 Water on my mind (Photo: Scott MacKenzie) As the rains fall here in Northern California, and snowstorms pound the Northeast of the United States, water is on my mind. It is a topic that is of vital importance but continues to be misunderstood. Perhaps most importantly, it is at the center of considerations that must be taken into account in considering how humanity will adapt to climate change.
A recent article in Reuters highlighted this very issue, discussing how “water should have a more central role in debates on food security, peace, climate change and recovery from the financial crisis.”
More to the point, “efforts to combat global warming will themselves put more strains on water because of rival economic demands — such as for irrigation, biofuels or hydropower.” Continue reading Water Security and Conflict on a Changing Planet
 Everything always looks a bit brighter after it rains This past week my girlfriend and I headed south through California to enjoy a little retreat together before an extended time apart. It is a drive I have done countless times, but it is considerably more enjoyable with company. We started off in Davis, and drove all the way south to San Diego, with plans to head back north through Los Angeles and then Santa Barbara on our way home toward San Francisco, and for Lisa, then off to Cambodia.
This past summer we made a similar drive down I-5 but were met with very different views. January and February have been wet months in California and instead of wide blue skies we were met with gray ones. In September 2009 water was on a lot of people’s minds in California, and none more so than the farmers of Central California. The state’s three yearlong drought (with a fourth on the way) had been especially hard on the Central Valley’s agricultural heartland, and there were dusty reminders of those troubles everywhere you looked (see a previous post on California’s drought and water woes). Continue reading A Drive Through Water, Weather, and Erosion in Southern California
Every time I end up at GOOD.is, I find something sweet. Check out this gem (click for larger image):
Bless the Italians. Sustainability is sexy.
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I just finished watching a stunning visual documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand called HOME. The film, released last summer and available to watch free online, shows our planet in all of its natural beauty through high definition aerial photography. But accompanying this natural beauty, are images depicting a wide range of the global environmental problems routinely discussed here such as deforestation, climate change, water shortages, and poverty.
By putting a human face and bringing to life these problems, the film has a very powerful message: that we humans have dramatically altered not only the majority of the planet’s landscape, but the fundamental chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans. And without a dramatic change in our current trajectory, we will push many of these the planets already stressed systems past the breaking point.
While most many of the visuals are a bit depressing, the film ends on a positive note with a series of positive actions and trends being taken around the world. As the narrator says, “It’s too late to be a pessimist.”
I encourage you to watch the film. You won’t be disappointed.
The US and China Unveil Clean Energy Collaboration
During President Obama’s visit to China, the two countries presented a comprehensive strategy for collaborative efforts focused on clean energy and low carbon technologies. Read some analysis by Julian Wong at Climate Progress and at his blog, the Green Leap Forward.
South Korea Pledges Aggressive Emission Cuts
South Korea laid out voluntary plans to reduce greenhouse gases 30% of current levels by 2020. The effort could put more pressure on developed nations to agree to stricter targets, and position South Korea as a leader in transitioning toward a low-carbon economy. Read more here.
Solar Technology and Leap-frogging to Sustainability
An article from the good folks at GOOD about the importance of solar power in sustainable development for the world’s rural poor. Check it out.
The Role of Agriculture in Driving Greenhouse Gas Emissions
An informative article from the Earth Institute’s Climate Matters blog about the way in which advances in agricultural production have changed the dynamics of greenhouse gas emissions related to agriculture. Read more here.
Climate Change, Food Security, and Water
A look at the interconnection of food security and climatic changes, such as increased drought and changing weather patterns, at the recent FAO summit in Rome. Read more at Circle of Blue Waternews.
In the backroom of the Barcelona round of negotiations leading up to Copenhagen, a small group convened to discuss the role of freshwater security in addressing climate change. It has been a difficult item to get on the agenda. International climate negotiations are packed with political interests vying for exposure and consideration, and water is as politically sensitive a topic as any. But it is also one of the most important, and linking the two issues is a necessary next step.
 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/suburbanbloke/ Water strikes a chord with us. More so than global warming and climate change, water security is a conceptually more tangible and alarming challenge to the vast majority of people around the planet. It is immediate. It is health and sanitation, food security, and living with floods and drought. When water is compromised the consequences are far reaching. Whether supplying water for agricultural, industrial, or energy production, balancing rural and urban water demand, transporting and treating supplies, or ensuring water delivery to maintain healthy ecosystem functioning, without water, costs go up across the board. Continue reading Linking Water Security and Climate Change
Source: DWR (http://www.water.ca.gov/newsroom/photo/ag/groundwater_banking1.jpg)
Last week California passed a landmark water package. In a state facing its third year of drought it is an important step, but before the state’s political leaders congratulate themselves on a job well done, we should remind ourselves that it just that, a step. The state’s aging water infrastructure and conveyance system are still decades overdue for repair, some levees dangerously so, and the ecological condition of the state’s important waterways are still severely compromised – passing the bills through begins the work ahead, it does not complete it. California is still a major earthquake away from a water crisis becoming something much more. Supply is still projected to decline. Passing the water package is an important step toward accelerating the work that needs to be done, and whether that will actually come to pass remains to be seen.
