Sunday, February 23, 2020

A summary on the book Not a Drop to drink by Ken Midkiff on the main Essay

A summary on the book Not a Drop to drink by Ken Midkiff on the main economic issues relevant to enviromental economics - Essay Example The second cause is wrong choice of crops and wrong encouragement of such choice. Midkiff points out that whereas about 50% of the U.S. population were engaged in agriculture in the early 1900s, that number has dwindled to just 1% at present (Midkiff, 36). While also blaming growing of crops like soya beans, corn and wheat on lands where irrigation is fed by depleting aquifers (Midkiff, 52), he heaps heavy blame on the â€Å"water guzzling† rice crop (Midkiff, 50), saying rice is a wrong crop choice as it needs a huge amount of water. For example, in Central Valley, California, rice has largely contributed to the water shortage; the Valley, once previously a desert, blossomed with agricultural abundance brought about by the supply of underpriced water as a result of old fashioned, lobby-driven farm grants from the government {for example, in 2005, government grants totaled $ massive 143 billion (Midkiff, 46)}. Midkiff warns that if no remedial action is quickly taken, huge tra cts of California land will revert to desert condition (Midkiff, 45). The third cause is population increase. Midkiff says the U.S. population is continually increasing and consumption of water per person is also increasing (Midkiff, 53), creating the problem of â€Å"too many people in a dry land that cannot support its population† (Midkiff, 54). The fourth cause is privatization. Blaming water privatization for causing â€Å"consternation, controversy and outcry throughout the world† (Midkiff, 92), Midkiff declares that it will only increase the water bills payable by the common people. The last cause is global warming that is increasingly throwing the patterns and volume of global water resources into disarray. Midkiff blames the burning of fossil fuels in coal power plants and in the nation’s millions of cars as the main producer of carbon dioxide that is polluting the atmosphere and leading to

Friday, February 7, 2020

Real Estate Development and Investment in the course Msc Project Essay

Real Estate Development and Investment in the course Msc Project Management - Essay Example ers & constructers as these contemporary methodologies are much more accurate and reliable as and when contrasted against traditional approaches of property valuation and management. Modern approaches of property valuation ensure that operators and other massive investors do not use the traditional approaches to their own personal advantage. Some analysts believe that the property bubble could have been avoided if the property prices had stayed on track. A diminutive part of the bubble-burst is also blamed on brokers, as even today most of the populace do not use a certified property valuator and just get their estate agents to estimate a value for them. Although, contemporary methods are much more complex and time consuming as compared to traditional methodologies that are less effective and easily manipulated, but the old methods do provide results within an extremely shorter time frame. As a matter of fact, with the increasing popularity of the Web 2.0, one may easily search for the property prices using old methodologies such as â€Å"Comparable sales† online through various WWW region specific services, such as a decent website for such an analysis in the UK is www.mouseprice.com. (Calnea Analytics Limited, N.D) At the outset, no two properties can ever be valued at an analogous value as no two properties are the same. A property might be worth much more for a particular occupier, whereas that same property could be worth nil to another. (Kilpatrick, 2004) The traditional property valuation methodologies used to focus much more on the property’s location and rates of surrounding property; but the new methodologies focus more on the use of a particular property. Nevertheless, even according to the modern approaches, a property may be of a significantly distinctive value for two different buyers. For example, a wheat farmland might be worth more to a wheat farmer than to an occupier who wants to set up a ranch. Therefore, a wheat farmer will consider