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« Previous EntriesTell Obama Your Environmental Ideas
Thursday, November 20th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
I got this from Team Obama:
To give you a behind the scenes look at the Transition and provide a window to how the team is approaching climate issues, we filmed this meeting of our Energy & Environment Policy Transition Team and interview with team member Heather Zichal.
Watch the video, then tell us […]
Recession is Good
Thursday, November 20th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
I had this email exchange with JB.
JB: I hope that green jobs can help pull us out of this slump…
DZ: The green job thing is BS.
JB: Why do you think the “green jobs” is BS?
DZ: Because they are looking for govt subsidies.
JB: Do you think Pickens is wasting his millions on it […]
More on CAFOs
Thursday, November 20th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
BB asks:
I am doing research on the support of CAFO’s by the federal government. I understand that there are direct subsidies given to concentrated farms (EQIP, etc.), but those subsidies seems minimal relative to the indirect grain subsidies that CAFO’s receive. If Obama were to substantially decrease indirect subsidies to CAFOs, do […]
Cutting Fat or Muscle?
Thursday, November 20th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
A guest post from JWT…
Let’s start with Pacific Institute’s report. It says we could save 3.4 million AF by installing drip irrigation. At $1,000 AF, that would cost something like $9 billion.
The governor has demanded a 20% reduction in urban water use. Currently, all urban water use is about 9 million AF, […]
Australia is rubbing its hands due to nuclear new build
Thursday, November 20th, 2008Submitted by The Low Carbon Kid Blog
Uranium mining is expanding all over Australia. The Government is relishing the idea of making lots of money from the nuclear renaissance being predicted (but not yet proven).
Australian greens are fast losing the optimism they felt when the Labor Party won the last election. It’s clear that the temptation […]
Ramp it up - investment in low carbon technology
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by The Low Carbon Kid Blog
The last issue of the New Scientist contains a one page ad from the Carbon Trust offering £3m to £6m funding for partners in oil-from-algae technology.
The Low Carbon Kid wrote about this concept 17 months ago. He highlighted it because many of the problems present with the traditional oilseeds […]
Ramp it up - investment in low carbon technology
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by The Low Carbon Kid Blog
The last issue of the New Scientist contains a one page ad from the Carbon Trust offering £3m to £6m funding for partners in oil-from-algae technology.
The Low Carbon Kid wrote about this concept 17 months ago. He highlighted it because many of the problems present with the traditional oilseeds […]
I Tip My Hat to the People Wearing the Tinfoil Hats
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by PlasticLess.com Blog
I was going to link to a website that was serious about tinfoil hats. It seems almost inconceivable, but it appears that the webmaster didn’t pay his hosting fees. I guess foil is kind of expensive.
Anyway, the things that I want to write about are paranoia and hysteria. I have come into […]
“People Can’t Afford to Be Wasteful”
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by PlasticLess.com Blog
Here is an awesome quote from Beth over at Fake Plastic Fish:
…this is a new, fierce economy, baby. People can’t afford to be wasteful, and I’m freakin’ glad.
She was speaking from experience, having just reformatted several PCs at her workplace rather than simply getting replacements. I expected to eventually see some reports […]
Wooden Cutting Boards Pwn Plastic
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by PlasticLess.com Blog
I was reluctant to say that wooden cutting boards are safer than plastic. Luckily, somebody else did a great job of assembling the conflicting research and concluding that it is inconclusive.
The bottom line is that careful food safety is vitally important regardless of your choice of materials. Wood is a better choice […]
Trash talk on January 8th in Princeton
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by everydaytrash
TALK: “GARBLOGGING”
4:00 p.m.
The world of “garbloggers” is diverse and ever-growing, ranging from artists sharing work made out of recycled materials to armchair environmentalists tracking their own waste to make a political statement.
