by David Zetland (originally published at The one-handed economist) Don’t take water for granted In his 1987 hit, “Diamonds on the soul of her shoes“, Paul Simon sings: She said, “You’ve taken me for grantedBecause I please youWearing these diamonds” This lyric, although a bit paradoxical, has always resonated with me, and I’ve applied it […]
California holds out as Arizona, other states submit Colorado River plan, ktar.com, KTAR FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Six Western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a model to dramatically cut water use in the basin, months after the federal government called for action and an initial deadline passed. With […]
A New York Times reporter Gardner Harris describes an issue that might jar some of our perceptions about access to potable water: Almost no place on Earth gets more rain than this small hill town. Nearly 40 feet falls every year — more than 12 times what Seattle gets. Storms often drop more than a […]
David Zetland at Aguanomics points us to the way the US ‘too deep to use’ water aquifers for waste water from fracking, and the example of Mexico City drilling deep as a way to handle water shortages: This article raises an interesting point: the US EPA allows companies to pollute aquifers that it assumes are […]
Lifted from one of David Zetland’s Aguanomics musings on how our conversations mix things up: Gasoline taxes are often justified as the response to a “negative externality” of pollution from cars, but the money from those taxes rarely (never?) goes to people who suffer from pollution. So is it really a tax on an externality […]
by David Zetland from Aguanomics The Land Grabbers — the review Fred Pearce sent me a review copy of his new book, The Land Grabbers: The New Fight over Who Owns the Earth, which I enjoyed very much for its detailed description of the pros and cons resulting from foreigners investing in land in developing countries. […]
A short video worth watching: (hat tip David Zetland)
by David Zetland David Zetland is a senior water economist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and maintains a blog on water issues at Aguanomics. It’s not as simple as selling books Many people ask me to comment on statements made by journalists covering the water sector. Most of the time, I am happy […]