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My Lawn Is Worse Than Yours
Forgive me for bragging, but my front lawn looks a lot worse than yours. As the drought deepens and the state water board revises its plans for mandatory restrictions this week, California’s lawn...
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Snapshots of a Human Petri Dish
The dreamy, brightly lit photographs and videos of “Holoscenes / Quaternary Suite” at the Pasadena Museum of California Art might remind viewers of glimpses through a ship’s porthole. Sometimes, the...
View ArticleI wish I were a killer whale
Sure, you would have to look beyond my 5-ton physique, understand that a washboard stomach is only a dream, and that I will always be hairless. I could no longer open jars for you, mow the lawn,...
View ArticleThe California Drought Crisis Is Everyone’s Fault
My grandfather used to tell the story of traveling from Bakersfield to San Francisco by boat as a boy in about 1910. First up the Tulare Lake, then up the San Joaquin River, and through the Delta. In...
View ArticleArizona Republic Reporter Shaun McKinnon
Shaun McKinnon is a reporter for The Arizona Republic who is currently part of the newspaper’s storytelling team, and has covered water, climate, and environmental issues. Before moderating a...
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Parched Californians’ Lukewarm Response to Free Water
Sometimes you can’t even give water away, even in a time of drought. Maybe it was the rain in Southern California that week. Or maybe it was because people couldn’t be bothered to find buckets of...
View ArticleCan California’s Youngest Minds Help Fix the Drought?
While the actions of adults on water conservation will determine our fate, making kids aware of water and the drought is important too. At the California Arts Council, we noticed that California’s 4th...
View ArticleThe World Below the Brine
The world below the brine, Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves, Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the thick tangle, openings, and pink turf, Different colors,...
View ArticlePhoenix Is a Survivor
The fact that people question Phoenix’s existence has been good for the city. That was the headline lesson from Tuesday night’s Zócalo/ASU College of Public Service & Community Solutions event,...
View ArticleLet’s Play the Drought Blame Game
I hate to play the blame game, but let’s face facts: This drought is all your fault. You are watering outdoors too much. You kept your lawn when you should have taken it out. You tore out your lawn—and...
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How Water Scarcity Shaped America
Water, when scarce, has split the nation into warring factions. But it has also united fractured regions. Water can both release the demons of war and stir the better angels of our nature. We hear so...
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A California Painter Laments the Drying Landscape
As an outdoor landscape and seascape painter, I’m used to seeing places change over the years. I painted a stately cottonwood tree on an Owens Valley country lane in the fall of 2010, its golden crown...
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Six Ways We Can Keep the World From Drying Up
Early last year, Californians, already deep in their state’s drought panic, confronted a depressing statistic. Governor Jerry Brown had called for cities and towns to voluntarily cut down on water use...
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Southern California’s Reservoirs Are Fuller Than You Think
On a recent trip to Wyoming, I was talking to one of the locals about the drought back home in Southern California. She had heard that it was so bad that people were going to communal showers to bathe....
View ArticleCould L.A. Become a River City?
Could Los Angeles become a river city? All the progress in revitalizing the Los Angeles River has presented the city with a special opportunity: to develop the communities along the river, as it makes...
View ArticleCan a Public University Fix a City’s Achilles Heel?
Can a university really help make its home city 100 percent independent on water and energy? In Los Angeles, we’re going to find out. UCLA, where I’ve spent almost 50 years on the faculty of the...
View ArticleLet’s Play the Drought Blame Game
I hate to play the blame game, but let’s face facts: This drought is all your fault.You are watering outdoors too much. You kept your lawn when you should have taken it out. You tore out your lawn—and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Water Scarcity Shaped America
Water, when scarce, has split the nation into warring factions. But it has also united fractured regions. Water can both release the demons of war and stir the better angels of our nature. We hear so...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A California Painter Laments the Drying Landscape
As an outdoor landscape and seascape painter, I’m used to seeing places change over the years. I painted a stately cottonwood tree on an Owens Valley country lane in the fall of 2010, its golden crown...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Six Ways We Can Keep the World From Drying Up
Early last year, Californians, already deep in their state’s drought panic, confronted a depressing statistic. Governor Jerry Brown had called for cities and towns to voluntarily cut down on water use...
View Article