Could This Drought Bring Californians Together?

Australia’s Last Dry Spell Lasted Over a Decade. It Required Us All to Share the Burden.

As an Australian, I have been taught from birth the value of water. In school, history lessons always included details of early explorers who died of thirst, such as Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills’ disastrous expedition between the Gulf of Carpentaria and Melbourne in 1861. Today, the threat remains; it’s not uncommon for people to die from lack of water when their cars break down in the Outback.

And while we’re used to water scarcity in Australia, we do have particular periods of national drought, the latest stretching from …

Orange County Water District’s Shawn Dewane

Can You Change the World With Just One More Hour a Day?

Shawn Dewane is president of the Orange County Water District Board of Directors, executive vice president of the Water Advisory Committee of Orange County, chairman of CalDesal, and serves on …

Water Wise President Sarah Woolf

She’s Collaboration’s Biggest Fan

Sarah Woolf is president of water management company Water Wise and also works in her family’s San Joaquin Valley farm business. Before participating in a panel on water reuse and …

Natural Resources Defense Council’s Steve Fleischli

He Finds Inspiration in Smelt

Steve Fleischli is director of the water program and a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Santa Monica, California. Before participating in a panel on why everyone …

ASU Sustainability Scholar Michael Hanemann

Where Book Reviews Are a Blood Sport

Michael Hanemann is a sustainability scholar at Arizona State University. He is an environmental economist who works in the areas of water economics and policy, climate change, and non-market valuation. …

What Drought? California Has Plenty of Water.

Looking to a Future Where We Drink More Wastewater and Ocean Water—Treated, Of Course

The cliché about Californians is that when asked where their water comes from, they say “the tap” or “plastic bottles,” said Sierra Magazine editor-in-chief and Occidental College adjunct professor Bob …