearly on how California’s water bills are useless and expensive (and other things, but she’s brutally honest!). Read all her essays!
Water hogs: “Farmers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas use, on average, 323.6 gallons of water to produce one gallon of [...]
Tom Birmingham of Westlands Water District
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Last Sunday, I spent five hours talking to Tom Birmingham, General Manager and Chief Council of Westlands Water District, “the biggest irrigation district in the world.”
Among other things, we discussed crop choices, water efficiency, governance, Feinstein, his work for LADWP on Mono Lake, the water bills, the Peripheral Canal, family farms, water [...]
