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Ten Across Conversations examines pressing issues impacting communities along the U.S. Interstate 10 corridor. From Jacksonville, Florida to Los Angeles, California, this region provides a compelling and comprehensive window into...
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Ten Across Conversations examines pressing issues impacting communities along the U.S. Interstate 10 corridor. From Jacksonville, Florida to Los Angeles, California, this region provides a compelling and comprehensive window into the major challenges and opportunities of the 21st century in their most extreme. Join founder and executive director, Wellington “Duke” Reiter, as he chats with subject experts bringing unique insights and new ways of thinking to reveal our collective capacity to create a more resilient future.
For more information about the Ten Across Initiative visit www.10across.com.
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For more information about the Ten Across Initiative visit www.10across.com.
Episodios & Posts
Episodios
Posts
19 JUN. 2025 · This is the second episode in our limited series about artificial intelligence trends shaping life in the I-10 corridor and beyond. In this episode we chat with experts from the Ten Across cities of Phoenix, Houston and Jacksonville on the power of digital twins to more seamlessly convene stakeholders around shared goals.
As virtual representations of actual places and systems, digital twins at their most advanced can incorporate detailed, live data feeds to model real-time conditions—and their potential. These dynamic tools can produce highly accessible visualizations of data and three-dimensional spaces to enhance users' monitoring, scenario planning, and decision making, thanks to advances in computing power and machine learning.
Listen in as guests Devney Majerle, Satish Tripathi, and Jeffrey Carney discuss the goals behind their respective digital twin initiatives and the current capabilities of the models. Devney explains how a twin is helping Downtown Phoenix leaders and community members coalesce around a strategic development plan. Satish is in the process of developing a digital twin for Houston’s vast water system. And Jeff discusses the twins he has helped build for Jacksonville and the State of Florida to scope future-oriented resilience efforts.
Related articles and resources:
https://10across.org/the-emerging-digital-economy-has-deep-roots-along-the-10/
https://ccs.eng.ufl.edu/what-we-do/floridas-digital-twin/jax-twin/
https://dtphx.org/release/downtown-phoenix-inc-launches-first-3d-digital-twin-of-downtown-phoenix
https://awwa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/awwa.1793
Credits:
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Helmut Schenker and Lennon Hutton
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler
About our guests:
Jeffrey Carney is a professor in the University of Florida School of Architecture and director of the https://dcp.ufl.edu/fiber/ Jeff is also spearheading the https://dcp.ufl.edu/gulfsouthstudio/ initiative and co-leading the JaxTwin and Florida Digital Twin initiatives to support decision making in the City of Jacksonville and State of Florida. Jeff previously served as director of the Louisiana State University https://css.lsu.edu/ and initiated the https://css.lsu.edu/project/inland-from-the-coast/ project which examined flood impacts in Baton Rouge, LA.
Devney Majerle is president and chief executive officer of https://dtphx.org/ She is formerly executive director of the https://www.phoenixcommunityalliance.com/, vice president of activation and special events for the Arizona Organizing Committee, and senior director of marketing partnerships activation for the Phoenix Suns. Devney serves on several advisory boards for local businesses and nonprofits in the Phoenix region.
Satish Tripathi is lead water planning engineer for the City of Houston, where he has worked for over 12 years. Prior to his work with the city, Satish was a hydropower engineer for the Government of Nepal. Satish has over 17 years of experience leading major water infrastructure planning efforts and his current work focuses on integrating digital twins, advanced water quality modeling, and artificial intelligence in optimizing utility operations.
13 JUN. 2025 · As we were publishing this episode, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/12/climate/fema-resignations-trump-disaster.html, a day after President Trump said he would wind down the federal agency by November. CBS reported that Tony Robinson, regional administrator of FEMA Region 6, which includes Ten Across states New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeremy-greenberg-fema-national-response-coordination-center-resigns/#:~:text=Tony%20Robinson%2C%20the,past%20dozen%20years.
https://ncnewsline.com/2025/01/24/trump-floats-getting-rid-of-fema-as-he-visits-north-carolina-to-survey-helene-damage/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email%5D President Trump has talked about his intent to eliminate or severely diminish the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, relegating disaster response and recovery to the states. On Tuesday, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-fema-hurricane-season-wean-states/ and stated that no major changes would be made until after this year’s hurricane season.
