motherjones | In his new book, Windfall,
journalist McKenzie Funk visits five continents to bring back stories
of the movers and shakers at the forefront of the emerging business of
global warming. He introduces us to land and water speculators,
Greenland secessionists hoping to bankroll their cause with newly thawed
mineral wealth, Israeli snow makers, Dutch seawall developers, wannabe
geoengineers, private firefighters, mosquito scientists, and others who
stand to benefit (at least in the short term) from climate change. (See this short excerpt, in which he writes about a guy who launched the world's first water rights hedge fund.)
Windfall is fascinating, entertaining, and ultimately
troubling as the author uncovers more and more evidence of what he calls
the implicit "unevenness" of global warming, and the futility and/or
unfairness of our approaches to dealing with it. I reached Funk at his
home in Seattle to chat about California's impending drought, why
man-made volcanoes won't save us, and how Hurricane Sandy (figuratively)
blew him away.
Mother Jones: How do you supposed your water hedge fund guy, John Dickerson, feels about California facing its worst drought in 40 years?
McKenzie Funk: He doesn't consider himself a bad
guy. He thinks that he plays a necessary role in moving water from where
it is to where it needs to be for things to happen, and I respect that.
He told me that California is a bit of a harder market to enter, mostly
because there are a few others doing this, and a lot of his plays have
been farther upstream in the Colorado system, so I don't think it'll
have a huge effect on his bottom line immediately.
MJ: But drought in California will affect water futures in other states, right?
