Alex (They/Them) 💧🦉🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

The first three articles in @mavensnotebook.com really exemplify this today. I think we're at Mixed state "bros...."

I actually really enjoyed lifecycle analysis work but it often felt a little evil (greenwashing) which is unfortunately the vast majority of jobs in that space.

YouTube video by Hank Green Why is Everyone So Wrong About AI Water Use??

Feeling seen by @hankgreen.bsky.social video as someone whose short career has been counting things that are difficult to count (GHG emissions and water) www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_c6...

line chart swinging wildly between extremes of a mania-depression axis with labels such as "IT'S SO OVER" at major depression and "WE'RE SO BACK" at mania, and "bros..." when between the two. I'm so sorry this alt text isn't better.

Water managers in California talking about the weather

Super interested to read this one - I have family impacted by the fires. I want to know what "building back better" ACTUALLY looks like.

Also, how do you define accuracy? How do you measure it? There's probably some literature around this and there's probably not one way but there needs to be some transparency around it.

the lactose intolerance might be contributing to the plumbing issues...

my similar take on GenAI in the regulatory space is that we need to require so many extra checks for bias and accuracy that it will be easier to just not use it

Bar chart of water conflicts by year from 2010 to 2024 showing dramatic increases. Each year is also broken out in three categories: water as a trigger, casualty, and weapon. Water as a casualty is the largest type of water conflict, followed by water as a trigger of violence. Data from the Pacific Institute Water Conflict Chronology database.

Dramatic increase in conflicts over #water in 2024 compared to previous years.

pacinst.org/announcement...

I'll be printing this one at the office... I'm more "modeling adjacent" but this is something I think about a lot.

Freshwater Freaks Really Over Greed?
Freshwater Freaks Ragging On Growth?
Freshwater Freaks Recalling Our Grief?

I want to put together a queer water group and call it the Frogs but I can't think of a good acronym...

FFROGs - Freshwater Freaks Running On Garbage???

Bumper sticker that says "F.O.M.O - Fear of missing owls" and has a picture of what I think is a spotted owl? stuck to an army green Subaru outback.

Very exciting bumper sticker find this morning

Anyway I should probably have a less work-related interest to engage in on Saturday mornings.

I'm more wanting to have the conversation of what happens when we automate certain decisions that have real world impacts? Engineering has a long history of placing efficiency over equitable public safety, despite what our ethics canons say.

Like it's one thing to talk about the issues with data centers - tends to lead to the same conversations I have with folks about flying. "Don't you think the negative impact of this action is outweighed by your career dedication to the issue?" No, actually.

I guess what I'm trying to figure out with this AI thing as an early career water professional is that everybody is saying that it's inevitable and I need to learn to use it. But I don't know what "it" means, I don't know what the risks are.

Currently working through this paper by @sashamtl.bsky.social et al, starting to get my brain around the throughline between ethics and environmental impacts arxiv.org/pdf/2504.00797

That should say "more general", not "more specific" 🫠

I totally agree! Maybe these questions haven't even started to get answered yet. I don't even know if they're the right questions!

I've been reading a lot from folks at @dairinstitute.bsky.social but it's all very broad so I want to know what's getting done in the water space. The hype at conferences has been so intense and my head is spinning.

Specifically I'm interested in risks of LLMs in the regulatory workplace, ML surrogates for mechanistic models, ML tools for decision-making for a highly politically contentious resource with a history of exploiting marginalized communities. And better alternatives.

I don't post here that much but my latest obsession has been AI ethics. I'm really interested in what the potential risks are for water management specifically - if anyone has papers to point to, even for public health and resource management more specifically, I'd appreciate it.

a cartoon of squidward from spongebob squarepants holding a piece of paper . Alt: a cartoon of disheveled squidward from spongebob squarepants kissing a stack of paper

happy reporting season for the previous water year

why is talking about climate at my water job so much easier than talking about water at my water job

Similar takeaway from a couple water symposiums I've been to in the last week

this fire has exploded by over 800% in the last few weeks with almost no containment as we head into another extended period of heat and red flag days

may have found a good starting point www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I want to learn more about engineering history, particularly of non-western origins. We sort of learn in school that modern civil engineering (especially water) started in ancient Rome but that feels like an oversimplification. Who gets to decide what engineering is and isn't?

Medieval Water Distribution

We are familiar with water distribution systems of Persia (qanats) and Rome (aqueducts), but we rarely hear about such systems in the Middle Ages. Still, the construction of aqueducts continued, in Europe often initiated by monasteries and shared with nearby cities.