The administration's first six months, however, have already brought significant disruption to the agency's operations. https://www.npr.org/2025/06/07/nx-s1-5423565/the-dangers-of-a-weakened-fema-ahead-of-an-active-hurricane-season, an https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fema-leader-fired-trump-administration-cameron-hamilton/ after expressing support for the agency’s existence, and nearly all climate resilience grants and training programs directed at state and local preparation have been canceled.
While criticism of the agency and calls for its reform are not new, FEMA has been central to U.S. emergency management for decades. Now, at the onset of the 2025 hurricane season, emergency management experts throughout the country are widely reporting concern about the nation’s readiness for disaster response.
To help us make sense of these real and proposed changes in this episode, ‘disasterologist’ Dr. Samantha Montano returns to the podcast. Samantha will explain the origins of FEMA, valid areas for potential reform, and the issues inherent in turning its responsibilities over to the states— as environmental risks to lives and property in the Ten Across region https://10across.org/checking-in-with-dave-jones-on-californias-insurance-outlook/.
Relevant articles and resources:
https://10across.org/the-next-era-of-emergency-management-with-dr-samantha-montano/
https://10across.org/noaa-meteorologists-reflect-on-this-years-historic-atlantic-hurricane-season/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-fema-hurricane-season-wean-states/ (CBS News, June 2025)
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/07/nx-s1-5423565/the-dangers-of-a-weakened-fema-ahead-of-an-active-hurricane-season (NPR, June 2025)
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2025/06/fema-preparation-hurricane-season-richardson/683025/?utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20250603&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=The+Atlantic+Daily (The Atlantic, June 2025)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fema-leader-fired-trump-administration-cameron-hamilton/ (CBS News, May 2025)
https://www.kuow.org/stories/states-denied-disaster-aid-as-fema-safety-net-begins-to-shrink (KUOW, May 2025)
Credits:
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Rand Aldo and Lennon Hutton
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich and Sabine Butler
About our guest:
Samantha Montano is an assistant professor of emergency management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and author of https://www.disaster-ology.com/. Her research tracks the evolution of emergency management policy and practice, as well as perceptions of emergency management. You can follow her newsletter, Disasterology, https://www.disaster-ology.com/newsletter
5 JUN. 2025 · Last week, news broke that the depletion of groundwater across the Colorado River Basin has been quietly, rapidly outpacing the more visible decline of the river itself. Even as the seven basin states negotiate reduced consumption of river water—inevitably driving dependence toward local aquifers instead—this newly published research shows that the majority ofmost of the water lost throughout the basin in recent years has been underground. In the Lower Colorado River Basin alone, groundwater has accounted for 71% of total water supply loss.
Jay Famiglietti, a longtime contributor to Ten Across, specializes in the use of satellite data to monitor the world's groundwater mass. His team's new findings focus on the U.S. Southwest—a region at the forefront of the nation's water supply challenges and the complex balances between resource limitations and economic growth.
As states and cities in the Colorado River Basin and elsewhere develop water management strategies to sustain themselves through future constraints, a growing understanding of groundwater supply is key to effective proactive policy. It is increasingly clear that time is of the essence for this uniquely finite resource.
Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Jay Famiglietti discuss the concrete findings in this report, the immediate and long-term implications for agriculture in the Southwest, and Jay’s motivations for raising awareness of groundwater usage in the Ten Across region and beyond.
