Expert in natural resources law and policy Buzz Thompson starts with a story of how his grandfather was tricked into selling his farm to the city of Los Angeles so they could get access to water on his land.  He then dives into water security and discusses the true cost of water, the complications in the US water law system, and what it was like to clerk for Justice William Rehnquist (which, it turns out, happened to involve quite a bit of tennis).
[audio:http://www.stanford.edu/group/anthropocene/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Thompson-Buzz-Jens.mp3|titles=Buzz Thompson & Jens]
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Contributor

Barton H. “Buzz” Thompson Jr.
Professor Buzz Thompson is the founding director of the Stanford Law School’s Environmental and Natural Resources Program, and Perry L. McCarty Director and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment.  He is a leading expert in environmental and natural resources law and policy, and in the course of his career has contributed to a large body of scholarship on environmental issues ranging from the future of endangered species to the use of economic techniques for regulating the environment.  In 2008, Thompson was appointed by the US Supreme Court to serve as the Special Master in Montana v. Wyoming due to his expertise in water law and continues to hold this position as the case continues.

Interviewer

Jens-Erik Lund Snee
Jens-Erik Lund Snee is a Masters student at Stanford University studying Geology and Environmental Sciences. He is interested in ways that scientific knowledge can better inform policy, particularly with regard to international natural resources issues. He spent 2011 on a Fulbright Fellowship studying geology and politics in New Zealand.