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Volume 43, Number 9 • October 2008 In This Issue Presidential Plenary to Explore Future of Water in American West ater may well turn out to W be the oil of the 21st century. Like From the Meridian .................2 oil, water is crucial to President’s Column ................3 the world economy. Members of Note ....................4 Washington Monitor ..............9 Unlike oil, water is Of Note .....................................11 also absolutely vital to MacDonald Gober Powell Rinne New Appointments .................13 life itself. Like oil, its Forthcoming in supply is coming under AAG Journals ....................14 enormous strain. Unlike oil, that strain results not future of water in the western part of the United Grants & Awards ...................14 only from economic growth but also from pol- States, specifically in the region spanning southern Geographic Centers .................14 lution, shoddy infrastructure, and, imminently, Nevada, southern California, and northern Op-Ed ........................................15 redistribution as a result of global warming. Arizona. Specialty Group News ............16 The 2009 Presidential Plenary at the AAG Award Deadlines...................17 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas will explore the Continued on page 10 Jobs in Geography ...................18 Grants & Competitions .......36 Call for Papers ........................36 Books Received ..........................37 Quarter Century ....................37 Las Vegas, Water, and the West Corrections .............................37 Events .......................................39 nyone with an interest in water resource to various musical selections. This water attrac- issues in the American West has to make tion was designed by Wet Designs of Sun Valley, A a point of visiting Las Vegas. One of the California and completed in 1998. In the ten years “must see” attractions in Las Vegas is the musical of their existence the lake and fountains at Bellagio fountains at the Bellagio casino and hotel. Set have become an icon of both the Las Vegas Strip on the Strip in front of and the issues of water scarcity that confront the the resort is an eight- city. As with most things in Las Vegas, when it acre lake and fountain comes to water issues there is both more and less complex with over 1,000 than meets the eye. high-tech water spouts. Across the street from the Fountains of Bellagio Throughout the after- sits the Venetian hotel and casino, which was noon and evening the opened in 1999 and also boasts its own extrava- Fountains of Bellagio gant water feature in the form of a navigable canal provide astounding water displays choreographed Continued on page 6 CREDIT: GLEN MACDONALD The lake and fountains at the Bellagio have become icons since their Deadline for Annual Meeting Abstracts: October 16. completion in 1998. See article at right. Las Vegas is the site of the 2009 AAG Annual Meeting. www.aag.org/annualmeetings. Submit yours today at www.aag.org/annualmeeting www.aag.org AAG Newsletter 1 14484_OctoberNL_R5.indd 1 9/24/08 6:12:33 PM October 2008 From the Meridian AAG Newsletter “Sustainable Greening” of the Association of American of the AAG Geographers am reluctant to place the now ubiquitous sidered effort to “do the right thing” (which marketing terms, greening and sustain- I think we all want to do), some of the most able, in the title of this column. With significant greening results we have seen have Douglas Richardson, Publisher I everyone from oil companies to politi- been driven also by our efforts to achieve and Managing Editor cal candidates and timber companies to greater efficiency in our operations (e.g., see Jim Ketchum, Editor Wal-Mart exhorting us all to become Richardson, “Building a Foundation for the AAG Voice 202-234-1450 greener and more sustainable by buying AAG’s Future,” AAG Newsletter, January 2007). AAG Fax 202-234-2744 their product, these terms One example is the [email protected] are perhaps in need of what comprehensive replace- www.aag.org used to be known as “opera- ment at the AAG of tional definition.” paper-based and US USPS 987-380 ISSN 0275-3995 Nevertheless, it cannot be Mail document transport denied that most other orga- systems with digital and The AAG Newsletter ISSN nizations including Exxon online transaction systems 0275-3995 is published monthly with Mobil are by now well ahead that have resulted in July/August combined, by the Associa- of the AAG in systemati- massive reduction of paper tion of American Geographers, 1710 cally trumpeting their green used and energy consumed 16th Street NW, Washington, DC image and the need for the for transportation asso- 20009-3198. The cost of an annual rest of us to become more ciated with mailing and Richardson subscription is $25.00 The subscription green like them. I hope shipping of formerly hard price is included in the annual dues of you will forgive me