Relevant articles and resources:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025GL115593”
Read https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/05/27/american-west-drought-water-colorado-river/?utm_campaign=wp_the7&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F42c6ab6%2F6836ea615f30b061936a4aa4%2F63e5703ca2ddf36a683913f4%2F64%2F102%2F6836ea615f30b061936a4aa4
More https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/27/colorado-river-basin-nasa-study and https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02062025/colorado-river-groundwater-rapid-decline/
https://10across.org/checking-in-on-tense-colorado-river-negotiations-with-anne-castle-and-john-fleck/
https://10across.org/the-art-of-communicating-our-water-crisis-with-jay-famiglietti/
Related headlines:
https://www.azwater.gov/news/articles/2025-06-05 (azwater.gov, June 2025)
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-water/2025/06/05/la-paz-residents-ask-hobbs-to-protect-groundwater-from-farms-cities/83931488007/ (Arizona Republic, June 2025)
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-water/2025/04/10/arizona-seeks-cuts-willcox-basin-groundwater-use/83008218007/ (Arizona Republic, May 2025)
https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2025/02/california-groundwater-depleted-slow-recharge/ (Cal Matters, February 2025)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/05/opinion/california-great-lakes-food-supply.html (The New York Times, August 2024)
Credits:
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Lupus Nocte and Tellsonic
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler
22 MAY. 2025 · Last week, we discussed https://10across.org/the-emerging-digital-economy-has-deep-roots-along-the-10/. Fulfilling the long-term potential of such technological advancements will also require innovation in the ways we anticipate, understand and control their potential consequences.
Take, for example, the revolutionary success of Amazon and other online and same-day delivery retailers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, https://trellis.net/article/environmental-awakening-e-commerce-needs/#:~:text=From%202019%20to%202020%2C%20e,emitted%20in%20transportation%20and%20delivery).. Even as brick-and-mortar stores reopened, consumers continued to rely on the ease of almost anything in the world shipping right to their doorstep at the click of a button.
Unanticipated changes in land use patterns and demands on aging energy, water and transportation infrastructure, however, belie that incredible convenience. How should we reconcile such popular improvements to daily life with the side effects experienced by the communities that find themselves directly in the path of a roaring supply chain?
Our guest this week, Andrea Vidaurre, grew up in California’s Inland Empire. This semi-rural metropolitan area located just an hour inland from the critical Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has been fighting a growing wave of pollution and industrial intrusion. Within a fraction of Andrea’s lifetime, the Inland Empire’s warehouse footprint has grown 90%, starting with a few hundred facilities and today reaching 4,000 (and counting). https://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/andrea-vidaurre/#:~:text=Because%20of%20over,largest%20warehouse%20facility., generating 25,000 tons of daily CO₂ emissions and myriad public health risks for the surrounding neighborhoods.
In this discussion, Andrea describes her transformation from concerned community member to award-winning policy analyst and environmental justice advocate who helped pass two landmark air quality regulations in California. Her work near the far western end of the I-10 is challenging conventional priorities for U.S. innovation and influencing more effective energy transition policy structures. Listen until the end for a postscript detailing the latest efforts in the Senate to limit California’s regulatory powers in relation to air quality.
