Welcome to Money for the Rest of Us. This is a personal financial on money. How it

works, how to invest it, and how to live without worrying about it. I'm your host David

Stein, today is episode 425. It's titled How Profits Motivate Change. Last Saturday La

Pril and I attended a presentation by Kristen Engel. She is a professor of law at

University of Arizona. She teaches and researches in the areas of environmental and administrative

law. Engel served as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives and the Arizona

Senate. Last fall, she lost an election to represent Arizona in U.S. Congress and the

House of Representatives. Engel mentioned two things that really stood out to me. One

I knew and the one really caused me to ponder. The first is that 72% of water use in Arizona

is for agriculture and her presentation was all about the water situation in Arizona and

other areas around the Southwest. I knew the water usage by agriculture in Arizona was

very high. I've mentioned it on the podcast and that's similar to other areas in the Southwest.

There is a deep agricultural heritage in Arizona and other Southwestern states. She also

mentioned though that that percentage is dropping. As water becomes more expensive, it becomes

an economical to pursue agriculture in certain areas of the state. Martin Wolf, who is a columnist

with the Financial Times, wrote, start with a simple proposition. If something is profitable,

it will be done by profits when revenue or benefits are greater than the cost. Wolf was

referring to the transition to renewable energy. He wrote, asset managers may dispose of shares

in fossil fuel businesses and banks may refuse to finance them. Some investors might refuse to

own or fund companies that do things they consider wicked. But my fellow columnist Stuart Kirk is

correct that someone else will then own and finance them provided they are profitable. Those actors

might be foreign governments and businesses or domestic private entities. Regulation might curb

...