A week ago, the governor of California ordered a 25% reduction in water use. Well, the 25% statewide reduction will turn the big lawns brown, as they should be in this climate, Continue reading
Blog Posts and Writings Tagged: climate
Blog 74. Common Ground on Hostile Turf
In her book, Common Ground on Hostile Turf, Lucy Moore shows that resolution of conflict depends more on the sharing of personal stories than on the facts, legal arguments, or moral claims of the parties. Continue reading
Blog 60. Water flows uphill to money
Sometimes the inquiring technical mind cannot pass an opportunity to analyze what’s going on in the surrounding society. With me, that compulsion for analysis recently arose when the Forest Service announced it planned to approve a new pipeline to provide water for snowmaking on the local ski hill, some 2600 feet (more or less) above the town. As they say in the dry southwest, whiskey’s for drinking, water’s for fighting. Continue reading
Blog 58. Hierarchy in Regulation
Society is a set of regulations—written and unwritten—that specify how a person, a social entity, or business should act. Continue reading
Blog 57. Energiewende – We should try it
Energiewende is the appellation for Germany’s transition toward a sustainable energy supply. George Maue, first secretary for energy and climate at the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., described the transition in his editorial published in the Nov-Dec 2013 issue of Solar Today magazine. Continue reading
Blog 48. Climate change and social conflict
Arguments over whether climate change is real, and if so whether it is man-caused, ignore the elephant in the room. Continue reading
Blog 45. The flow of information and misinformation
The big headline above a 26 column-inch editorial says,
Climate change threat is overblown.
This is in the newspaper of the most science-centered town of the nation? Well, some accounts claim Los Alamos has more science Ph.D.s per unit population than anywhere else. Continue reading
Blog 44. Big consequences of singular events
As suggested in the previous two blogs, the magnitude of a social calamity (or good fortune) that arises from a single event depends on how we react to the event, more than on the event itself. Now really, do I assert that the outcome of hurricane Sandy depended on our reactions more than the blast of wind and deluge of water? Continue reading