Sustainable Development Scenes from Los Angeles

This past week we took a family vacation to LA touring Universal and Warner Brothers studios, Malibu, Long Beach aquarium and whale watching, Legoland, and more. We visited friends in Koreatown and Burbank. Lingering effects from severe drought that ended last winter are still very evident. Burnt brush from an 18-acre fire in Burbank only six weeks ago is still very dramatic and fortunately no homes were lost but there was a lot of smoke.

Hollywood and Beverley Hills are well known style and fashion trend setters with the envy of the world watching so sustainable development actions taken here could catch on. Very noticeable and surprising are the variety of ways people are making sustainable actions including:

·         Planting a fruit and vegetable garden in their front yard

·         Replacing dead lawns with artificial grass

·         Using recycled water for large areas including parks and universities

·         Active solar collection

·         Charging stations for electric cars

·         Environmental education programs

For photo examples of these sustainable developments, see the picture gallery.

Interesting Eco Books for Our Reading Pleasure

Here are some books available at the local library that I’ve found most interesting reading this summer:

Edward O. Wilson, 2016 Half Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life

David Grinspoon, 2016 Earth in Human Hands: Shaping Our Planet’s Future

Auden Schendler, 2009 Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution

Jeffrey D. Sachs, 2008 Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet

Unshakeable Sustainability

A great new book by Tony Robbins -- Unshakeable: Your Financial Freedom Playbook, Creating Peace of Mind in a World of Volatility.

The book is filled with inspiring wisdom from some of the most and least famous investors showing us how to create an all-weather portfolio. I mentioned this book to my stock adviser who said I should think about applying this approach to my passion for environmental sustainability!

In coming blogs, I will take on this exciting challenge to see what we can do to create PEACE OF MIND for current and future generations in terms of ensuring adequate supplies of air, energy, food, water, and other essential resources that are being extremely exploited.

Living in the Now and Planning for More than Just Today

I've heard a famous spiritual teacher say the past is like a cancelled check and the future is not here yet. We can live with our full awareness on the present moment while at the same time consider living our lives for more than just today. Anyone who wonders where their next meal will come from or where they will sleep at night is living day to day. Most people with jobs are living month to month and spending most of what they make on expenses and saving very little if anything. Getting a financial education for most of us is learning by the school of hard knocks and there is also luck involved - who could have predicted the housing market crash? My parents taught us to be generous while also being aware of how to make and keep a buck. For years I've said at work - another day another dollar!

Over the course of a career, we've learned to spend no more than 25% of our income on housing and find ways to pay off loans as quickly as possible. I always prefer a 15 year over a 30 year loan for the lower interest rates and total savings. The real estate industry may want us to buy a larger home and spend more than we really need as they get paid by commissions. Living within our means, separating our wants from our needs, and conserving resources works for our family; however, this is not typical in the consumer society where we always seem to want more. Consider we bought our 42" flat screen TV nine years ago. It is the only TV in our home. We've been admiring all the fancy new sets with 70" curved screens as a major want but not a need - only when our TV stops working can we justify getting a new one as we are content and grateful for what we have now. One financial planner said to consider not only the present cost but also the future compound interest. For example, investing instead of buying that $1,000 TV today results in about doubling the amount at 5% interest over 30 years. 

By analogy, how do we want (or need) to save and spend our natural resources? Do we want to search for water and food supplies on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis? Sustainability is really all about wise planning so we do not waste what we have and need now and not forsake our future. Perhaps society focused on consumption rather than saving for the future is great for corporate profits but not so great for future generations as populations increase and natural resources diminish. A great book on the topic is by E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation who advocates we must save half of the Earth to protect many species from extinction and ultimately if we are to save humanity as well. The Hopi society promotes the idea of considering how a decision we make might affect the next seven generations. I think about all the great civilizations that have come and gone including the Puebloans, Greeks and Romans and wonder if global consumerism promoting wants will eventually be extinguished by sustainable survivalists, like the Hopi, who are careful to control what they really need.

2016 Year in Review of Conserving and Pro$pering

We’ve made great progress in our family lifestyle this year by conserving energy, food, and water to become more healthy, wealthy, and wise. This website blog exercised and demonstrated our sustainability mindfulness to:

·         Doing more with less – becoming more efficient!