Relevant articles and resources:
Follow the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice on https://x.com/PC4EJ, https://www.linkedin.com/company/peoplescollective/posts/?feedView=all&viewAsMember=true, https://www.instagram.com/pc4ej/, and https://www.facebook.com/PCforEJ/
Read Andrea’s https://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/andrea-vidaurre/ and https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273791/andrea-vidaurre/ recognitions
https://www.eenews.net/articles/trump-stalls-1b-push-to-electrify-trucking-at-port-of-la/?utm_campaign=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9VaYWGjovmkVeP9mFFnZuJ-18Jbapgn3GQQRVExE2ejY1cZAVj_4XbgE8ofDaJxv8s0HUt5ON7bgvqo2sGHy4yXCRf9w&_hsmi=350967401&utm_content=350967401&utm_source=hs_email#:~:text=A%20week%20after%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20election%20victory%2C%20CARB%20withdrew%20its%20waiver%20request.%20That%20essentially%20shut%20down%20the%20program%2C%20leaving%20no%20limits%20on%20what%20vehicles%20drayage%20truckers%20can%20buy.%20In%20December%2C%20only%20three%20percent%20of%20truck%20trips%20at%20the%20Port%20of%20LA%20were%20made%20by%20zero-emissions%20trucks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/us/politics/senate-filibuster-gas-vehicles-california.html (The New York Times, May 21, 2025)
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/18/covid-retail-e-commerce-environment-522786 (Politico, 2021)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/climate/e-commerce-warehouse-smog-regulation.html (The New York Times, 2021)
More 10X podcasts on US environmental justice:
https://10across.org/catherine-coleman-flowers-a-national-voice-for-rural-and-unincorporated-america/
https://10across.org/envisioning-a-just-future-for-all-with-dr-robert-bullard/
https://10across.org/financing-our-future-justice40s-legacy-beyond-november/
Credits:
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Helmut Schenker and Hushed
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler
About our guest:
Andrea Vidaurre is a policy analyst and cofounder of the https://pc4ej.org/. Born and raised in California’s Inland Empire, Andrea organized and her organization were instrumental to the California Air Resources Board’s passage of two landmark policies directing a comprehensive and timely phase out of diesel infrastructure in the state’s trucking and freight industries. For her work, Andrea received the https://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/andrea-vidaurre/, often referred to as the “Green Nobel,” and in 2025 was named one of https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273791/andrea-vidaurre/.
15 MAY. 2025 · As artificial intelligence capabilities and related infrastructural demands https://www.z2data.com/insights/where-are-all-the-north-american-semiconductor-fabs-being-built-2024, we have been keeping an eye on https://www.coresite.com/blog/top-10-u-s-data-center-markets-and-why-they-are-hot. To help kick off our summer podcast series on the subject of AI, Arizona State University’s chief information officer Lev Gonick joins us to explore the ways AI is reshaping education, urban development and predictive sciences—as well as its effects on human relationships.
As CIO, Lev leads ASU’s AI strategy to stay ahead of the curve for higher ed. https://ai.asu.edu/openAI. Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to develop and report on innovative uses of AI in their respective work. The university in turn is working to capture and disseminate this fast-developing body of knowledge to advance its own pursuits and those of the greater local and regional economies. As this technology expands its reach, ASU graduates are expected to have a sophisticated understanding of its potential within their chosen fields, and as a result, to have a lasting edge in a competitive job market.
We’ll also talk to Lev about his early-2000s success in expanding broadband internet access for urban Cleveland, Ohio, as high-speed internet became necessary for economic mobility. Lev’s work informed federal efforts to create equitable technological infrastructure that is needed more than ever in an increasingly digital world, but https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/us/politics/trump-biden-digital-equity-act.html
Finally, given the https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x/data-centers-resource associated with this technological leap, this conversation and others in the series will consider the careful balances the Ten Across region needs to strike in creating sustainable economic growth.
Relevant articles and resources:
https://usadatahub.com/u-s-literacy-rates-by-state-2024/ (usadatahub.com)
https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x/data-centers-resource (APM Research Lab/Ten Across, February 2025)
https://issuu.com/asu_uto/docs/the_ai_journey (ASU Enterprise Technology, October 2024)
https://10across.org/100th-episode-the-importance-of-place-in-u-s-higher-ed-with-michael-crow/ (Ten Across Conversations, May 2025)
Credits:
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: William Claeson
Research and supportive provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler
About our guest
Lev Gonick is an educator, technologist, and smart city architect. As Arizona State University’s chief information officer, Lev leads the design and management of all online infrastructure, including applications, products, service, and analytics. While CIO of Case Western Reserve University from 2001 to 2013, Lev led a Case Connection Zone project connecting underserved Cleveland residents to university internet services, which spurred the Obama-era US Ignite initiative to expand U.S. broadband access. Today, Lev chairs the https://suncorridor.org/, which advances connectivity, research, and education in Arizona.
