Guest speaker on KALW public radio

I was invited May 12 to speak about media coverage of the California drought on KALW Public Radio in San Francisco. Most interesting part was hearing a perspective on the drought in Brazil from Mauricio Savarese, who lives in Sao Paolo. He and I agreed that two of the most intractable impediments to drought relief are politics and human nature. Apparently, in Brazil, people love their long showers. Not so different from California.

March 2015: The historically low snowpack exposed lawns at Sugar Bowl
Ski Resort. Photo by Matt Weiser.

Almonds: Lucrative, thirsty — and now controversial

Almonds are one of California's thirstiest crops. They're also one of the most lucrative for California farmers, who ship them to eager consumers all over the world. Farmers have converted thousands of acres to grow more of the nuts, adding a significant new permanent water demand when the state can least afford it.

In this piece for NationalGeographic.Com, I examine the rush to grow more almonds and the strain it has created during the worst drought in California's recorded history.

Lucrative But Thirsty Almonds Come Under Fire Amid Drought

Workers sort almonds at a Modesto processing plant.
Photo by Yang Lei, Xinhua News Agency.