Los Angeles fires from the Earth Observatory
From top left to right, these images of the Los Angeles fires were captured on August 29th, August 30th, August 31st, September 2nd, September 3rd, September 6th and September 7th. The second to final image, taken September 6th, uses infrared definition to show the smoldering remains in black of the Los Angeles National Forest. The final one uses colorization to better define burn areas from where fire remains and unburned areas. Click twice on the image for a large version with helpful graphics overlaid.
To be taken to the Earth Observatory, click here.
9/3/2009: For Angelenos who think it’s all about us, it’s not. For information about wildfires burning across the West, click here for the National Interagency Fire Center.
9/15/2009: From NASA: Space Craft Talk Continued during JPL Wildfire Threat: As the flames of the raging brush fire dubbed the Station Fire threatened the northern …
Interior appropriations chair questions legality of Cadiz pipeline right-of-way
US SENATOR Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chair of the Interior appropriations committee, has challenged Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to certify the legality of plans by Cadiz Inc to use a 42-mile-long stretch of a Mojave railway line for part of a groundwater project in San Bernardino County.
Meanwhile, lobbyists for the speculators behind the project, Cadiz Inc, have been courting Southland public utilities to sign on to the project, possibly including a lucrative groundwater contract with the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power.
UPDATE: 8/31/2009, 4.02pm — Cadiz reply after the jump
FURTHER UPDATE: 9/2/2009 — LADWP update after the jump…
A walk in the woods with Cleverly and Fleck
SAN ACACIA, NM — When the weather heats up, James Cleverly’s instruments can detect the moisture coming off this little patch of woods alongside the Rio Grande.
Once the heat dries out the surface soil, the plants’ roots tap into deeper water, bringing it up and “transpiring” it through their leaves — essentially exhaling water, explained Cleverly, a University of New Mexico biologist.
Because the river and the nearby groundwater are closely linked, this ultimately means less water in the river.
The story Cleverly’s instruments are telling, scientists say, is increasingly important to understanding what will happen to water supplies in New Mexico and across the West in a warming world. …
Click here to keep reading John Fleck’s science column in the Albuquerque Journal.
Click or here for links to studies by James Cleverly. To visit John’s blog, jfleck at inkstain, click here.…
The week that was, 8/23-29/2009
A massive mechanical mole surfaced on Wednesday from a nearly 5-year journey under [the San Bernardino] mountains in the final stages of a $1.2 billion tunnel project that will supply extra water to drought-hit Southern California. –– August 20th Reuters report via August 27th comment in Aguanomics
“Every jock thinks he can run a restaurant.” — Chris Matthews on MSNBC commenting during a cutaway to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger mingling among more seasoned politicians at Ted Kennedy’s funeral
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The Dry Garden: “If you want to save energy, save water”
WEEK before last, more than 1,000 climate experts from around the world gathered in Stockholm for World Water Week. If you didn’t read about it or hear about it on TV, it’s not necessarily because of the crisis besetting modern journalism. It could easily be the subject. If there is anything that can clear a room faster than a plague of toads, it’s discussion of climate change and water.
Peter Gleick, a MacArthur fellow and president of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, was in Stockholm for the meeting. He is, above any Californian, our man on the unmentionable.
So are there ways to address this topic, I asked Gleick recently, without leaving everyone feeling utterably depressed and helpless? Absolutely, Gleick responded. “If you want to save energy, save water.”
To keep reading Emily Green’s latest Dry Garden column in the Los Angeles Times, click here.
Correction: In an …
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