I don’t know about you, but I’m having trouble keeping track of all the public comments I’ve submitted recently. Don’t end the roadless rule. Don’t open California’s coastline to more offshore drilling. Don’t water down the Clean Water Act. Don’t endanger the Endangered Species Act. I submit comments not necessarily because I think they will make a difference, but because I still want to believe in the essentials of democracy. I want to believe that my voice will be heard. So off I go to the Federal Register’s website, time and again.
But what about actions that are being taken without any public input? Like the recent repeal of the endangerment finding, which had directed the EPA to regulate the risks that greenhouse gases pose to human health, now and in the future. The Environmental Protection Agency, whose mission is “to protect human health and the environment,” has now decreed that trucks and power plants can be as dirty as they want to be. Who in their right mind would call this sound decision-making? Who but people under the spell of a desperate deregulatory fever dream? Personally, I would prefer a stable climate and a healthy citizenry to further enriching modern-age robber barons at everyone else’s expense. But nobody asked me — or any of us, for that matter.
Anyone who sincerely doubts that climate change is real should visit the farmers in central Arizona who have had their supply of Colorado River water completely cut off in recent years due to the river’s diminishing flows. Higher temperatures and reduced snowpack, both attributable to a warming climate, are wreaking havoc on farmers throughout the Colorado River Basin who rely on the river to irrigate their crops. See “The Shrinking River,” a photo essay in this issue from Caitlin Ochs.
Meanwhile, in western Montana, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have used their sovereignty to give rivers and waterways unique protections that they wouldn’t otherwise have had, and to align agricultural needs with ecological processes. (See “The wealth of rivers” ) One waterway is now a primitive area accessible only to tribal members, while another has been designated a cultural waterway. These tribes are using treaty rights and sovereignty alongside traditional ecological knowledge to protect and restore rivers and ensure the future of their culture and people. It is inspiring, especially when considered alongside the seemingly intractable challenge of sharing Colorado River water across the basin. One model looks toward the future, while the other seems stuck in the past. Short-sightedness cannot future-proof the West — only common sense and compassion for our neighbors, human and otherwise.
We welcome reader letters. Email High Country News at editor@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.
This article appeared in the March 2026 print edition of the magazine with the headline “Look to the future.”
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
