Globalization, Complexity, & Change

The San Francisco Bay Area is, of course, a magnet for immigrants from all over the world. This showed itself in an interesting way this week, when my local water company (East Bay MUD, Oakland, California) sent me its annual water quality report, and included some of the information in 23 different languages, including 8 European languages, and 15 Asian languages.

The report also mentions that the winter of 2006-2007 was one of the driest in the 84 year history of the agency, and if 2007-2008 is as dry, we'll be looking at a lot of dead grass next summer. They're even selling a landscaping book filled with drought resistant plants.

Speaking of droughts, there's one going on in Australia at the moment, which has reduced milk exports to Asia at the same time that demand is increasing in the rapidly developing economies of India, China, and Indonesia.

Contributing to the price increase is a reduction in the supply of corn. Where's the corn shifting to? To ethanol production, to replace oil consumption.

All this together has impacted milk prices, which are up 50% in California in the last year.

So here's a picture of globalization: Drought in Australia and California affects the supply of basic commodities. Increasing consumption of corn for energy production exacerbates the shortage.

Meanwhile, rapid economic development in Asia leads to increased demand for milk (and for meat, too). The same development forces accelerate the production of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Meanwhile, more wealth leads to more immigration, and thus the local water board publishes in many more languages.

Wow.