·         Improving our diet, exercise, mediation, prayer, and balancing use of technology

·         Discovering benefits of acupuncture, massage, and confronting/reducing stressful situations

·         Learning to make our own meat jerky that is less expensive and delicious without preservatives

·         Growing and eating inexpensive, organic vegetables by volunteering at a community garden

·         Adding a HVAC electrostatic air filter to improve indoor air quality

·         Saving drinking water supplies with drip irrigation landscaping

·         Drinking mostly water or milk and no soda pop drinks

·         Attending conferences and workshops on water sustainability

·         Speaking to school groups about natural resources and conservation

·         Conducting a home energy audit that allowed patching of leaks and better air circulation

·         Driving a Toyota Rav4 hybrid as the only family car which saved about $650 in fuel costs, 6,000 pounds of carbon dioxide not emitted to the air, and much improved safety and power features

·         Reading many books on sustainability as reviewed in several blogs

·         Becoming more aware of risks and threats to our lifestyle such as overconsumption, population growth, food and water scarcity, ignorance and denial of scientific evidence, and needless wasting of precious resources in a “use it or lose it” mentality

Without sounding too self-righteous, we still have many more opportunities to improve our lifestyle in 2017, such as becoming more self-sufficient by adding solar panels to our home or maybe supporting newer technologies like community modular nuclear reactors; purchasing an electric vehicle; becoming less dependent on banks, credit cards, or investing only in the stock market by building a variety of diverse assets; collecting rainwater (legalized in Colorado this year); planting fruit trees and stocking up on long shelf-life food supplies. Please let me know if you have comments or suggestions!

Happy New Year!

Keeping an Eye on Our Taxes, Spending and Fiscal Sustainability

In the year 2000, I had the great fortune to spend a week on Capitol Hill for a seminar to learn about the federal government and legislative process. The big news we heard discussed was what should the U.S. do with the annual budget surplus? Here is an interesting summary of what happened to the surplus.

See what Paul Krugman (2008 Nobel Prize for Economics) said in 2011 about fiscal irresponsibility and deficit spending as well as many of his poignant current blog posts. He cites the Bush tax cuts, wars, and the recession for our budget deficit problems.

I felt surprised in 2000 that many in Congress were not happy with the budget surplus and more comfortable with the government being in debt. Did they forget what happened in Japan in the 1990's? These factors are still observable today on the World Debt Clock.

Checkout the public debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio (Debt/GDP). This is basically looking at how much is being spent compared to earned by each country. The U.S. is at 71%, China 23%, Japan 256%, Germany 62%, and Russia 24%. Based on these numbers it appears that the strongest economies have the lowest percentages including China and Russia. The huge public debt for Japan is still very concerning. It is amazing to see that the US debt is outpacing GDP while in China they are far ahead in making much more in GDP than they owe.

The U.S. Debt Clock indicates that on average the federal budget deficit is growing at the rate of about $7,500 per minute! This is the difference between money spent by Congress and received through taxes. The total U.S. debt is approaching $20 trillion and growing at $6 trillion per year. Since the year 2000, the federal government increased spending by 118%!

There are various opinions about fiscal sustainability and debt. Some say it's healthy to maintain debt at low levels (see this May 2016 article in theweek).

As I've previously blogged about my upbringing by parents who grew up during the 1930's depression, we've always wanted to save more than to owe the banks! I wonder by analogy if countries that hold U.S. Treasury bonds, including China and Russia, can influence on our economy and standard of living?

Easy Drive to Aspen's Maroon Bells

Last Saturday, November 19th, we traveled to visit one of our favorite places -- the town of Aspen including the John Denver Sanctuary where we could all proudly sing 'Rocky Mountain High.' We heard the road to Maroon Bells  closes every year on November 15th. So we walked over to the Hotel Jerome for a tour of the beautiful European style hotel built during the silver rush in 1889. The concierge said the road to the Maroon Bells is still open even after the half foot of snow that fell two days before! We found the road to be dry all the way up until the Forest Service parking lot at an elevation of about 9,500 feet with only a few inches of wet melting snow in the afternoon sunshine. The 14,000 foot peaks only showed a dusting of snow. The lack of snow is of great concern to the ski industry which must open later than planned and for water managers to forecast adequate supplies.

Seven Principles for Sustainable Water Management

Now that you've passed the test (or checked out the answers) to the the Chasing Water book that I reviewed in my previous blog post, here are Brian Richter's ideas for water sustainability. So what does water sustainability really mean anyway? He cites Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute who offered this definition: "the use of water that supports the ability of human society to endure and flourish into the indefinite future without undermining the integrity of the hydrological cycle or the ecological systems that depend on it." For example, Richter suggests extracting more than 20 percent of a river's daily flow can lead to ecological harm to fish, turtles, frogs and other sensitive species. Lakes and aquifers may be even more sensitive to withdrawals due to slow replenishment.

