There are so many interesting reads and valuable videos out there that speak to issues beyond daily headlines. I figured you might enjoy some curated links that pertain to our Arizona Life.
Close Down City-Owned Golf Courses — I posted this video on Facebook after I read this article in the Republic about how golf course owners are pushing back against the governor’s negotiated deal to reduce water use across the state in the face of a historic drought and shrinking water supplies. It inspired me to issue a call that the City of Phoenix get out of the golf course business. That’s controversial opinion. But, when you consider that each 18-hole golf course uses 330,000 gallons of water per day and the city owns 5 of them, it’s time to re-think what we are doing. What do you think?
This Plant Could Be the Key to Arizona’s Future — Not many people think about water in AZ, especially when it comes to how the crops that we have planted for a century have drained out our aquifer. Alfalfa and cotton use around 30 inches of water to grow in a state that gets about 5 inches of water per year. Get the background in this article, which details how federal policies have encourage these wasteful crops. But it was good news to learn about Guayule, a plant that uses 30%-40% less water than alfalfa and cotton and which is used to make car tires. We need to move quickly to switch to more desert-friendly plants like this.
20 Years of Dreaming — It’s been 20 years since early versions of the Dream Act were first introduced. That’s a long time, with little improvement in the quest for a path to citizenship for about 8 million people. According to Gallup about 86% of Arizonans support a path to citizenship. I was interested to learn about Aliento, a group in AZ that uses Art and community organizing to deal with the drama and stress of this on-going stalemate. It is impressive to see how hard people have worked to keep communities together, despite efforts to divide and vilify them.
Just Transition in Navajo and Hopi Lands — I’ve written before about Just Transition and the importance of helping repair the damage done to Navajo and Hopi (and other non-tribal rural communities) by coal mining and burning. This video really captures what has happened to the communities. Imagine that you have a beautiful home next to a stream. Your parents and their parents owned that home. You love that home. Now imagine watching the water in that stream disappear over just a few years. What would you do. How would you feel? That is what happened to our fellow Arizonans. And not enough people know about it.
Phoenix Needs Your Tree Donation — Planting trees and re-thinking how we use farmland are critical changes that can help us re-capture carbon in the earth. Cities are waking up to this as part of their Climate Action Plans, after a century of removing or ignoring shade trees. Read and comment on the Phoenix Climate Action Plan here. The city has a 2010 strategy to reach 25% shade by 2030. They are far from that. Think about those massive parking lots without shade trees the next time you go to the store. Knowing that they are behind schedule, they are now asking for residents to donate trees to be planted.
Is Your Gas Stove Killing You? — For the longest time, I thought that gas was more environmentally friendly than electric, when it comes to heating water, your home and your stove. That might have been the case when most of our electricity came from coal fire power plants. But, now that those are closing down and more renewables are coming on the system, we can do those things more cleanly with electricity. But, I’ve also learned that methane gas, which the fossil fuel industry calls “natural gas” for marketing reason, is a significant source of pollution in the home. Here’s a funny take on the issue. For my part, I’m looking at getting rid of my big gas oven and replacing it with an induction stove.