for not copy materials. In nearly the Association. Not available to non- having kept apace of Shell Oil and the every area of its operations the AAG now members. Periodicals postage paid in others in boasting about our greening conducts its business online. For example, Washington, DC. All news items and activities at the AAG, and also for not in Membership Management, one of our letters, including job listings, should be seizing the opportunity of this column to largest operations areas, instead of paper sent to the Editor at the address below develop here a “green marketing strategy” membership forms and records, AAG or to [email protected]. for the AAG “brand” and to urge others to members may now join the AAG, renew All Newsletter materials must arrive follow the example of our rhetoric. their membership, update their address at the Association office by the 1st of As with most things, however, it is easier changes and submit payments for mem- to talk about greening than to do some- bership fees all online, with almost no use the month preceding the month of the thing about it. So, instead of a new vision, of printed paper forms, envelopes, paper publication. This includes job listings. I hope this mere description of some of the checks, or energy intensive shipping of all Material will be published on a space things we are actually doing will suffice to these items back and forth by mail trucks. available basis and at the discretion of address this issue, and inform our members Similarly, for our large Annual Meetings the editorial staff. of the many common sense ways we try almost all attendee registrations, field trips, When your address changes, please to be a good organizational citizen at the workshops, and related event payments notify the Association office immedi- AAG with regard to the environment. now also occur mainly through paperless, ately. Six weeks notice is necessary During the last several years, without a online systems. An enormous reduction in to ensure uninterrupted delivery of lot of fanfare or chest-thumping, the AAG paper usage also occurs through the custom AAG publications. To assist the AAG has been steadily attempting, in plain abstract submission software we designed office in your address change, include terms, to reduce waste, save on supplies, and had developed exclusively for AAG. the address label with your change of recycle materials, and in the process also In addition to automating the abstract sub- address. save energy (both human and fossil) and mission and session organization process, Postmaster: Send address changes to become more efficient (thus also saving the AAG now also publishes its Annual to AAG Newsletter, 1710 16th Street money, which we regularly recycle for Meeting Abstracts book on CD, with only NW, Washington, DC 20009-3198, or projects on behalf of geography). a few copies printed in paper book form for [email protected]. While many of the long-standing those who request these in advance. In most “greening” activities (e.g. recycling paper, etc.) by the AAG have taken place as a con- Continued on page 5 2 AAG Newsletter www.aag.org 14484_OctoberNL_R5.indd 2 9/24/08 6:12:39 PM President’s Column Volume 43, Number 9 Our Own House and the World oltaire famously admonished his read- But the problem is bigger than the ques- and keep up to date. What is happening in ers that it is difficult to know the world tions of appealing curricula or the quality Moscow no longer helps as much in under- V without leaving your own house. Of of teaching in any one country. In Italy, standing what is going on in Prague. Another course, to travel does not mean the same for example, similar concerns have recently trend is time-space compression which accord- thing as to know anything about where you surfaced. The President of the Italian Associa- ing to some means the “death of distance” as go. In the era of low-cost airline travel many tion of Geography Teachers, Gino De Vecchis, everywhere becomes alike. This too doesn’t people travel all over without necessar- responded to a reporter from the national daily bear much examination if you think in terms ily learning much of anything about where newspaper La Repubblica who had encountered of how much more important local differences they go. Voltaire was exceptional. At one the Ofsted report in terms remarkably close have become in determining access to jobs, time, the teaching of geography in schools to those in that document. schools, and public facilities, and universities was designed to compensate The article (January 18, 2008) etc. Finally, people’s rapport to a degree for the fact that most people had the evocative title: “And with their surroundings must stay at home for economic reasons and for our students Pistoia is in has also changed because because travel in itself wasn’t the solution to Nebraska.” The issue, as De of the increased elasticity learning about the world.

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