The week that was, March 20-26, 2016

Posted on | March 26, 2016 | No Comments

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Click on the image to read about this undersea world depicted by General Motors’ “Futurama II” at the New York 1964 World Fair.

Eight “bionauts”, as they called themselves, lived for two years locked inside this crystalline, nuclear bunker. Its huge vaulted structures contained a tropical rain forest, a grassland savannah, a mangrove wetland and salt-water ocean, complete with coral reef — everything one might possibly need to weather the apocalypse. It was described in the press as a “planet in a bottle,” “Eden revisited” and “Greenhouse Ark”… By the time [the bionauts] emerged, the utopia they envisaged had descended into chaos, and the experiment was acknowledged as a failure. Time magazine would call it one of the “50 worst ideas of the 20th century”. — Bohemians, Bauhaus and bionauts: the utopian dreams that became architectural nightmaresThe Guardian, 3/25/16 

The question White House officials are asking is simple: What could the federal government do that wouldn’t cost much but that would change how we think about water? The best and simplest answer: Fix water data. — Water is broken. Data can fix it, New York Times, 3/17/16*

Sadly, climate change is forcing us into the Management Era before we got good at the Information Era. Now we have to do both at the same time. — “More data” falls in the middle, On the Public Record, 3/25/16

“The feds think the tribes are working with the states and the states think the feds are working with and speaking for the tribes,” Lewis said. “Neither happens and the tribes get left out. We have no more time left. We all look forward to being proactive and working together in a collaborative fashion.” — Tucson, Phoenix herald water sharing deal at White House summit, Arizona Daily Star, 3/23/16

  • A temperature increase of 5-7 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century;
  • A precipitation increase over the northwestern and north-central portions of the Western U.S. and a decrease over the southwestern and south-central areas;
  • A decrease for almost all of the April 1st snowpack, a standard benchmark measurement used to project river basin runoff;
  • A 7 to 27 percent decrease in April to July stream flow in several river basins, including the Colorado, the Rio Grande, and the San Joaquin.
    • — Four bullet points of US Bureau of Reclamation predictions for the American Southwest presented at the White House Summit on Water, SECURE Water Act Report to Congress, 3/22/16

A middle ground will have to be sought on the issue of water – or the country is facing another election. — Irish Independent, 3/26/16  

“The ocean doesn’t belong to the fishing industry.’  — Peter Shelley, Conservation Law Foundation, Obama administration decides against designating Gulf of Maine waters as national monument, Boston Globe 3/25/16

In short, there is a quiet revolution going on in the vast blue expanses of Britain’s overseas territories, with the gradual development of policies and technologies to protect and restore populations of fish, birds and coral reefs. — Commentary, Britain leads the world in saving our blue planet: A quiet revolution is going on to protect hundreds of unique species in the waters surrounding UK overseas territories, Times of London, 3/21/16 

“No one knew.” — Member of the City of Bloomfield’s, conservation, energy and environment committee on a plan to sell 1.8m gallons of public water a day cheaply to a private bottler, In Connecticut suburb, a water war breaks out, Wall Street Journal, 3/25/16

Click on the image to learn about osprey migration from the Center for Cosnervation Biology.

Click on the image to learn about osprey migration from the Center for Cosnervation Biology.

“It is good to see the city taking measures to protect the award-winning drinking water residents rely on against large-scale bottling operations that could threaten long-term supply.” — WaterWealth Project spokesman Ian Stephen, Chilliwack says no to water bottlers to protect aquiferThe Chilliwack Progress, 3/24/16 

“Bottled water isn’t in competition against tap water, it’s in competition against other beverages.” — Canadian Beverage Association lobbyist Martin-Pierre Pelletier, Montreal mayor’s musings on bottled water ban prompt beverage industry to hire lobbyist, Canadian Press/Toronto Star,  3/21/16

The return of the ospreys became, in the second half of the 20th century, the most exciting conservation story in our history. Hail the osprey, king of the water: Country view with Keith Graham, Stirling Observer,  3/25/16 

If Robles were to put his Carson constituents above his own interests, he would resign from the water board. — Water bills shouldn’t subsidize Carson mayor’s legal billsThe Editorial Board. Daily Breeze, 3/24/16  

… the plume remains four to five miles from the aquifer. — Florida Power & Light faces  suit over canal [Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station] leak, Florida Sun – Sentinel, 3/24/16

… it is only when the ground is opened up that you can fully understand what has survived 19th century industrialization. — Warren Bailie, archaeologist, 800-year-old castle found in Patrick during Scottish Water work, Glasgow Evening Times, 3/23/16

*from the week before the week that was.

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