High Country News October 13, 2008
Feature
Back to the future
A long time ago, the earth warmed considerably; now, scientists study fossils to find out what happened – and what it might mean for us today.
Editor's Note
Forget Wall Street, focus on the real issues
The urgency of the politicians' response to our economic troubles contrasts with the way we’re ignoring the greater crisis of climate change.
Uncommon Westerners
The invisible man
Chilean guest-worker Ricardo Arriagada herds goats that eat weeds to help prevent brush fires in Hercules, Calif.
Writers on the Range
A macabre measure of the human footprint
Susan Tweit says the huge numbers of road-killed wildlife point to a simple fact: There are too many of us.
News
Field Day
In some Western states, including Colorado, prison inmates are taking the place of immigrant farmworkers.
A good idea – if you can get away with it
Rainwater harvesting is against the law in many Western states, but folks in Utah, Colorado and Washington want to change that.
The great giveaway
Brand-new resource management plans from Utah’s BLM welcome ATVs and energy development onto some of the state’s most fragile land.
Acidifying oceans
Paleo-oceanographer James Zachos points to evidence of the last time climate change acidified the oceans, some 55 million years ago.
Book Reviews
On the Stegner trail
Philip L. Fradkin looks at the life of an iconic Western author in Wallace Stegner and the American West.
Essays
Bear necessities
Seth Cohen describes a close encounter with a grizzly – and an even closer encounter with grizzly-strength pepper spray.
Letters
Readers weigh in on HCN’s redesign
Greenwashing, literally
Taking your life in your feet
Unnatural selection
"1,000 messy facts"
Biodiversity? Not so much
West Watch
The end of Western welfare?
Paul VanDevelder considers the consequences of “capitalism without a conscience” and predicts the end of free lunches for the West.
Two Weeks in the West
Wildlife wars
There’s fighting over the endangered status of wolves, sage grouse, etc., and protecting wildlife from drilling.
Winning the West
Battleground!
High Country News looks at some of the more interesting political contests unfolding in the West.