9 MAY. 2025 · If you follow the evolution of American education, you are surely aware of Arizona State University's transformation under the leadership of Michael Crow. In a little over two decades, Crow has grown ASU into one of the largest and most influential public universities, in terms of overall enrollment, research expenditures, and the adoption of new technologies. In doing so, he has become an internationally recognized voice in the future of higher education at large. Built on a precise set of guiding principles outlined in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwPr40WiNQ0, the university consistently garners accolades for community and global impact, environmental sustainability, and graduate employability.
In a field where peer institutions have traditionally competed based on exclusivity, ASU's success is derived from its 2014 https://www.asu.edu/about/charter-mission, which declared that this university would be "measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed." Crow’s New American University model defies the norms of rising tuition, low acceptance rates and inflexible learning pathways, with an aim to prioritize meaningful change in the lives of more students and the communities which it serves.
Ten Across, of course, is itself responsive to ASU's Charter and its https://newamericanuniversity.asu.edu/about/design-aspirations, particularly its emphasis on place. As a unique subset of ASU, Ten Across strives to deliver outsized impact through intentional networks, education, and media that address high-stakes issues experienced throughout the I-10 region—many of which are exacerbated by climate change.
Listen in as Michael Crow explains why Arizona was the place he chose for the development of this highly inclusive and innovative model of higher education, and the efforts that have gone into transforming ASU from a small state college into a global humanitarian and technological engine generating solutions to some of our most difficult challenges.
Related articles and resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqfk7-3iN-U
https://news.asu.edu/20250124-local-national-and-global-affairs-asu-boosts-economic-vitality-arizona (ASU News, January 2025)
https://10across.org/why-phoenix-is-the-most-american-city-with-george-packer/ (Ten Across Conversations, August 2024)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2025/05/01/evolve-or-die--michael-crows-challenge-to-us-higher-education/ (Forbes, May 2025)
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/philboas/2025/01/04/michael-crow-asu-president-democrats/77329486007/ (Arizona Republic, January 2025)
Credits:
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Helmut Schenker and Pearce Roswell
Research and support provided: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler
17 ABR. 2025 · The insurance industry's bottom line offers the clearest, least political evidence that a stable economy and livable communities are increasingly dependent on strategies to address extreme weather impacts. California, Louisiana, and Florida have become harbingers of a spreading issue: disaster-related property losses that continuously exceed underwriting profitability. The resulting gaps in affordability and availability are driving property owners to states' insurer-of-last-resort programs or, more and more often, to forgo coverage for their greatest risks.
As warmer ocean water and sea level rise https://10across.org/noaa-meteorologists-reflect-on-this-years-historic-atlantic-hurricane-season/, Florida homeowner's insurance costs https://www.npr.org/2024/07/18/1198912918/home-insurance-rates-are-rising-due-to-climate-change-what-could-break-that-cycl, and an estimated https://www.wusf.org/politics-issues/2025-01-12/central-florida-homeowners-join-rising-trend-opting-out-of-property-insurance. In Louisiana, the withdrawal of the insurance industry has caused the state's https://lailluminator.com/2024/04/02/insurance-climate/#:~:text=difficulty%20finding%20one.-,The%20state%E2%80%99s%20insurer-of-last-resort%2C%20Louisiana%20Citizens%2C%20grew%20over%20400%25%20between%202017%20and%202022%2C%20becoming%20the%20third%20largest%20writer%20of%20homeowners%20policies%20in%20the%20state.,-This%20is%20the.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2022/wildfire-risk-map-us/?itid=lk_inline_enhanced-template The fires in Los Angeles earlier this year are projected to become the costliest natural disaster in the nation’s history, around https://www.vox.com/climate/397756/la-wildfire-insurance-palisades-california-fair-plan-climate Major insurers had already dropped 2.8 million policies in fire-prone areas of the state since 2020. Now, the state's FAIR plan is struggling to bear the weight of its own growing exposure as homeowners find themselves without other options for coverage.
In the Ten Across region and beyond, there is growing interest in insurance mechanisms and governance which, rather than simply reflecting and reacting to risk, can be adapted as tools for better preparation and response.
