The Abundance Choice – Part 13: The Lords of Scarcity
The Abundance Choice – Part 13: The Lords of Scarcity
Editor’s note: This is the thirteenth article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” One of the farmers who supported our attempt to qualify the Water Infrastructure Funding Act for the November...
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 12: Fighting Scope Insensitivity
The Abundance Choice – Part 12: Fighting Scope Insensitivity
Editor’s note: This is the twelfth article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” Scope insensitivity happens whenever a statistic has huge emotional impact but in reality has little relevance to the...
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 11: The Desalination Option
The Abundance Choice – Part 11: The Desalination Option
Editor’s note: This is the eleventh article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” On May 12, the California Coastal Commission Board of Directors voted 11-0 to deny the application from Poseidon Water to build a desalination plant...
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 10: Time to Stop Wasting Wastewater
The Abundance Choice – Part 10: Time to Stop Wasting Wastewater
Editor’s note: This is the tenth article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” If there is any source of water that ought to be optimized, it is the wastewater produced by...
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 9: Can Reservoirs be Part of the Solution?
The Abundance Choice – Part 9: Can Reservoirs be Part of the Solution?
Editor’s note: This is the ninth article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” In May 1957, Harvey Banks, then director of the California Department of Water Resources, submitted “The California Water...
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 8: The Union Factor
The Abundance Choice – Part 8: The Union Factor
Editor’s note: This is the eighth article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” The moment we met Robbie Hunter, then president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council, we knew we...
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 7: An Environmentalist Juggernaut
The Abundance Choice – Part 7: An Environmentalist Juggernaut
Editor’s note: This is the seventh article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” Environmentalists in California, who constitute much of the vanguard of environmentalism in the world, have normalized extremism. The...
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 6: Biased, Hostile Media
The Abundance Choice – Part 6: Biased, Hostile Media
Editor’s note: This is the sixth article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” You can say this for Michael Hiltzik, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times columnist for the Los Angeles...
By Edward Ring
Inflation-adjusted per capita state spending doubles in one decade – for what?
Inflation-adjusted per capita state spending doubles in one decade – for what?
The California State Legislature has just released the “Floor Report of the 2022-2023 Budget,” and it’s a doozy. Representing an agreement between the budget committees of the Assembly and the Senate, and building on Governor Newsom’s proposal, this $300 billion monstrosity has moved one step closer to becoming final. To fully appreciate how out of...
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 5: The Fractured Farmers
The Abundance Choice – Part 5: The Fractured Farmers
Editor’s note: This is the fifth article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” “We cannot support your initiative if you include the Delta Tunnel as an eligible project. And to be...
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 4: Crafting a Water Initiative
The Abundance Choice – Part 4: Crafting a Water Initiative
Editor’s note: This is the fourth article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” To be fair, Assemblyman Devon Mathis didn’t come up with the idea of allocating a percentage of the...
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 3: The Mechanics of Ballot Initiatives
The Abundance Choice – Part 3: The Mechanics of Ballot Initiatives
Editor’s note: This is the third article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” By the spring of 2021, it was obvious the California State Legislature would not change its inadequate approach...
By Edward Ring
Will California Voters Approve More Taxes and Borrowing?
Will California Voters Approve More Taxes and Borrowing?
If your city council puts a tax increase on the ballot, or your local school district puts a construction bond on the ballot, chances are very good it will get approved. Data from the past four November general elections is unambiguous. In November of 2020, for example, 80 percent of school bonds were approved by...
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 2: The Problems with Indoor Water Rationing
The Abundance Choice – Part 2: The Problems with Indoor Water Rationing
Editor’s note: This is the second article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” Perhaps the biggest example of misguided water policy in California are the escalating restrictions on indoor water consumption....
By Edward Ring