Here are seven principles to consider for sustainable water management:

1. Build a shared vision for your community's water future.

2. Set limits on total consumptive use of water.

3. Allocate a specific volume to each user, then monitor and enforce.

4. Invest in water conservation to its maximum potential.

5. Enable trading of water entitlements.

6. If too much water is being consumptively used, subsidize reductions in consumption.

7. Learn from mistakes or better ideas, and adjust as you go.

Western water law based on prior appropriation (first in time, first in right) allows control of senior to junior water rights for people but priorities for sustaining natural ecosystems depends on people advocating for the environment. Obstacles to water conservation cited by the author include challenging social norms (people love green grass even in the desert), water providers whose receipts depend upon sales, spreading fear of shortages, and political will for unpopular projects such as dams. 

Richter explains how he learned through personal connections that Australian landowners fought for the environment even during severe droughts to keep water flowing and prevent additional fish kills. A cap-and-flex system adopted in the Murray-Darling watershed enabled setting limits to priority distributions for consumptive use accounting for protecting ecosystems and being flexible with supply during wetter years. The government stepped in to purchase 400,000 acre-feet at a cost of $700 million to store and distribute water where needed for ecological preservation and areas significant to Aboriginal people. 

Australia set up a market-based system to trade water rights which improved accounting systems for water management such as adding efficient technology that can measure the hydrologic cycle and consumptive use. 

Ultimately, there is great power in creating partnerships that can transcend institutional bureaucracies - individuals in local communities and grassroots organizations can network with public and private groups to share in a common mission to find solutions to these challenging problems.

Test Your Knowledge of Chasing Water

Brian Richter (President at Sustainable Waters, adjunct professor at the University of Virginia, and Director of Global Freshwater Strategies for The Nature Conservancy) authored a wonderfully interesting book called Chasing Water: A Guide for Moving from Scarcity to Sustainability - Island Press, 2014.

Test your water knowledge by taking this fun quiz with five questions:

1. What is the last state in the U.S. to take up arms against another state over water rights?

2. How much money did Texas lose in revenues from the 2011 drought?

3. How much money is needed to upgrade drinking water systems in the U.S. over the next twenty years?

4. About how much Colorado River water is consumed by agriculture?

5. What is the easiest, most cost efficient way we can increase water supplies or reduce consumptive use?

Before I provide the answers that will hopefully 'wet your appetite' to read this book, many important reflections and impacts come from this book that are really helpful to me. These include Brian Richter's optimism that we all can and must do our part to make a difference, that we cannot leave our future up to dysfunctional organizations including governments, and we can learn from many individuals who've successfully dealt with issues including extreme droughts in Australia, environmental change in China, and improved irrigation technology in Israel.

Ok, now for the answers to the quiz:

1. In 1934, the Arizona governor sent 100-man state militia to stop California from completing Parker Dam on the Colorado River. The Interior Secretary intervened to enable federal funding for irrigation that created the Central Arizona Project in exchange for Arizona signing the Colorado River Compact in 1944. 

2. Texas lost an estimated $9 billion due to the 2011 drought mostly from losses on irrigated farms.

3. An estimated $384 billion is needed to repair the drinking water infrastructure in the US according to the EPA in 2013. Of course, in my opinion the amount could be much higher after revelations about issues like the lead pipe problems in Flint, Michigan which is an issue in many locations.

4. About 50% of the water taken from the Colorado River is consumed by agriculture.

5. Given the inefficiencies in using water by agriculture, such as with flood irrigation or growing unsustainable crops like cotton, we can make the biggest impact by helping to change farm practices such as by using drip irrigation and respecting the capacity of our natural environment to support us.

National Environmental Policy Act: A Citizen's Right-To-Know Law

Public disclosure of plans that affect all of us can lead to better decision making and ultimately save tax dollars. A major event that led Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a Senator from Washington State, to write new national  legislation was the Santa Barbara, California oil spill in 1969. The federal government provides oil drilling permits so more transparency, coordination, and public involvement was needed on all federally-permitted or funded projects. 

