Chance of Rain

April uploaded

EmilyGreen — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:25:57 +0000

Hikes. Tours. Bugs. Plants. Landscape design courses. Spring. Southern California April dry garden event listings newly loaded. Or click here for March. If you have an event that you would like added to the calendar, please e-mail details to emily.green [@] mac.com.

Rain in Spain

EmilyGreen — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:29:57 +0000

FROM NASA’s Earth Observatory: left is an image of southern Spain showing the course of the Guadalquivir River past Seville in March 2009. To the right is an image from March 2010, with blue areas around the river bank showing extensive flooding from late February rain. Click here to see the full resolution images.

Manufacturing a mirage

EmilyGreen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:16:15 +0000

Source: The Weather Doctor. Click on the image to be taken to a tutorial on, for want of a better word, "real" mirages.

No news is no news, unless you’re selling water in the desert, in which case, you’re probably pretty good at making it up. Hats off to Cadiz, Inc for today announcing the name of the drilling company that they will prefer for a groundwater mining project that hasn’t undergone environmental review yet. Making premature announcements is one way to make the project look further along than it is for shareholders, but the main intent seems to be to stoke local political support for the project by dangling the promise of jobs.

The week that was 2/28-3/6/2010

EmilyGreen — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:50:21 +0000

Before and after the flooding in La Faute sur Mer (France). Source: Spot Image. The SPOT 4 satellite acquired an image on March 2nd that reflects the extent of the flooding on the coast and the island of Ré. Click on the photos to be taken to Spot Image.

“We have winds this strong every year, but what wasn’t emphasized by the French government, or weather services, was the fact that the winds would be combined with a high tide.” — French hotelier Mario Hamelin, “Atlantic storm Xynthia kills dozens in Western Europe,” Los Angeles Times, March 1, 2010

“We have to ask how in France, in the 21st century, families can be surprised in their sleep and drown in their homes.” – French President Nicolas Sarkozy, “Europe storm death toll at 62; France hardest hit,” Associated Press, March 1, 2010

“High tides are higher today.” — Chris Bergh, director of the Florida Keys…

Notes on a skirmish

EmilyGreen — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:14:41 +0000

Goliath wasn’t really trying, didn’t really want to win and it never really was a contest. That’s the upshot of the response from the Southern Nevada Water Authority after a proposed amendment to do with its massive haul of water awards out of central Nevada failed to pass during the special session of state legislature, which closed early Monday.

Those opposing the amendment along with the SNWA’s proposed pipeline into the heart of the state claimed a huge victory. Dozens of Vegas lobbyists turned away! A great day for justice, the small man, everything good!

The Las Vegas water authority shrugged it off, saying that it had been working for the amendment in Carson City simply to help a beleaguered state natural resources agency protect thousands of water awards threatened as a byproduct of a nuisance suit brought by the pipeline protestors.

There was, to be sure, some swift and effective lawyering for…