Carolyn Kousky founded the nonprofit https://file///C:/Users/tsgriff3/ASU%20Dropbox/Taylor%20Griffith/Mac/Desktop/Templates/v to meet this need. Listen in to learn more about how Carolyn’s work connects local leaders to deep industry knowledge and encourages the industry to participate actively in global climate resilience and energy transition efforts.
About our guest:
Carolyn Kousky is the founder of https://www.insuranceforgood.org/, a nonprofit focused on improving equity in disaster recovery, accelerating the energy transition, and driving investments in resilience. She is also the author of https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://islandpress.org/books/understanding-disaster-insurance*desc__;Iw!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!ZGuZ8NzLU6ARSPohjOolvmIc5OlvamR2jFOwhcULhsHXbCD0J4OiNwyzlpPHn4XxOssPKf1CBm3WrzquxJ3ttoRrgzvnhhYk$ and the Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy at Environmental Defense Fund. Prior to that, Carolyn was Executive Director of the Wharton Risk Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She currently serves on a number of public and private advisory boards, including on the U.S. Treasury’s Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance.
Related articles and resources:
https://www.insuranceforgood.org/
Hear from other experts on insurance in the 10X geography: https://10across.org/checking-in-with-dave-jones-on-californias-insurance-outlook/, https://10across.org/10x-insurance-series-retaining-floridas-insurability-has-national-implications/, https://10across.org/10x-insurance-series-louisiana-grapples-with-growing-natural-and-financial-risk/, https://10across.org/10x-insurance-series-california-attempts-to-reverse-insurer-exodus/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jori.12466 (Xuesong You, Carolyn Kousky, Journal of Risk and Insurance, 2024)
https://journalofcrr.com/comment/02-02-kousky-lockwood/ (Carolyn Kousky, Joseph W. Lockwood, Journal of Catastrophe Risk and Resilience, 2024)
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/629aa6f68914ce47a1d72993/t/673d3e85792bbc3273ed4756/1732066962577/Report_+2024+Miami-Dade+Property+Insurance+Forum.pdf (The Miami Foundation, 2024)
https://grist.org/politics/fema-moves-to-end-one-of-its-biggest-disaster-adaptation-programs/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic/climate (Grist, April 2025)
Credits:
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Lennon Hutton
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler
10 ABR. 2025 · Given a looming negotiation deadline and recent changes in federal operations, this is an apt time for us to check back in on how things are going with Colorado River management. Frequent listeners and 10X Summit attendees alike will be well acquainted with how clearly this topic illustrates our collective responsibility to be proactive in the face of the "knowable future".
A 100-year-old miscalculation of water availability and the recent multi-decade drought have put our use of the Colorado River on an unsustainable path. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/16/climate/colorado-river-water-cuts.html, as critical reservoirs at Lakes Mead and Powell approached a deadpool low-water scenario that would endanger hydropower generation at major dams and water deliveries to users further south. The risk level triggered immediate federal intervention and the renegotiation of a basin-wide agreement for sharing and conserving this vital resource.
Stakeholders now https://coloradosun.com/2025/03/31/colorado-river-states-deadline-seven-state-agreement/ to submit a joint management proposal to the Bureau of Reclamation in time to be vetted for a new interstate compact. If this September, 2026 deadline is missed, the https://www.usbr.gov/ColoradoRiverBasin/post2026/index.html without an immediate replacement.
Meanwhile, major layoffs https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5200829-interior-offers-employee-buyouts-as-job-cuts-loom/?email=467cb6399cb7df64551775e431052b43a775c749&emaila=12a6d4d069cd56cfddaa391c24eb7042&emailb=054528e7403871c79f668e49dd3c44b1ec00c7f611bf9388f76bb2324d6ca5f3&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=03.18.25%20%E2%80%94%20Energy%20%26%20Environment%20%E2%80%94%20RF%20BH or https://apnews.com/article/dams-fired-workers-electric-flood-control-irrigation-1369398af058b661d40ef6b68216c775 and the Department of the Interior, and federal https://www.npr.org/2025/02/25/nx-s1-5302718/trump-funding-freeze-includes-payments-to-keep-the-colorado-river-flowing. Anne Castle, former U.S. commissioner and chair of the Upper Colorado River Commission is among those employees to have lost their positions in this transition.
