The week that was, 5/9-15/2010
Image source: NASA. Click on the Maryland blue crab for an Earth Observatory article about habitat loss, water quality problems and the state of the fisheries of the Chesapeake Bay. Or click on the President's executive order, or hyper link to the plan summary (right), to read about last week's unveiling of a 15-year-long restoration program for America's largest estuary
“The Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure.” — Barack Obama, Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration, Executive Order, May 12, 2010
The plan is both ambitious and vague … –– “Obama administration announces Chesapeake Bay strategy,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, May 13, 2010
This time … the EPA is legally obligated to achieve the goals established in the settlement. —“Chesapeake Bay settlement has EPA agreeing to enforce pollution reduction goals,” Washington Post, May 12, 2010
…Callie Angell
I don’t know if I remember rightly that Callie’s cat was called Clara back in the 1970s, when Callie and I were closest, but I do know that Clara had an unusual meow.
“What’s your favorite kind of computer?” Callie would ask.
“Wang,” Clara would say.
The news of Callie’s death by suicide has brought much comment about her dedication to avant garde film, Warhol in particular, the most beautiful by Jim Hoberman in the Village Voice. But the Callie I knew had a life outside of screening rooms.
This born New Yorker loved a small lake and family lakehouse just outside the city. There were snapping turtles, which she would watch snare unaware birds. Sitting on the porch on humid evenings was never dull. Lightning storms could cast freakish bolts that would come in through the porch and zizzle through the house until they raced out of a door. …
The Dry Garden: Watered to death?
Nobody wants to live in the house with the fallen tree, squashed sedan and news truck out front. Nobody wants to learn the definition of what arborists call the “wind sail effect” after “tree failure.”
Click here to keep reading The Dry Garden in the Los Angeles Times. …
Better red than dead
Nano update: Ed Osann explains at the NRDC Switchboard how the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s conservation program on Tuesday escaped cutting or even cancellation by a board seeking immediate economies. Via Aquafornia.…
Plumb wrong
Thank you to Matt Heberger of ebmgh.com for sharing this gem off a hydrozone graphic, which he spotted as he opened up his latest water bill from the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Go to his post “Earth to East Bay MUD: Are you stupid, clueless or what?” to see him explain climate zones to the hydrozone guys, then offer alternate (better) schematics. The coup de grass is when he refers to recent water ordinances that show the East Bay MUD schematic out of compliance.
While East Bay MUD is clearly (and very possibly passively) promoting wasteful landscaping, it could be that its hydrozone web page is merely mis-categorized under “conservation tips.” Nowhere in the text on the web version does it pretend to conservation value. Rather, it’s illustrating the concept of irrigation zones, mainly for turf.
And here’s the weird part: The irrigation zones in the …
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