President Richard Nixon, a Republican, signed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1970. The law established the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) located in the Executive Branch to set policy for federal agencies. The first test of the law came by citizens living near the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland who sued the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). AEC required utilities to prepare environmental reports but did not plan to consider the document unless issues were raised to the licensing board. The Supreme Court in 1971 sided with the citizens requiring federal agencies to consider NEPA to the "fullest extent possible." The new NEPA law allowed citizens to tell the federal government that environmental impacts or protection of cultural resources must be evaluated before projects are approved.

The way the process typically works is that each agency follows CEQ policy and develops their own regulations to comply with NEPA. The agency must conduct an environmental assessment (EA) -- if the proposed action is considered a "major federal action" then an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) must be prepared that allows for public participation with obtaining scoping and draft EIS comments. The EA may determine a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is warranted. 

In 2007, I dedicated some time between paid consulting projects to research and publish an article on the NEPA process by examining methods to extract uranium needed for nuclear power. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission released a Generic EIS for in-situ uranium mining -- the industry advocated that site-specific EIS reports would not be needed because the technical processes would be similar at each site. However, to keep citizens informed in the areas of the mining, I advocated and NRC agreed that site-specific EIS reports would be needed. Here is a link to the article.

Ready for Spring in the Valley and Snow in the Mountains

Yesterday in Grand Junction, Colorado we reached 72 degrees F! Seems warm for early March and the trees are beginning to bud. We are happy for the sunshine and getting outside but beginning to feel the start of allergy season with the index going from near zero three weeks ago to the medium level now. We still have more snow skiing we would like to do this year and the forecast is calling for a couple of inches of fresh powder on Sunday night. According to NOAA and the Weather Channel we are still in the El Nino cycle and may get some wet weather in the spring time especially in the southern U.S.

The drought is still very severe in southern California and here is the latest map. Heavy rains up to 18 inches and 4 feet of snow predicted for California today can help with drought conditions but hopefully there we be no severe flooding.

We Need Another Big Miracle of Cooperation and Focus to Save the Earth

Have you seen the 2012 movie Big Miracle?

If you haven't here is the trailer and I do not want to spoil the plot except to say it is a true story about saving California gray whales trapped in Arctic ice.  The plight of three whales becomes an intense survival story as the one pool of open water allowing them to breath is rapidly becoming frozen over. Miracles unfold to save the whales through surprising cooperation in 1988 among Greenpeace, an oil company, the National Guard, Eskimo people, inventors and during the Cold War -- President Reagan asking the USSR for help! 

This week the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences announced finding that based on fossil evidence sea levels rose faster in the past Twentieth century than the past 27 centuries.

Here is the NRP version of the scientific study.

So we must work quickly to reverse the damage done to the Earth if we want to save precious species including our own. We also need to avoid confusion of short term weather events (e.g. was that storm due to global warming?) and long term trends of climate change. It will take cooperation and focus of the large majority of people working together to create another Big Miracle!

Melting Polar Ice - What about Santa?

This week I started bedtime reading to our 6-year old son the book The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth by the Earthworks Group. The very first chapter discusses Climate Change and What Can Happen: "If the Earth's temperature gets hotter by just a few degrees, polar ice can melt, raising the level of the ocean and wiping out islands and coastal areas."

He immediately felt concern and his first response was, "If the North Pole is melting what's going to happen to Santa Claus?"

Well just about a month after Christmas he is still especially appreciative that Santa was good to him by getting his first skateboard. Meanwhile, his parents have insisted he be very cautious. 

Then we discussed the book section What's Going On: "Factories, electric power plants, and cars are putting too much of one of these gases -- carbon dioxide (CO2) -- into the air." So he asked, "Does our car cause the ice to melt?" We discussed how it is important to drive fuel efficient cars and avoid unnecessary trips, to turn off the lights, plant trees, recycle, etc. and he quickly feel asleep.

While hybrid sales are down, we purchased a safer hybrid SUV saving fuel and CO2 emissions

Last night President Obama mentioned in his State of the Union speech that auto sales set a record in 2015. Over 17.5 million cars and trucks were sold in the U.S. according to the Wall Street Journal. With gasoline prices below $2.00 per gallon, there is a great increase in people buying large fuel inefficient vehicles and hybrid sales are down. So why did we choose to purchase a hybrid vehicle last month?

First of all we are a one car family. It's a challenge at times to carpool but we like to think it keeps our family closer by going places together. We do save a significant amount of money having just one car avoiding many additional expenses. 

