Tag: Voluntary Agreements

Game theory explains what happened in the Voluntary Agreement negotiations

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ 1 Comment

In 2009, Michael Hanneman and Caitlin Dyckman published a stark assessment:  "The San Francisco Bay-Delta: A failure of decision-making capacity." A decade later, their game theoretic analysis explains a lot of what happened with the Voluntary Agreement negotiations for the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan Update. This is the key bit: A well-known theorem from … Continue reading Game theory explains what happened in the Voluntary Agreement negotiations

The Delta regime shift hypothesis and the Voluntary Agreement framework

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ 2 Comments

In response to the decline of pelagic fish populations in the early 2000s, the Interagency Ecological Program formed an interagency team to find the causes.  The team was called the Pelagic Organism Decline Management, Analysis and Synthesis Team. The interdisciplinary effort funded a suite of 47 studies to evaluate the likely mechanisms for the decline. … Continue reading The Delta regime shift hypothesis and the Voluntary Agreement framework

Voluntary Agreement framework consolidates power and inequities in California water

inclusion exclusion
~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ 1 Comment

The California Natural Resources agency released a Voluntary Agreement framework on Monday, March 29, 2022. The framework has been hailed as a "peace" agreement. Reading the Memorandum of Understanding, I find Hisham Ziuaddeen’s synthesis of how power operates across hierarchies of caste, gender, sexuality, ableness and class to be profoundly relevant. Ziuaddeen observed that power … Continue reading Voluntary Agreement framework consolidates power and inequities in California water

On the Voluntary Agreements — comments to the Delta ISB

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ Leave a comment

On Thursday March 10, 2022, the Delta Independent Science Board had a presentation by Diane Riddle, Matt Holland, and Erin Foresman of the State Water Resources Control Board on the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan. These were my comments: In the interests of fairness and balance, I am going to provide the viewpoint of  environmental … Continue reading On the Voluntary Agreements — comments to the Delta ISB

For California water management, delay is denial of climate change impacts

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ Leave a comment

Climate scientist Michael Mann wrote an Op Ed in the LA Times, On the climate crisis, delay has become the new form of denial. The Op Ed has many concepts that resonate with what is happening with California water management. Mann argues: One can no longer credibly deny that climate change is real, human-caused, and a … Continue reading For California water management, delay is denial of climate change impacts