Efforts to restructure the state’s water laws and policies have been highly contentious. What has emerged is a series of compromises from both sides, but with some important priority areas relatively intact. The water package will establish caps on overall water usage, dramatically increase Delta restoration efforts, as well as create a Delta Plan and Stewardship Council to oversee governance of the waterway. It will also move the state toward stricter groundwater monitoring and enforcement of illegal diversions. A bond measure costing roughly $11 billion to finance many of these programs will go before voters next November.
The bill’s effectiveness remains to be seen, and as some experts have pointed out, it still leaves some important questions unanswered. As Peter Gleick points out in a recent piece, the bill didn’t quite go far enough – it is lacking effective accounting for all water use across the state, a means to ensure that governing bodies have the resources and authority to make good on the governance needs for water use in the Delta, as well as any sort of framework to move the state toward requiring a user fee for our water consumption. Not to mention the issue of a new peripheral canal to improve water conveyance to water users in southern parts of the state.
Given the divisiveness and heated debate that our efforts at water reform have stirred up, how do we stay focused on the issue? This is important because how the state plans to follow through on the bill is where things really get interesting, and will be a determining factor in California’s water future.
 Here are some items in the news that we found this past week that are worth a read:
At the Intersection of Conflict and Environment
What is the role of natural resources and the environment in conflict and post conflict settings? Watch an interview with David Jensen by Geoff Dabelko at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program. David is a Policy Manager at UNEP’s Post Conflict and Disaster Management Branch, and the interview focuses on his work and experiences in this cutting edge and very important field.
Did Kyoto Work?
In looking forward to the negotiations for a new climate treaty in Copenhagen, how well has the Kyoto Protocol (set to expire in 2012) done in its objectives? Kyoto Climate Treaty’s Greenhouse ‘Success’ at Science News has all the answers.
The Freakout over Superfreakanomics
Steve Levitt, author of Freakanomics, went to Neil’s high school. While we both enjoyed his first book, his latest effort, Superfreakanomics, has stirred up controversy because of a chapter called ‘Global Cooling’ that appears to be riddled with climate science errors. An open letter to Steve Levitt by a colleague of his at the University of Chicago (posted at Real Climate) takes aim at one incorrect assertion of the chapter – that the use of solar panels is detrimental to the climate because they are black and absorb sunlight, thereby contributing to global warming. The author of the letter uses simple arithmetic and a fair dose of dry humor to get his point across, and it is an excellent read.
Climate Change – Who Wins, Who Loses?
Which societies will fare best in a world increasingly altered by climate change? Read an interesting piece at Yale360 by Gaia Vince, the former news editor at Nature, about some of the factors that will shape how different societies adapt to a changing global environment.
Landmark Water Reform in California
California has passed a historic water bill after months of political back and forth. The bill puts caps on overall water usage across the state. Is it the best bill, could California have done better, and what obstacles remain? Hear what Peter Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute, has to say about it.
Coal Bites the Dust
Another coal power plant proposal is canceled – this time in Minnesota and South Dakota.
 California’s Central Valley reaches about 400 miles, from Bakersfield in the south to Redding in the north, encompassing a stretch of land roughly the size of Tennessee. The region is also home to some of the most fertile and productive soils in the world.
Over millennia, sedimentation from the Sierra Nevada mountains to the east has been deposited into the valley below through annual snow melt and run-off, delivering rich silt into what is now an expansive and elaborate system of farms and burgeoning towns. From the sky high above on a clear day, the view below is one of beautiful earthen hues; an organic patchwork quilt of land and streams, farms and reservoirs, and threaded by aqueducts and roads.
Agricultural production is big business in this part of the world, and understandably so, California is the world’s fifth largest exporter of agricultural goods. One need only take a quick stroll to their local grocery store to find proof; about half of all fruits, vegetables and nuts stocked on shelves across the US are coming from the Golden State.
But California is also a thirsty state, and one that is in the third year of an extreme drought that has placed increasing stress on a complicated myriad of water rights, laws, and an aging and outdated network of storage and distribution infrastructure. Reservoirs are low throughout the state, particularly in the fertile Central Valley, and there is growing concern and frustrations mounting over the inability of lawmakers in Sacramento to work out a deal to more effectively manage and maintain the state’s freshwater resources. Continue reading Waters Run Dry in California
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