Leila Darabi, creator of the blog everydaytrash, will give an overview of the many voices talking and tracking trash online and […]
The garbage of gadetry
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by everydaytrash
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 by everydaytrash
A new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project yields some amusing and educational findings: half of gadget users need help to get their smart phones, cell phones and computers to work; many of these devices break; and users experience a range of emotions when […]
Poll Results — Consumption Choices
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Hey! There’s a NEW poll to the right —–>
My consumption of water is MOST affected by
Current supplies of water
23%
15
The price of water
11%
7
Habit and/or convenience
35%
23
Nothing (I use what I use)
30%
20
People around me
2%
1
66 votes total
So, I made a mistake on this question — it seems that “Habit and/or convenience” […]
Ethanol Smack Down
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
I got this from a PR person: “On Tuesday, a wide array of organizations came together to call on the next Administration and Congress to repeal subsidies for ethanol in light of its harmful effects on the environment, consumers and numerous industries.”
Most of these organizations are food processors worried about higher food […]
Teaching Bleg
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
I got this yesterday:
I teach an undergraduate course on natural resource economics, and I’ve got somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks currently devoted to water issues. I’ve been using Tietenberg’s chapter on the subject, augmented by a couple of chapters from Haddad’s book on California water markets, and the Wikipedia article on […]
Fixing Credit Rating Agencies
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
And now for something completely different…
I read yet another story on how the credit rating agencies (Standard and Poors, Moodys, Fitch, et al.) failed at their task of rating credit instruments (bonds, derivatives, etc.) to reflect the risk of those instruments.
The credit rating business works like this: Companies that want to issue […]
Economic Gangsters — The Review
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
I read this book on a flight recently. The authors (Ray Fisman and Ted Miguel) are development economists at big schools (Columbia and UC Berkeley; Ted’s in the econ department, but I see him and his RAs all the time), and they’ve written this book to give laymen some insight into the […]
Moving House
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Last week, I noted that the new president of the Maldives planned to move his people elsewhere. That plan got the Economist thinking:
It’s a buyer’s market in property these days; and, if the Maldivians are looking for an island, Iceland is said to be going cheap. But they may be spoilt for […]
DWR Has No Clothes
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
In “Managing an Uncertain Future: Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for California’s Water” [PDF], California’s Department of Water Resources notes that “California faces shrinking snowmelt, increased flooding, longer droughts and a rise in sea level.”
DWR suggests plans, strategies, coordination, and research. Guess what it does NOT mention consider?
Prices.*
I am shocked, really, that DWR […]
Water History Wiki
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
www.waterhistory.org is in the process of moving all content to a Wiki.
There are only 17 articles up right now (from Emery County Utah to Sextus Julius Frontinus), so head over there to add your wisdom make history!
via History Network-Water.
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]
Water Filters
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Last week, I got an email from a PR person at PUR filters. She wanted me to talk about how great PUR filters were at making nasty tap water into cheap, healthy water, i.e.,
In these economic times, filtration is an excellent solution for consumers to take in their own homes – and […]
Engineers without Borders
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
Engineers without Borders USA went to Ecuador thinking they would build showers. They found bigger problems:
“We went down there thinking we needed to build a shower and found out that hundreds of people and dozens of homes had no clean water at all. The school cook would get water from a mud […]
Local Food
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
CC sends me one possible means of turbocharging the local food movement: Give people all the information that they could possibly want.
The government should also throw its support behind putting a second bar code on all food products that, when scanned either in the store or at home (or with a cellphone), […]
Listen to the Statistics on North American Sharks
Monday, November 10th, 2008The International Union for Conservation of Nature said on Monday that 26% of all rays and sharks are threatened with extinction in the Northeast Atlantic.
“Most sharks and rays are exceptionally vulnerable to overfishing because of their tendency to grow slowly, mature late, and produce few young. Those at greatest risk of extinction in the northeast […]
Floridians vote to conserve – what’s next in the Obama Administration
Friday, November 7th, 2008Written by Michael Vass
I am now happy to state that the conservation initiative on the ballot in Florida was passed, with 68.4% of the vote. If I in any way helped voters come to this conclusion I am especially pleased.
Looking forward I would add that I hope that actions of Florida residents leads to […]
