“I love water,” said Dick Norgaard, the legendary Energy and Resources professor, beginning his last class at UC Berkeley, and reflecting on a lifetime of water policy work. “We need water, and I’ve been obsessed with water since I was a small child.”
For his last class, or as he put it, his “last, last, last class,” he was taking his California Water Policy & Society students out to the sun-dappled porch behind the Graduate Assembly. His final class, “or at least the last class on payroll,” was to be a combination nuts-and-bolts review for the final and set of ruminations on his career and the future.
Professor Norgaard has taught at Cal for over forty years, beginning his career in Agricultural and Resource Economics, but transitioning to the interdisciplinary Energy and Resource Group starting in the 1980s. He actually went to Berkeley for his bachelors (in economics), and, surprising given his fairly left-wing views on environmental economics and policy, received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1971. He’s also a veteran river-runner, having piloted rafts down some of the roughest rapids in rivers all across the Western United States.
Perhaps the most prominent name at UC Berkeley in the realm of water policy, Professor Norgaard has served on a “what’s-what” of important scientific advisory boards over the past few decades, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, to name two. Having authored or co-authored four books and over a hundred journal articles, he’s amongst the most cited economists in the world, and was elected as a Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007.
His role as the Chair of the Independent Science Board for the Delta Stewardship Council seems to be most dear to his heart. This role is perhaps where he made his greatest mark late in his career, overseeing the State of California’s official effort at determining the scientific basis for any future San Joaquin – Sacramento Rivers Delta plans. He becomes animated when speaking about the Delta, his eyes lighting up behind his tinted indoor glasses, his upper body lurching forward when he wants to emphasize a point. He led his class on two field trips this semester, wild sprawling road voyages through the levees and farmland of the Delta, examining dredges, levee breaks, land subsidence, and all the other tangible realities that lie behind the abstract policy that was the focus of the class.
As he was grilling his class for the review, however, it became clear that the same topic could send him into despair, wringing his hands as he describes the painfully slow machinations of the politics-science nexus. “We’re setting up windmills that we’re then fencing with,” he said in a moment of frustration over the roundabout policy battles fought in the institutions of resource management.
Professor Norgaard is a humble man, almost to a fault: when described as the leading expert in California water policy (an difficult to debate statement), blushes and looks at the ground, clearly uncomfortable with the praise. He wears, every day, without fail, a black button down shirt and black jeans, a custom he adopted when George W. Bush was elected to a second term in office in 2004. “That election made me think that we live in a dark, dark world, and I wanted to dress to reflect that,” he ribbed when a student inquired about his ever-constant wardrobe earlier in the semester.
The final exam review slowly turned into broader, more philosophical questions, as students tried to take advantage of one last opportunity to get in a question. His somewhat brooding personality came through in his answers, particularly about the ecological mess that his generation is passing off to the next. “We’ve so disturbed the system that we need to constantly be counter-disturbing it just to keep things afloat.” A frightening prognosis from a man who should know. And yet, when asked to reflect on his own career, he sounded an inspirational note, citing passion, determination, hard work, and a deep and abiding love for the environment as the sources of his success. He encouraged his students to fight for what they believe in doggedly, a heartening directive to a room full of future policy-makers.
Professor Norgaard is retiring this spring, taking time to finish a few books and maybe run a river or two. But while he may be done teaching at Cal, he will continue his environmental career with the many scientific boards he sits on. His voice will be missed in the halls of the Energy and Resources Group at Cal, but will continue to be important to the ongoing work of water policy in California.