We've been looking to replace our 2006 Toyota Matrix for over a year for many reasons including older safety equipment (only two front airbags), poor fuel economy of 20 mpg, and terrible performance going over mountains. The one thing we really liked was that we paid the loan off many years ago making the overall costs of running the car very low. 

We spent many months watching new car videos and strongly considered the VW "clean diesel" prior to the cheating scandal. We considered plug in electric cars but in rural Colorado a bigger car is needed just to get noticed on the highway! We also really like the reliability of Toyota vehicles and got to know many people at our local dealership.

So we discovered a new Rav4 Hybrid compact SUV had all the features we were looking for - at least it appeared on the YouTube videos but they were not available for test driving until December 2015. So first we rented a 2015 Rav4 to test out the features driving into the mountains for the weekend and we really like the performance and extra space for our growing family. 

Speaking of performance, the standard non-hybrid Rav4 has 176 horsepower (hp) while the hybrid model comes with a 4-cylinder 150 hp gasoline engine with 141 hp electric motor for a combined 191 hp of added power. Check out the details on Car and Driver's review. So the added performance of the hybrid plus the improved fuel economy were major factors in our decision: standard non-hybrid model 24 mpg city/31 mpg highway compared to the hybrid model of 34 city/31 highway.

In our case we mostly drive around town with more frequent breaking which regenerates the electric motor providing additional fuel economy. Price difference is about $4,000 more for the hybrid so is it really worth it? We drive on average 15,000 miles per year -- say the hybrid gets an average of 8 mpg better than the non-hybrid then the amount of gasoline consumed is 469 gallons/year for the hybrid and 625 gallons/year for the non-hybrid. At $2.00 per gallon for gas it would take 12.8 years to break even but at $3.00 per gallon of gas it only takes 8.5 years to break even on the extra cost of the hybrid. So is there more to compare than just mpg and cost - what about the environment?

It  amazing to consider that for every 1 gallon of gasoline burned in a vehicle, 20 pounds of CO2 are emitted according to FuelEconomy.gov. So using the same difference in gasoline consumption in the two vehicles equates to a savings of 3,120 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted per year by driving the hybrid. It sounds like a lot but I will need to do more research in future blogs to determine the positive impact - for now it feels good and we can tell people we are trying to 'go green!'

To make the deal more affordable, we found Costco's auto buyers program to determine dealer costs below the MSRP. The extra cost of the hybrid only added about $75 per month to the auto loan. We also got a good deal by trading in the Matrix and this turned out better than any offers we could get by advertising on Craigslist. 

We're especially amazed at the advancements in safety features made over the past decade. Now we have eight air bags which like insurance we hope never to use, backup cameras with bird's eye views, and most impressive are the radar assisted blind spot monitors on the side mirrors. The other evening I backing up the car in a parking lot at night with big vehicles parked on both sides of me and the radar alerted me to a car passing by before I could see the headlights. 

Overall, we are happy with our purchase and glad we made the decision before interest rates go up any higher and snow fell in Colorado! 

Extra, Extra Read All About It: Links to World News of UN Agreements to Reduce Greenhouse Gases!

Here are links to 38 articles from news sources around the world announcing that the United Nations made historic agreements yesterday in Paris to reduce greenhouse gas emissions!

With close to 200 countries agreeing to limit emissions and report on outputs to strive towards a balance of carbon sources and sinks, one of the key parts is promoting sustainable development and a more sustainable planet! This agreement will likely create huge incentives promoting clean energy investments. 

The Five Key Decisions Made in the UN Climate Deal in Paris

Bloomberg - ‎5 hours ago‎

Envoys to the United Nations climate talks handed down a 31-page document on Saturday outlining their boldest steps yet to rein in global warming. Here are the key points of the text, along with comment on why the decisions made in Paris matter: ...

Nations Approve Landmark Climate Accord in Paris

New York Times - ‎8 hours ago‎

Traditionally, such pacts have required developed economies like the United States to take action to lower greenhouse gas emissions, but they have exempted developing countries like China and India from such obligations. The accord, which United ...

COP21: UN chief hails new climate change agreement as 'monumental triumph'

UN News Centre - ‎14 hours ago‎

For the first time today, 195 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – pledged to curb emissions, strengthen resilience and joined to take common climateaction. This followed two weeks of tireless negotiations at the United ...

Paris UN Climate Conference 2015: Climate deal requires $23 trillion investment

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎7 hours ago‎

The deal struck at United Nations climate talks requires an overhaul of historic proportions for energy policies worldwide and a huge investment in cleaning up the pollution now damaging the Earth's atmosphere. What was once unthinkable has now become ...

