Where art meets science
Posted on | January 12, 2010 | No Comments
For a tantalizing version of how and if this lovely graphic from NOAA’s Global Forecast System might reflect appreciable rain for the Southwestern US, go to Ken Clark’s AccuWeather.com news and blogs.
Via Aquafornia.
Or to find your local forecast, click here and enter your zip code.
“Nowhere to go except heaven”
Posted on | January 11, 2010 | No Comments
Flying higher: This butterfly, Clodius Parnassian (Parnassius clodius), is more common at the top of its elevation range on Castle Peak than in the past. Photo credit: Heather Dwyer / UC Davis.
Under pressure from habitat loss and climate change, California butterfly diversity is falling fast at low elevations, according to an analysis by UC Davis lepidopterist Arthur Shapiro.
Meanwhile, according to the study, to be published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, butterfly diversity is actually going up at tree line. The cause, reports the UC Davis news service, is lower-elevation species reacting to the warming climate by moving upslope to higher, cooler elevations.
However, there is only so high they can go and the report also finds that diversity among high elevation butterflies is falling as temperatures become uncomfortably warm for them and, Shapiro says, “There is nowhere to go except heaven.”
For the news service article describing Shapiro’s analysis, click here. For Shapiro’s delightful site devoted to the butterflies of central California, click here.
The week that was, 1/3-9/2010
Posted on | January 10, 2010 | 1 Comment
Map: US Geological Survey. Source: "Estimated Use of Water in the Tennessee River Watershed in 2000 and Projections of Water Use to 2030." Click on the image to be taken to the article.
“We weren’t very popular during the drought.” — Chuck Bach, general manager for river scheduling for the Tennessee Valley Authority, in the January 5, 2010 Chattanooga Times Free Press article “High-water mark” on how the TVA began 2010 with more water stored in reservoirs above Chattanooga than at the end of any previous year since the authority erected its network of dams in the 1930s and 1940s
…there is a reason the river carries the name “Tennessee.” — Mike Bell, Representative, Tennessee General Assembly, “High-water mark,” Chattanooga Times Free Press, January 5, 2010
“When you hear people say to Georgia, ‘Leave our water alone,’ they need to remember that Georgia already supplies much of what is in that river to start with.” — David Ashburn, North Georgia Water Planning Council, “High water-mark,” Chattanooga Times Free Press, January 5, 2010
“Bringing Coke from Atlanta would be a great thing.” — Maureen Patterson, vice president of stakeholder relations for the Dayton Development Coalition, developers of the H2OpenforBusiness campaign to lure businesses to Ohio, “Region’s water to be marketed to draw new businesses,” Dayton Daily News, January 5, 2010
Click here to keep reading The week that was
“Underground Rivers”
Posted on | January 8, 2010 | 1 Comment
Via WaterWired: A draft version of the new book “Underground Rivers from the River Styx to the Rio San Buenaventura with occasional diversions” by University of New Mexico engineer Richard J. Heggen is available to download for free. For a fuller background on Heggen, go to WaterWired. To download the draft chapters, click here.
Whiskey’s for drinking at CBS
Posted on | January 8, 2010 | 1 Comment
Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting
No sooner has Lesley Stahl snapped shut her dictionary of Twain quotes* used in the recent CBS show “60 Minutes” on the California water crisis as it’s been opened again to the same page — this time by the network’s Atlanta-based reporter Mark Strassmann for a CBS Evening News broadcast.
This time one of the figures driving the network to drinking cliches is the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s general manager Pat Mulroy, who will appear on CBS Evening News tonight to discuss American water shortages, including those of her agency covering Las Vegas. Those who don’t buy that serving unfettered development in the Mojave Desert qualifies her as a conservationist may need to start drinking now. To see how heavily, click here.
*See the Albuquerque Journal’s John Fleck at Inkstain on the veracity of the Twain attribution. This post has been updated.
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