Aug
8
Wally’s Warming World Warning
August 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Time for a shout-out to a remarkable scientist (thanks to columbiawater for alerting me to this).
Thirty-five years ago, on this date in 1975, renowned geoscientist Wallace (Wally) Broecker published a seminal paper in Science titled,“Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?“. To say that Broecker was prescient is an understatement.
Here is the abstract:
If man-made dust [...]
Aug
2
The Western Governors’ Association and the Western States Water Council will sponsor a two-day workshop in DC, 14-15 September 2010, on: Drought, Climate and Water: Using Today’s Information and Designing Tomorrow’s Services.
Here is a copy of the flyer:
Download Western States Water Council Conf Info
PURPOSE: To bring together a diverse group of federal, tribal, state, and local [...]
Jul
26
Report: Evaluating Sustainability of Water Demands in 2050 Under Climate Change
July 26, 2010 | 3 Comments
Tetra Tech and the Natural Resources Defense Council have just released the report, Evaluating Sustainability of Projected Water Demands under Future Climate Change Scenarios.
From the WWW site:
Climate change will impact water supplies, exacerbating existing pressures on water resources caused by population and economic growth. Given the combination of these stressors, the sustainability of water resources [...]
May
8
A group of National Academy of Sciences members, led by Peter H. Gleick, submitted a Letter to the editor of Science [7 May 2010] on the issue of climate change and the integrity of science.
Download Climate_statement
We are deeply disturbed by the recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists in particular. All [...]
Mar
16
Whom To Believe: Climate-Change Deniers or World’s Scientific Societies?
March 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Peter Gleick’s recent post is a wonderful summary of some of the climate-change position statements of some of the world’s most prestigious scientific societies: AGU, GSA, AAAS, ESA, ACS, EPS, IUGG, APS, et al. He also includes positions of the national science academies of the G8 + 5 nations.
And, as he says, don’t take [...]
Jun
19
Santa Clara Valley Water District’s Climate Change Portal
June 19, 2009 | 2 Comments
Bob Teeter, the librarian at the SCV Water District, just sent this information to me.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District has a new Climate Change Portal page where interested users can follow the latest reports on climate change. We think it will be particularly useful for those in the water industry on the West Coast, [...]
May
29
Western Water: Words of Wisdom
May 29, 2009 | 2 Comments
Two days ago I finally met Sarah Bates, who is one of the best thinkers and writers on Western USA water and land issues. I have known of Sarah’s work for almost 20 years, ever since she collaborated with the late Marc Reisner to produce Overtapped Oasis: Reform or Revolution for Western Water, the ’sequel’ [...]
May
23
May-June 2009 Southwest Hydrology: Beyond Stationarity
May 23, 2009 | 1 Comment
The May-June 2009 issue of Southwest Hydrology features Beyond Stationarity.
By stationarity we mean, that statistically speaking (e.g., means, standard deviations), the future looks like the past, whether we are talking about precipitation, runoff, or other flows in the hydrologic cycle.The assumption of stationarity allows engineers to design dams, calculate flood return periods, etc., with some [...]
Apr
10
Foreign Affairs’ Climate Change Reading List
April 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Foreign Affairs just posted this list of What to Read on Climate Change.
From the introduction:
Climate change is one of today’s most important and far-reaching policy challenges, destined to affect the planet’s future in various ways for generations to come. Although research continues on its extent, its causes, and the appropriate responses, more than enough is already [...]
Feb
25
Bob Hirsch Opines on Climate Change and Water Resources, Part 2: Actionable Science, Adaptation, Advice
February 25, 2009 | 2 Comments
Yesterday I posted Part 1 of this two-parter in which Bob Hirsch left us with two thoughts:
1) search for actionable science and 2) adapt to uncertainty.
Actionable Science
So what is ‘actionable science’? Bob gave these three quotes:
Data analysis, and forecasts that are sufficiently predictive, accepted, and understandable to support decision-making, including capital investment decision making. — [...]