Draft of Climate Pact Is Ready, UN Officials Say

New York Times - ‎Dec 11, 2015‎

LE BOURGET, France — After almost two weeks of marathon negotiations, the lines for food and coffee on Friday night snaked through the temporary tent city here that has been home to the globalclimate talks. People made final bets in a five-euro pool ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: Countries strike grand deal to tackle ...

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎16 hours ago‎

Nearly 200 countries have struck a landmark grand bargain on climate change, agreeing for the first time to take action to curb greenhouse gas emissions. After two weeks of grinding negotiations in Paris, nations signed off on the new deal that aims to ...

United Nations Reaches Historic Climate Change Deal

Refinery29 - ‎16 hours ago‎

After more than seven years of negotiating, more than 190 countries have agreed on a climatechange agreement designed to stop the onslaught of global warming. The landmark agreement was reached during the United Nations' COP21 Climate Change ...

Is Hope Possible After the Paris Agreement?

The Atlantic - ‎18 hours ago‎

Christiana Figueres, the UN's lead climate change negotiator and the impresario of Paris, told The New Yorker earlier this year that, “If anyone comes to Paris and has a eureka moment—'Oh, my God, the [national cutbacks] do not take us to two degrees!

What Is Al Gore Saying About The UN Climate Accord?

Bustle - ‎11 hours ago‎

On Saturday, the United Nations finalized the biggest international agreement on climate change ever, an accord signed onto by representatives of nearly 200 countries. It's been a rare cause for celebration by environmentalist groups — even though it ...

UN Climate conference 2015: Energy companies key to climate result

The Australian Financial Review - ‎7 hours ago‎

An evolution in the private sector is crucial, because despite all the powerful language of the Paris agreement, it does not immediately oblige countries to do anything more than what is contained in their already released climate pledges, or "Intended ...

Cheers as French hosts release proposed UN climate-rescue pact

The Tico Times - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

With 2015 forecast to be the hottest year on record, world leaders and scientists have warned the accord is vital for capping rising temperatures and averting the most catastrophic consequences ofclimate change. If climate change goes unabated ...

BISHOP: HARD WORK FOLLOWS CLIMATE DEAL

NEWS.com.au - ‎14 hours ago‎

The Paris talks have largely been free of the fierce arguments that plagued previous UN climateconferences. Prior to the session, China's top negotiator Gao Feng said “there is hope today” for a final pact, while Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony ...

World powers voice support for UN climate pact

Yahoo News - ‎20 hours ago‎

Nations most vulnerable to climate change lobbied hard for wording in the Paris pact to limit warming to 1.5C, warning otherwise rising seas would wipe out low-lying island nations and coastal areas. Big polluters, such as China, India and oil ...

UN Climate Conference 2015: World commits to cutting greenhouse gas emissions

The Australian Financial Review - ‎14 hours ago‎

The landmark United Nations climate agreement has opened the way for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to continue with subtle shifts in Australia's climate change policies despite his promises toclimate change sceptics during his leadership coup to ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: Is it possible to keep global warming below...

Stuff.co.nz - ‎15 hours ago‎

A recent review by the UN climate body found that when temperatures do rise above 1.5C, polar regions, high mountains, tropics and low-lying coastal regions will be most in the gun. In Africa, the ability to grow food will be hit, particularly for the ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: Countries strike grand bargain to tackle ...

Stuff.co.nz - ‎15 hours ago‎

The rebuilding of confidence to get to this moment in the United Nations climate negotiations has been slow, but has been aided by external factors including the plunging cost of non-fossil fuel energy and broadening commitments from business and other ...

Highlights Of The Proposed UN Climate Accord

NDTV - ‎10 hours ago‎

Envoys from nearly 200 nations on December 12 adopted to cheers and tears a historic accord to stop global warming, which threatens humanity with rising seas and worsening droughts, floods and storms. (AFP). Le Bourget, France: Envoys from nearly 200 ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: Historic deal appears imminent

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

An historic global deal to limit and tackle climate change appears imminent after a final draft agreement has been completed at the United Nations conference in Paris. After nearly a fortnight of negotiations, and several days in which exhausted ...

UN General Assembly president welcomes adoption of new climate accord

Manila Bulletin - ‎9 hours ago‎

UNITED NATIONS — UN General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft on Saturday welcomed the adoption of Paris Agreement to tackle climate change, saying that “this agreement reaffirms the value of multilateralism in addressing global challenges.”.

