Best Of The Border (02/17-02/22)
Southwest 'Climate Hub' Focuses On Snowmelt Forecast
Agriculture in the arid Southwest depends heavily on snow pack that melts into the Rio Grande and Colorado River every spring. But in the last two decades there's been a lot less snow.
Earlier this month the Obama administration announced the creation of seven regional "climate hubs" that will zero in on the effects of climate change.
The information they generate is meant to help farmers and ranchers across the country better respond to a changing climate where extreme weather events happen with greater frequency.
Hydrologists: Get Used To Drinking Recycled Water
Most people are squeamish about the notion of consuming recycled wastewater. Experts say we might have to get used to the idea, given our current drought and the growing population in the Southwest. In Part Two of our series Pipe Dreams, we learn how waste water in Las Vegas gets clean enough to drink.
“When most of us think about the water that we have, we think of it as though it were like air — infinite and inexhaustible,” Robert Glennon said. “When for all practical purposes it’s very finite and very exhaustible”
Glennon is a regents professor at the University of Arizona and the author of Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It.
Texas Border Residents Fight to Keep Big Bird
The Texas Rio Grande Valley is facing the possibility of losing its only public television outlet. National public broadcasting leaders are working to find a solution to keep Big Bird on the air in one of the nation’s poorest regions.
