‘Charismatic megafauna’ arrive in Copenhagen
Posted on | December 15, 2009 | 1 Comment
For the Guardian's climate conference feature Copenhagen in pictures: Day 9, click on the body-builder turned actor and politician with the persistent tan that prompted LA Times columnist Steve Lopez to wonder if the governor of California had been "dipped in a bucket of Tang."
Until today, Copenhagen’s most famous citizen was a girl with a fishy tail sitting on a rock, reports the Guardian’s John Vidal. No more. The day saw the big beasts of the green jungle arrive — what ecologists would term the “charismatic megafauna,” intent on adding their weight and lustre to the struggling climate negotiation.
First up was “Governator” Arnold Schwarzenegger, who arrived at the conference centre with 10 men in black with wires sprouting from their ears, a phalanx of cameramen and a perma-tan. Lesser beasts, like mere ministers, diplomats, UN chiefs and state governors, bowed before him.
“Arnie is a climate activist hero, his words are short, his actions long, he reaches out to all of us. No one has done more for climate, he is an exemplary role model,” scraped Gordon Campbell, the governor of British Columbia, who was chosen to welcome him.
“Dat’s the way I wrote it,” said the green-tied beast with perfect teeth, who recalled he had once been to Copenhagen as a body builder. “Some will say da world will melt and we will all die; but I say this conference is already a success. Copenhagen makes us think differently. We are beginning one of history’s great transitions,” he said, before adding with menace: “I am governor of California and I have the right to brag … I will be back.”
To keep reading the Guardian sketch, click here.
Wherever the governor of British Columbia got his script, it seems unlikely that any Californians were canvassed. To translate the Britishism “scraped:” it is a shortened version of the expression “to bow and scrape,” which means to behave obsequiously.
To switch scenes from a governor who in California is best known for campaigning from Hummer dealerships and whose latest action for the environment was an attempt to overturn protections for collapsing salmon populations, it merits turning the page to an authentic ambassador for the environment. The Guardian links to the full speech delivered today by the Prince of Wales. From the text: “… when it comes to the air we breathe and the water we drink, there are no national boundaries. We all depend on each other – and, crucially, on each other’s actions – for our weather, our food, our water and our energy. These are the ‘tectonic plates’ on which the peace and stability of the international community rest.”
This post has been updated.
Central Valley groundwater mining detected from space
Posted on | December 15, 2009 | No Comments
Approximate location of maximum subsidence in the United States identified by research efforts of Dr. Joseph F. Poland (pictured). Signs on pole show approximate altitude of land surface in 1925, 1955, and 1977. The site is in the San Joaquin Valley southwest of Mendota, California. Source: USGS. Click on the image to be taken to a groundwater subsidence fact sheet.
PASADENA, California — New space observations reveal that since October 2003, the aquifers for California’s primary agricultural region — the Central Valley — and its major mountain water source — the Sierra Nevadas — have lost nearly enough water combined to fill Lake Mead, America’s largest reservoir, reports the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. To keep reading the JPL news release, click here.
Legislation that would have required monitoring of groundwater in the Central Valley was gutted at the last minute from the raft of water bills passed by the California legislature this fall at the behest of the agricultural lobby.
This happened in spite of US Geological Survey reports last summer of Central Valley subsidence caused by ground water overdrafts so severe that it threatens the California Aqueduct with collapse. On September 4th, the USGS announced its own satellite study to analyze the threat to the Aqueduct.
To read Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, on the severity of the Central Valley groundwater overdraft when the the subsidence dangers were publicized last summer, click here and on the lastest NASA study, here. The lowdown: Gleick wants to send the legislature back to the drawing board on groundwater monitoring.
Among reactions from elsewhere around the water wires, economist David Zetland makes no attempt to disguise his disgust at Aguanomics. From New Mexico, the Albuquerque Journal’s John Fleck sees it as a case of tragedy of the common at his personal website, inkstain. On the public record, one of the savvier and easily the funniest water blog in California, crunches JPL’s numbers, finds them consistent with what the state Water Plan estimates, but complains about the mixed measures used to convey the overdraft. As usual, Aquafornia is on all the latest California water stories.
This post was updated at 3.58pm, 12/16/2009. The second Gleick link, the water blog round-up and USGS photo were added.
Tags: Central Valley > chance of rain > Emily Green > Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The week that was, 12/6-12/2009
Posted on | December 13, 2009 | No Comments
A man watches an animated projection showing the different acidity levels of the ocean. Photograph: Miguel Villagran/Getty Images. Click on the image to be taken to the London Guardian's "Copenhagen in pictures: Day two."
Most of us aren’t chemists, but it’s not hard to understand that a more acidic ocean will change what can live there. — Dave Kubiak, retired teacher and fisherman from Kodiak, Alaska, “Increasingly acidic ocean threatens fish,” Alaska Daily News, December 9, 2009
Click here to keep reading The week that was
The Dry Garden: Capturing the spirit of LA’s streams
Posted on | December 11, 2009 | No Comments
Contemporary map of the Ballona Creek watershed with overlay of 1902 streams and wetlands. Source: "Seeking Streams" by Jessica Hall et al, 606 Studio, Cal Poly Pomona.
WHEN it snows in the mountains and rains in the basin, Jessica Hall thinks of the lost streams of Los Angeles. In fact, she thinks of them all the time. For the last nine years, the 41-year-old garden designer has been retracing the paths of the native creeks, streams and springs that once ran wild before they were filled in and paved for homes.
In the process, Hall has come to believe that the best town planning and landscape design principles for the future may lie in understanding the habits of the watercourses of the past.
Those who missed the profile of Hall last August by Times staff writer Hector Tobar have a treat in store reading about how Hall tracked down Sacatela Creek, a jewel of a waterway that once flowed from what is now the Shakespeare Bridge in Franklin Hills to the Ambassador Hotel in mid-Wilshire. If Los Angeles ever wakes up to the potential of “daylighting” lost waterways, Hall will have been part of the story.
But this column picks up where the Tobar article left off, in particular to ask: What has this Princeton architecture graduate learned chasing streams that may be applied to capturing storm water at home and making the good choices when designing a garden?
Click here to keep reading about Jessica Hall in the Los Angeles Times Dry Garden column.
Tags: chance of rain > Jessica Hall > Los Angeles Times > Los Angeles watersheds
El Nino intensified in November, NASA reports
Posted on | December 11, 2009 | 1 Comment
OCEAN conditions known as ‘El Nino’ and associated with wet winters in California intensified in November, reports the NASA Earth Observatory today. For a satellite photo of this week’s storm, click here.
For National Weather Service forecasts of continuing rain, click here. For preliminary rainfall amounts in greater Los Angeles from last night’s showers, here.
Elsewhere around the world and the web, the New York Times has a simple, informative interactive map showing which countries are at the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen and what they seek. To access it, click here. For a Los Angeles Times update from the negotiating floor, click here. For Day 5 of the Copenhagen conference caught in pictures in the London Guardian, click on the kid in the hat.
This post was updated at 12.31pm, December 11, 2009. The Los Angeles Times negotiation report was added.
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