News & Updates
NYT has an excellent front-pager about drought today: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/us/12drought.html?src=recg
Big Water Users Get Flak in Drought A record dry season has spawned tension between West Palm Beach and their more affluent neighbors in Palm Beach, some of whom use more than one million gallons of water a month to keep their properties green. https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303982504576428254233386320.html?mod=WSJ_hps_editorsPicks_3
Pearce, a well-known environmental writer (and author of “When the Rivers Run Dry”), reviews The Ripple Effect — along with the Big Thirst (Fishman), and Elixir (Fagan) — in today’s Washington Post. Says Pearce: “The Ripple Effect” is a lively environmental tract about dirty water, drought and water politics in the United States.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/three-books-on-water-its-importance-and-its-future/2011/06/27/gIQAuuC73H_story.html?wpisrc=emailtoafriend
Bill McKibben & Co, girding for battle vs. Canadian tar sands, the largest energy project in North America. Obama will rule on this question in November: https://www.tarsandsaction.org/ Meanwhile, Time asks if ExxonMobil’s Yellowstone River oil spill will undermine the viability of tar sands pipeline, which crosses the same river: https://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/07/08/will-exxons-yellowstone-oil-leak-doom-the-chances-of-a-tar-sands-pipeline/?xid=tweetbut
At my reading in Bryant Park on Wed, the most impassioned questions were about hydro-fracking in NY State. Gov. Cuomo recently announced that he intends to lift the state’s virtual moratorium on fracking: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/nyregion/cuomo-will-seek-to-lift-drilling-ban.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=hydrofracking&st=cse While he has generally been good on environmental issues, Cuomo is under pressure to provide jobs and energy; by allowing fracking in most parts of the state, other than state land and the city’s watershed, he is attempting to thread a very fine needle and have it both ways. I am skeptical that this is possible: once fracking is allowed on a grand scale, it will…
Where will the next megaflood hit? Not New Orleans. For the answer, have a look at my piece in today’s NYT magazine, and tell me what you think: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/magazine/sacramento-levees-pose-risk-to-california-and-the-country.html?_r=1&ref=magazine
People tend to underestimate the power of floods: six inches of fast-moving water can knock you down; two feet of water can float most cars away. Floods kill an average of 127 Americans a year — more than tornadoes or hurricanes — and cause more than $2 billion of property damage annually, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. This spring, the nation was riveted by images of blown levees and submerged towns in the Midwest along the Mississippi River. But an even more threatening situation looms in California, especially around the San Francisco Bay Delta. The delta is…
Heads Up: check out my story on potential Megaflood in CA in this weekend’s NYT Mag — features a very cool illustration of a very real threat
Our friend Brian at the august Carbon Based blog has cranked up his trusty Wurlitzer to help spread the TRE word, and we in Water World are grateful. His site is worthy of repeated visits: https://carbon-based-ghg.blogspot.com/2011/06/important-new-book-on-water-ripple.html
In an attempt to get with the program, my new Twitter name is: APrippleeffect … Better late than never!