5 takeaways about the climate deal

USA TODAY - ‎14 hours ago‎

To that end, the agreement formally asks the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.N. climate science and research body, to issue a special report in 2018 detailing steps needed to reach the 2- and 1.5-degree Celsius targets. The ...

Final draft of climate deal formally accepted in Paris

CNN - ‎18 hours ago‎

... 'The world needs a success.'" Negotiators took a key step December 5 with the release of a draft agreement that has been posted online by the United Nations Framework Convention onClimate Change. That draft has been modified throughout the week.

'Draft agreement ready' at Paris climate summit

FRANCE 24 - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

Negotiators at the U.N.-sponsored climate summit in Paris have come up with a draft agreement that will be presented to ministers at 10:30 GMT, a French government source said on Saturday. "There is a draft agreement," the source said. "It is being ...

Paris Climate Agreement Promises to be UN Chief's Legacy

IDN InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters - ‎7 hours ago‎

NEW YORK | PARIS (IDN) - Ban Ki-moon has reason to be sure that when he completes his second term as the Secretary-General of the United Nations end of December 2016, he would have left behind a proud legacy.Climate change has been “one of the ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: World on the cusp of historic deal

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

The world is on the cusp of an historical agreement to tackle climate change after the French organisers of the Paris summit released the final wording of a deal, mapping out compromises on the key disputes that had divided countries. Almost 200 ...

The Latest: UN chief Ban praises Paris climate accord: 'History will remember ...

Newser - ‎17 hours ago‎

Activists dressed like animals stage a die in during a demonstration near the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, Saturday, Dec.12, 2015 during the COP21, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. As organizers... (Associated Press) ...

Nearly 200 nations join together to fight climate change in historic Paris ...

Los Angeles Times - ‎10 hours ago‎

The agreement reflects the first universal environmental accord since signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change began holding meetings around the world in the early 1990s. In 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, only developed ...

It's Not About Warming: Here's Why The U.N. Holds Climate Summits

Investor's Business Daily - ‎Dec 11, 2015‎

In the days leading up to the 21st session of the Conference of Parties to the U.N.'s Framework Convention on Climate Change, hardly a living person could avoid hearing the desperate talk about the Paris summit being our last chance to save the world ...

What Happened At The Paris Climate Talks? Details Of The UN ClimateAccord Are ...

Bustle - ‎20 hours ago‎

Despite the deadly terror attacks that threatened to put a halt to U.N. climate talks, world leaders gathered in Paris last week, determined to begin discussions over new global policy that would help usher in a new era of renewable energy and try to ...

French hosts submit proposed UN climate-rescue accord

Channel News Asia - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

French President Francois Hollande (left), French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (centre) andUnited Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrive for a statement at the COP21 ClimateConference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on Dec 12, 2015. (Photo: ...

UN's climate summit in Paris to overrun as squabbles over global warming cause ...

Daily Mail - ‎Dec 11, 2015‎

The UN's climate talks in Paris are to overrun into Saturday as disputes between countries have caused delays. Campaigners outside the conference have increased attempts to put pressure on world leaders at the talks with protests, including drawing a ...

Scottish First Minister hails "historic" UN climate agreement

Shanghai Daily (subscription) - ‎13 hours ago‎

"This historic agreement sends a signal of certainty about the global economy's low carbon future, in the same way as we did for Scotland through our world-leading climate legislation in 2009. We want to avoid the worst impacts ofclimate change ...

COP21 climate change summit reaches deal in Paris

BBC News - ‎18 hours ago‎

A deal to attempt to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2C has been agreed at theclimate change summit in Paris after two weeks of intense negotiations. The pact is the first to commit all countries to cut carbon emissions. The ...

Key points of the draft UN climate accord

The Local.fr - ‎20 hours ago‎

Envoys from 195 nations zeroed in Saturday on a historic climate rescue pact after host France released a final draft for ministers to peruse and adopt. France delivers 'historic' climate-rescue accord (12 Dec 15); Paris climate summit talks go into ...

New UN Report Links Climate Change To Human Rights

CleanTechnica - ‎Dec 11, 2015‎

Published by the United Nations Environment Programme on Thursday — global Human Rights Day — in Paris at the United Nations COP21 climate negotiations, the new report, ClimateChange and Human Rights, aims to provide “a comprehensive study” ...

