“Where’s the Beef?” Water as Currency.

Mike Magee “They want to take your pickup truck. They want to rebuild your home. They want to take away your hamburgers. This is what Stalin dreamt about but never achieved”, screeched former White House aide Sebastian Gorka at the Conservative Political Action Conference this week. His widely discredited remarks were called out by a […]

Between A Rock and A Hard Place: The Planetary Patient

Mike Magee Thirty six years ago, our then President, Jimmy Carter, spoke directly to the American people about governance and energy independence in a speech titled, “Crisis of Confidence” – a speech derisively labeled “The Malaise Speech” by his then Republican Presidential opponent, Ronald Reagan. Putting aside the fact that Carter never used the word […]

The Planetary Patient “Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrDVzbeDzRk source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrDVzbeDzRk Mike Magee Hugh Jackman in 1998, in the film version of the Broadway classic, Oklahoma, sings “We know we belong to the land, and the land we belong to is grand….you’re doing fine Oklahoma, Oklahoma OK.” But as this week’s The New Yorker article, Weather Underground, suggests, not so much these days. Okie […]

The Planetary Patient: A China Update

Eight years ago, I wrote about a range of ecological issues impacting water policy in China. It seemed as if unintended consequences were coming about at every turn. Two examples I mentioned at that time had to do with the Three Gorges Dam and the diversion of the Shiyang River. Most are still aware of […]

Food Plating In America: What A Waste

Mike Magee When I first began to educate myself about water, with the help of water experts at the United Nations, I was surprised by the facts.(1) Only 3% of the water is fresh, and less then 1% accessible. 70% of human consumption of water goes to agriculture. And the American diet, biased to meat […]