A Participant Media presentation. (International sales: Submarine, New York.) Produced by Elise Pearlstein, Jessica Yu. Executive producers, Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Carol Baum, David Helpern. Directed by Jessica Yu.

With: Erin Brockovich, Peter Gleick, Jay Familgietti, Robert Glennon, Tyrone Hayes, Paul Rozin, Jack Black.

The Hydrology Brown Bag seminar welcomes UCI ESS PhD Aaron Berg (2003) back to campus. Aaron will present in the Croul Hall third floor conference room this Friday at 11:30 am.  Aaron has been a member of the Geography faculty at U. Guelph since leaving Irvine, and has been particularly active in soil moisture research. 

Over-pumping is pulling vast and unsustainable amounts of groundwater from the heart of California farming, the Central Valley, a new UC Irvine satellite study shows – with enough lost over four years to fill two-thirds of Lake Mead.

The phenomenon shows no sign of slackening despite two wet winters in a row, and the rate of extraction is likely greater than the estimated depletion rate, said Earth System Science professor Jay Famiglietti, the study’s lead author.

UCI Earth system science professor Jay Famiglietti has been named the Birdsall-Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer for 2012 by the Geological Society of America's hydrogeology division. The award is granted annually by a panel of former lecturers. There are no applications; the winner - who gives 40 to 50 talks worldwide - is selected based on research excellence and ability to communicate.

In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in October, 2010, Professor James Famiglietti and his colleagues used 13 years (1994–2006) of satellite precipitation, evaporation, and sea level data in an ocean mass balance to estimate freshwater discharge into the global ocean. The publication was recognized by Science News as one of the Earth science stories of 2010.

Number of participants: 39

Number of people actively debating: 16

Vivacity of discussion: 3.98