Richard Reeves’ book Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II is a tragic story of an immoral episode in American culture, and it’s simply not necessary to compound the tale through sensationalism and historical error. The title of Eric Sandstrom’s review in the Nov. 9 issue, “The Greatest Generation […]
Don’t blame the greatest generation
Posted inDecember 21, 2015: Secrets of the Deep
Curious scientists
“Vikings’ mysterious abandonment of Greenland was not due to climate change” read the headline of a recent Washington Post story, detailing new evidence that the Norsemen’s departure from the ice-capped island in the 1300s was not spurred by rapidly cooling conditions, as many scientists had thought. New high-tech rock-dating technology has convinced researchers that glaciers […]
Posted inDecember 21, 2015: Secrets of the Deep
A modest proposal — for mustangs
If words were bales of hay, feeding captive feral horses would be no problem (“Wild horses sent to slaughter,” HCN, 11/23/15). Presently, the government is the largest livestock caregiver in the U.S. Over 90,000 horses are either in lockups or on the Western ranges. In the meantime, one child dies every five seconds from malnutrition […]
Posted inDecember 21, 2015: Secrets of the Deep
A forgotten lake
I read with interest the article titled “Tenuous revival of Mono Lake” in the Nov. 23 issue. I was involved in the politics of that rescue, being friends with Rick Lehman, our congressman, and with other politicos who drove the legislation. Now that the lake is stabilized, I have tried to interest them in Walker […]
Posted inDecember 21, 2015: Secrets of the Deep
Why Westerners die at the hands of cops
Jack Yantis, an Idaho rancher, raised the profile of rural police brutality.
Posted inArticles
Budget bill would lift ban on crude exports and incentivize renewables
Months of bickering results in $1.1 trillion package to fund most of what the federal government does.
Posted inArticles
Locavores aren’t loved by everybody
In the last 20 years, the amount of locally grown foods consumed in the American diet has tripled, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and it now comprises 2 percent of the food consumed in the country. As with anything that’s popular, some have seen fit to attack this trend. Why do they do […]
Posted inArticles
Slow-motion methane disaster
Aliso Canyon has leaked more greenhouse gases in two months than a coal mine does in a year.
Posted inArticles
Is the West prepared for climate change?
A new report shows most states are vulnerable to future increases in extreme heat, drought, and flooding.
Posted inArticles
Five new studies that change our understanding of permafrost
Why they matter, even if you don’t live in the Arctic.
Posted inArticles
Ranch Diaries: Building human connections from a remote ranch
Passing on knowledge is crucial to our way of life.
Posted inArticles
Big Ag stands on shifting ground
Between 2006 and 2011, farmers on the western edge of the Midwest’s farm belt in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and the Dakotas converted more than 1.3 million acres of grasslands to corn and soybean fields. Some people were seriously alarmed. Wildlife habitat was destroyed, and water, soil and the air itself suffered. But that conversion of […]
Posted inArticles
COP21: Let us celebrate the lack of total failure
The Paris agreement won’t end climate change. But it’s a long awaited step forward.
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Fishers recolonize Washington, part of a Northwest rewilding
The forest carnivore’s return was helped by human intervention.
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Early season snowpack falls short across the West
Nevada and Idaho are the only Western states above their historic averages.
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Colorado citizens can now report health problems from oil & gas
The nation’s first ‘health response’ program launched this fall.
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He didn’t die with dignity (so I threw a party)
My father’s recent death was not beautiful, and neither were any of the other deaths I’ve witnessed of late. This has left me wondering about a better path. Death is not easy, to be sure, but these were made particularly painful by medical interventions — or perhaps I witnessed the confusion between saving a life […]
Posted inArticles
Western senators angle to influence Paris climate talks
Wyoming’s Barrasso is undermining the treaty, while New Mexico’s Udall flew to Paris to support it.
Posted inArticles
Millions in debt, a community wonders if its water source will provide
This master-planned community must keep building to survive, despite the drought.
Posted inDecember 7, 2015: Good Neighbors
Adrenaline junkies get political
Do young recreationalists who like things faster and steeper care about the land the way their forebears did?