The Observer view on the Paris climate deal

The Guardian - ‎13 hours ago‎

The sight of grinning delegates, linking arms and laughing, at the end of last night's Paris climatetalks, represents a rare moment of cheer in the normally gloomy business of negotiating carbon emission deals. In 2009 , those talks ended in grim ...

Paris climate change agreement: the deal at a glance

Telegraph.co.uk - ‎5 hours ago‎

"1.5 Degrees" in white neon is lit on the Eiffel Tower in the French capital, as the COP21 United Nations Climate Change Conference takes place at Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris Photo: AFP. In order to actually limit warming to that level, the ...

COP21: NGOs react to UN Paris climate deal

Climate Home - ‎15 hours ago‎

“For the first time in history, the whole world has made a public commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deal with the impacts of climate change. Although different countries will move at different speeds, the transition to a low carbon ...

COP21: Global Climate Agreement Reached At United Nations Talks In Paris

Huffington Post UK - ‎3 hours ago‎

Some 196 Countries have agreed a new international deal to tackle climate change following marathon United Nations talks in Paris. Delegates approved the historic agreement on Saturday, with the deal aiming to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas ...

How Precious is Water? Just ask the Navajo Water Lady or contact me!

Here is an amazing CBS news story about the struggles of the Navajo People who rely totally on groundwater. No running water and indoor plumbing. They must store water outside. Luckily many Navajo people have a saintly woman to deliver water they call the Water Lady.

Can you imagine what life must be like relying on only 7 gallons of water per day? That is like only flushing a standard toilet twice per day. That's it - all you get for drinking, cooking, washing, etc! 

Click here to see the full story!

When I worked for the U.S. Geological Survey on the Navajo Reservation conducting surveys of water resources, we found that groundwater was in very deep formations and the quality of water changed depending upon location. Water is very precious - especially on the reservation!

For more information on the water quality of San Juan Basin aquifers, check out some of my old USGS reports (there are over a dozen) or contact me at info@conserve-prosper.com.

Geochemistry of the San Juan Basin

Hydrogeology of the Morrison Formation in the San Juan structural basin, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah

Hydrogeology of the Pictured Cliffs Sandstone in the San Juan structural basin, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah

Today's paper says 'Colorado is out of the drought' -- so does that mean we have plenty of water to waste?

Today's newspaper in Grand Junction, Colorado front page headlines:

"State out of drought, experts say

Wet weather won't last meteorologists reminds us"

Despite the headlines, the local water managers say, "...in a desert, water is gold and that's still true, drought or no drought..."

Look for yourself how some people treat this precious resource - I caught this video this morning at of all places, I kid you not, a mortuary!  Look how the water is spraying around onto the pavement and into the air to evaporate. One problem is overpressurized sprayers in an attempt to cover such a large area of grass. Here are some great tips to correct irrigation problems from the Alliance of Water Efficiency.

Having a blast while it lasts

This boy is getting drenched by sprinklers while jumping on a trampoline.

Will Las Vegas run out of water?

While the demand for water increases and supply decreases due to droughts and other causes in the Colorado River basin, Las Vegas is a model for water recycling that many other cities will need to follow in the future. Water recycling is a process to collect and treat waste water that is returned to Lake Mead. The lake supplies 90 percent of the valley’s water and is in critical condition due to 15 years of drought dropping the lake to 38 percent of capacity. 

So to help make sure Vegas can continue to quench it's thirst, the Southern Nevada Water District proposes to build a 250-mile pipeline from rural northern Nevada to claim groundwater from the Spring Valley. Efforts to take water from Utah farmers were thwarted.

So it's a very safe bet that Vegas will have adequate water supply but prices will continue to rise. You get billed for every gallon of water you use so think about shutting off the water while you brush your teeth. It’ll save you some money!

Drought in western U.S. affecting 58 million people! Where are we on the Hydro-Illogical Cycle?

© National Drought Mitigation Center

Western U.S. Drought Map and Hydro-Illogical Cycle

According to the National Drought Mitigation Center: "drought is a protracted period of deficient precipitation resulting in extensive damage to crops, resulting in loss of yield." The current drought will affect over 58 million people directly: "Record heat and dryness over the region this week as well as over the last month has quickly deteriorated conditions in many areas after a wet May."

As the map clearly shows, California -- which seems to be getting most of the media attention -- is not the only state where the effects of the drought are being felt. 

The Hydro-Illogical Cycle depicts drought as a slow-moving natural disaster which may not get much attention until extreme conditions cannot be ignored any longer.