Three years after their first Ten Across Conversations appearance together, today Anne and fellow renowned Western water policy expert John Fleck revisit the key themes and offer their thoughts on progress toward a positive policy future in the Colorado Basin.
Related articles and resources:
https://10across.org/getting-honest-about-the-colorado-river-crisis-with-anne-castle-and-john-fleck/ https://10across.org/getting-honest-about-the-colorado-river-crisis-with-anne-castle-and-john-fleck/
https://10across.org/10x-border-series-climate-induced-drought-tests-u-s-mexico-water-sharing10x-border-series-climate-induced-drought-tests-u-s-mexico-water-sharing/
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5211310-trump-administration-denies-water-request-colorado-river-mexico/ (The Hill, March 2025)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/14/1/2 (Anne Castle and John Fleck, 2021)
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3483654 (Anne Castle and John Fleck, 2019)
https://uswateralliance.org/resources/closing-the-water-access-gap-in-the-united-states-a-national-action-plan/ (US Water Alliance, 2019)
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/essay/lessons-for-the-end-of-the-world (Hanif Abdurraqib, The New Yorker, Feb. 2025)
Credits:
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Lupus Nocte, Tellsonic, and Pearce Roswell
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler
About our guests:
Anne Castle is a senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School. She is a founding member of the https://waterpolicygroup.com/ and co-founder of the initiative on https://tribalcleanwater.org/. From 2022 to 2025, she served as U.S. Commissioner and Chair of the Upper Colorado River Commission and was Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the U.S. Department of the Interior from 2009 to 2014.
John Fleck is a writer in residence for the Utton Transboundary Resources Center and professor of practice in water policy and governance at the University of Mexico’s Department of Economics. He is also the co-author of https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/science-be-dammed and author of https://islandpress.org/books/water-fighting-over#desc John is the former director of the University of New Mexico http://wrp.unm.edu/, where he continues to teach and advise graduate students.
27 MAR. 2025 · During an on-stage conversation between insurance industry leaders at the 2023 10X Los Angeles Summit, former California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones described the need to mitigate the impacts of climate-driven weather in order for the state to remain insurable. His point has been clearly illustrated by news headlines the last couple years since the summit.
Among the greatest risks to homes in California is the surging frequency and intensity of wildfire. Based on recent trends, the cost of recovery from these disasters is https://10across.com/10x-insurance-series-california-attempts-to-reverse-insurer-exodus/ Fifteen of the 20 largest wildfires in California history have occurred since 2000, and the state’s record for annual disaster costs has been broken three times over in the last seven years.
Earlier this year, the Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires blazed for weeks on the outskirts of Los Angeles and together became the single costliest fire event in state history. Insurer losses are estimated between https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/la-wildfire-recovery-damage-study—but the actual total economic loss is estimated to be https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-01-24/estimated-cost-of-fire-damage-balloons-to-more-than-250-billion#:~:text=CoreLogic%2C%20a%20property%20data%20and,payouts%20to%20homeowners%20and%20businesses.
The record-breaking cost of extreme weather in recent decades has also had regulators in Louisiana and Florida searching for solutions to insurance industry pullbacks in their states—while the country at large watches closely for answers as disaster risks everywhere visibly increase. In this episode, Dave Jones reflects on recent regulatory changes to try to lure major underwriters back into the California market and the potential courses of action for regulators and the industry as climate-driven losses trend upward each year.
