Maxwell School News and Commentary

Some colors can affect divers’ physical and mental health, says Kyrstin Mallon Andrews, assistant professor of anthropology. For instance, because yellow water clouds the water’s surface, the fishermen must dive continually to see fish, an exhausting process. Yellow water also causes skin rashes and debilitating ear infections, along with “sort of generalized angst,” she says.

"The Colour of Seawater: Colour Perception and Environmental Change in Dominican Seascapes," authored by Assistant Professor of Anthropology Kyrstin Mallon Andrews, was published in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

"This can't continue as systems that become more unstable and unpredictable will harm more in chaotic ways," says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment.

“If they [Saudi Arabia] want to be able to guarantee their population food security, they know that they can’t really do that domestically,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment. The Arizonan land was particularly appealing to the kingdom “because you can get more bang for your buck when you buy that farm,” says Koch.

“If you can invest the capital to drill a deep well that can get deep into the groundwater supply, then you can really pump as much as you want,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment. “This was appealing to the Saudis as well to go [to La Paz County], where they’re not being charged for water they extract because there’s no measuring of it.”

“The U.S. has always been promoting and setting up this entire thing,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment. “It’s not like the Americans are passive in this. We have absolutely helped sow the seeds for that Saudi agricultural industry that has come back to us now.”

Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment, argues that state lawmakers need to update the state’s 43 year old water law and create more active management areas to regulate water use across Arizona. “There needs to be some way of monitoring and regulating who is drawing what from the aquifers,” says Koch.

“Pumping groundwater in Arizona remains largely unregulated,” writes Natalie Koch, professor of geography. “It’s this legal failing that, in part, allows the Saudi company to draw unlimited amounts of water to grow an alfalfa crop that feeds dairy cows 8,000 miles away.”