So why doesn't California just divert water from the Great Lakes?

Several years ago, The Economist magazine held an essay-writing contest where you were supposed to answer the question: "Do we need nature?" The question was abhorrent and offensive, much like the question in the title of this post is to me.

But many people are so disconnected from nature, and ignorant of where their water comes from and the impacts of those water-gathering activities, that these horrifying questions might not sound unreasonable. In fact, the Great Lakes question, or some other silver-bullet sound-bite water solution like ocean desalination, always seems to come up in casual conversations about California's water problems. An overwhelming problem must require a big overwhelming solution. The ironic thing is, the very thing causing the problems--too much water demand, satisfied by imported water from far away, with destructive impacts on ecosystems in both the supply areas and the delivery areas--is the very solution that people want to try in order to solve the same problems. Another helping of expensive destruction, please. Bigger, more expensive dams, bigger canals, usually paid for by the taxpayer and often benefiting a few wealthy agribusiness interests, while ignoring the cause of the problem, with mitigation after mitigation enabling the problem to get supersized beyond the point of reversing course. Not to mention the farmers in the wetter areas of the country who could grow the same crops sustainably, but can't compete with California's water-subsidized unsustainable agriculture (that their tax dollars helped fund, until the ecological and groundwater disaster eventually puts a stop to it).

Graphic Novel Reviews

Our family has been reading a lot of graphic novels over the last year or two. They are mostly fun, some are absolutely brilliant, and some I don't care for that much. As we keep reading I'll add reviews to this page, from the adult point of view (my kids might absolutely love the ones I don't like that much). Watch out, there are lots of spoilers here.

The Bad Guys
This is a really fun and clever story of bad-guys-turned-good, fighting aliens. Can bad guys really become good? But really great silliness and good character development and a well-thought-out plot.

Captain Underpants
Silly, clever, inappropriate. A bad influence but good.

The Catstronauts
The Catstronauts are a cat space program that heroically accomplish important missions despite themselves. Aside from overly-simplistic plot devices (solar panels on the moon will save the Earth), and the risk that readers might actually believe the solutions are good policy ideas (they are very bad ideas), the stories and characters are well-developed and contain entertaining parallels to reality (such as a Cosmocats space program).

Catwad
Catwad and Blurmp are cats that have a crass and at times disgusting sibling rivalry. Blurmp is simple and gullible, while Catwad is manipulative and mean. You explore their toxic relationship through clever stories set in ordinary situations with hilarious outcomes. And Catwad might actually learn something once in a while from sweet Blurmp, who bumbles along cluelessly and never stoops to Catwad’s meanness.

Dog Man
The body of a cop and head of a dog are sewn together to create—Dog Man! Not my favorite, but endearing characters fighting bad guys with plenty of goofiness.

El Deafo
A deaf girl imagines herself as a superhero and discovers advantages she has that other kids don’t. Poignantly captures the feeling of being different, of worrying the other kids will judge you. A powerful story.

Glorkian Warrior
The Glorkian Warrior and his Super Backpack encounter silly alien creatures while on patrol. Lots of cleverness. I think the video game is better than the books.

Hilo
Hilo is a robot-boy who with other kids saves the world from giant robots sent to destroy it. A complex plot with twists and turns. I love the relationships between the characters. I love the real family interactions and the individual personalities of the kids’ family members. And clever laugh-out-loud silliness is on almost every page.

Johnny Boo
Johnny Boo is a ghost who hangs out with other ghosts and tangles with an ice cream monster. Not my favorite.

Princess in Black
Keeping monsters from eating goats and keeping their superhero identities secret occupy these princesses, goat herders, and others.

Totoro
This beautifully-illustrated magical fantasy is set in Japan. The movie is even more amazingly wonderful--the best animated/kids film I've ever seen.

Bright Light at Night is a Fright

 "Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!" --Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862

Last month, my brother and sister in law described UFO lights they saw in the early morning sky. Then one evening we met a guy that was out looking for the Starlink satellites--his description made it sound like this is what my in-laws saw. We Googled it, and yes, it was.

Satellite watching has always been a fun part of the stargazing experience. Getting a glimpse of one used to seem rare and special. When bright ones like the ISS could be seen, it was--and still is--an event to watch for.

But now, this is becoming excessive, and satellites are becoming part of the light pollution that plagues our night sky. SpaceX is intending to put 42,000 satellites in orbit--this article, which is more concerned with impacts to astronomy than stargazing, states that as of 2019, there were only 2,200 operational satellites orbiting Earth. So if you think you see them often now, just wait.

Islands in the Sky

 Fog--often surrounding ridges and peaks like water surrounding an island--is shown in the following photos, which were taken on eight different days during five different months in 2020. Enjoy.

Toppling John Muir

In my 20s, I remember reading an article that lamented the loss of heroes for youth to emulate. It made me ask myself who my hero was.

The answer was John Muir. Muir and I share many attributes, and I've lived my life in many ways parallel to his, reading his works and repeating his adventures.

It is hard when your hero falls from grace. The first times it happened were when I read things he wrote that I disagreed with: his opinions on fire and irrigated agriculture were not helpful, and likely harmful given his influence. Examples:

Learning about equity from Monopoly

In recent months, when I played Monopoly with my kids, I realized how insidious the rule is that you don't have to pay someone who doesn't notice that you landed on their property. That rule encourages dishonesty and bad sneaky behavior--and could be responsible for the downfall of western civilization. Wait, never mind, the me-first capitalist mindset preceded Monopoly. But still, we don't play with that rule so as not to encourage dishonesty--at least while they are young and impressionable.

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter. While this statement is true, I dislike it for the same reasons I dislike the term "environmentalist." Of course all human lives matter! Of course we all care about our surroundings! Everyone should embrace both ideals, making both terms completely unnecessary. Unfortunately, the need for both terms reflects the presence of--and pushes back on--people in our society who behave irrationally, and who don't care about people or the environment--or more accurately, people who do not act to change the way things are due to past practices and decisions that weren't in the best interest of people and the environment, and continue to influence our society today. And with both movements, people can be harming progress just by doing business as usual, because of a lack of education. We all must strive to educate ourselves, listen to experts, and do the best we can to help make the world a better place.