Related articles and resources:
https://youtu.be/j7OJqAgHZyE
https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-increased-the-likelihood-of-wildfire-disaster-in-highly-exposed-los-angeles-area/ (worldweatherattribution.org, Jan. 2025)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/powell-predicts-a-time-when-mortgages-will-be-impossible-to-get-in-parts-of-us-190820841.html (Yahoo Finance, Feb. 2025)
https://phys.org/news/2020-12-california-wildfires-billion.html (Phys.org, Dec. 2020)
Related podcasts: https://10across.com/10x-insurance-series-california-attempts-to-reverse-insurer-exodus/ (Ten Across Conversations, Oct. 2023)
https://10across.com/10x-insurance-series-louisiana-grapples-with-growing-natural-and-financial-risk/ (Ten Across Conversations, Oct. 2023)
https://10across.com/10x-insurance-series-retaining-floridas-insurability-has-national-implications/ (Ten Across Conversations, Oct. 2023)
Credits:
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by:
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler
20 MAR. 2025 · Place and personal circumstance can play a decisive role in how one perceives the purpose and effectiveness of government. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621006249#bib18, in 2010 an estimated 37% of the U.S. population lived in an unincorporated area—places without municipal government and the services it might provide.
Central Alabama’s Lowndes County, for instance, has a population of just under 10,000 people. Sixty-two percent of homes here are in unincorporated areas. A 2023 door-to-door survey led by the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice found 90% of homes in the county dealing with poor or failing sanitation infrastructure.
Catherine Coleman Flowers grew up in Lowndes County. In https://www.spiegelandgrau.com/holyground, she writes about her experience growing up in rural America without the amenities and public services many take for granted in a developed country. Catherine combines personal memoir with historical analysis to trace her ancestral community ties and her own journey from public school teacher and daughter of two civil rights activists to her role today as a highly respected leader of the environmental justice movement and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant.
Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Catherine Coleman Flowers discuss the pursuit of equitable sanitation infrastructure in the U.S., perspectives on democracy, and what causes the extremely divergent qualities of life found in the Ten Across geography.
Related articles and resources:
https://www.spiegelandgrau.com/holyground (Catherine Coleman Flowers, 2025)
https://thenewpress.com/books/waste (Catherine Coleman Flowers, 2020)
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/18/nx-s1-5299853/researchers-fear-grants-for-studies-on-health-disparities-may-be-cut-in-anti-dei-push” (NPR, March 2025)
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04022025/data-scientists-restore-climate-justice-tool-taken-down-by-trump/ (Inside Climate News, Feb. 2025)
https://grist.org/equity/a-landmark-investigation-brings-environmental-justice-to-rural-alabama/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=rasa_io&utm_campaign=newsletter (Grist, May 2023)
https://e360.yale.edu/features/filthy-water-a-basic-sanitation-problem-persists-in-rural-america#:~:text=Beyond%20its%20civil%20rights%20legacy,spill%20into%20nearby%20streams%20and (Yale Environment 360, Dec. 2020)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/05/hookworm-lowndes-county-alabama-water-waste-treatment-poverty (The Guardian, July 2017)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621006249#:~:text=Less%20government%20oversight%20in%20unincorporated,and%20fear%20and%20greater%20autonomy. (Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 285, Sept. 2021)
Credits
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Gavin Luke
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler
Ten Across Conversations examines pressing issues impacting communities along the U.S. Interstate 10 corridor. From Jacksonville, Florida to Los Angeles, California, this region provides a compelling and comprehensive window into...
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Ten Across Conversations examines pressing issues impacting communities along the U.S. Interstate 10 corridor. From Jacksonville, Florida to Los Angeles, California, this region provides a compelling and comprehensive window into the major challenges and opportunities of the 21st century in their most extreme. Join founder and executive director, Wellington “Duke” Reiter, as he chats with subject experts bringing unique insights and new ways of thinking to reveal our collective capacity to create a more resilient future.
For more information about the Ten Across Initiative visit www.10across.com.
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For more information about the Ten Across Initiative visit www.10across.com.
Información
| Autor | Ten Across |
| Organización | Ten Across |
| Categorías | Comentando la noticia |
| Página web | - |
| tenacross@asu.edu |
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