For a time, Pseudolithophyllum muricatum was king of the kelp forest understory around Tatoosh Island, a rocky blip of land off the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula. In experimental “bouts” staged there by famed ecologist Bob Paine that pitted the crusty, milky red algae against other species of coralline algae it lived amongst, P. muricatum […]
Ocean acidification is already driving changes in Northwestern marine ecology
Posted inJanuary 20, 2014: Building a More Sustainable West, One City at a Time
Is basic solar technology the key to an energy revolution?
Plain old photovoltaic panels and innovations in energy storage and distributed generation could remake our electricity system.
Posted inJanuary 20, 2014: Building a More Sustainable West, One City at a Time
Phoenix tries to rise from the flames
The Sunbelt city is one of the nation’s most sweltering urban heat islands. But simple solutions to help cool it are at hand.
Posted inJanuary 20, 2014: Building a More Sustainable West, One City at a Time
Will an apple a day keep the food desert away?
Reinventing the Garden of Eden in the Emerald City.
Posted inJanuary 20, 2014: Building a More Sustainable West, One City at a Time
Oakland transforms waste to renewable energy
More than 100 semi trucks enter the back gate of the Oakland, Calif., wastewater treatment plant every day, carrying tons of unusual and often disgusting freight: tons of cheese whey, chicken blood and heads, used cooking oil. And yet wastewater director Bennett Horenstein enthusiastically welcomes it. It is, after all, free fuel. Machines pulverize the […]
Posted inGoat
Bakken oil trucks can kick up carcinogenic dust similar to asbestos
Since the oil boom in western North Dakota began several years ago, the roads in this sparsely-populated corner of the state have been taking a beating. A typical shale oil well requires 2,300 truck trips in its lifetime, driven mostly over gravel roads. With nearly 6,800 wells currently operating in the Bakken oil field, that’s a […]
Posted inWotr
Between a rock and a dry place
How the “mega-drought” facing the region got its start.
Posted inJanuary 20, 2014: Building a More Sustainable West, One City at a Time
L.A. is here to stay
Paul set his mug of wine down and glowered at me over his glasses. Los Angeles? Why would any magazine editor include Los Angeles in a special issue on environmental sustainability? My friend and former professor had good reason to ask. The camper Paul calls home, where I had stopped for dinner that October night, […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2014: Building a More Sustainable West, One City at a Time
Las Vegas Periphery: Views from the Edge, by Laurie Brown and Sally Denton
Las Vegas Periphery: Views from the EdgePhotographs by Laurie Brown, essay by Sally Denton, 96 pages, hardcover: $60. George F. Thompson Publishing, 2013 At the edge of cities, development and nature collide. That juxtaposition has always fascinated photographer Laurie Brown, and she explores it fully in Las Vegas Periphery. Focusing on a city that symbolizes […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2014: Building a More Sustainable West, One City at a Time
The shareable city: building a better legal foundation for urban sustainability
A conversation with a sharing economy guru.
Posted inJanuary 20, 2014: Building a More Sustainable West, One City at a Time
Building better homes in Indian Country
Tribes use green building to address housing shortages.
Posted inJanuary 20, 2014: Building a More Sustainable West, One City at a Time
Battling plasticulture
An Oregon company turns plastic waste into fuel.
Posted inJanuary 20, 2014: Building a More Sustainable West, One City at a Time
Social media startup cuts food waste
Last spring, following a Sunday farmers market, Nick Papadopoulos, general manager of Bloomfield Farms in Sonoma County, Calif., surveyed his unsold produce: 40 pounds of soon-to-wilt organic broccoli. Normally, it would end up in the compost pile. Instead, he snapped a picture and posted it to the farm’s Facebook page: “We’d love to get this […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2014: Building a More Sustainable West, One City at a Time
Stopping deforestation, one pair of chopsticks at a time
HCN student essay contest winner.
Posted inJanuary 20, 2014: Building a More Sustainable West, One City at a Time
From paradise paved to paradise saved?
Driving around in circles looking for parking is so 1935 – the year Oklahoma City installed the world’s first parking meter. Parking’s waste of gas, time and space has recently inspired a host of phone applications to help people find spots more quickly, or even sublet their empty residential spaces. Though handy, the apps are […]
Posted inGoat
New study maps carbon footprints, comes to surprising conclusions
One could lose oneself for hours in the patterns and erratic splotches of colors. Do I live in a swath of self-righteous green? Or in guilt-ridden, fiery orange? Does urban density really reduce our environmental impact? And how gluttonous are those McMansion-dwelling exurbanites, anyway? The answers to all these questions and more are now just […]
Posted inGoat
Tale of two states: Utah’s a model for reducing homelessness, Wyoming lags behind
What happens when you give a homeless person a subsidized apartment? The answer isn’t as straightforward as you might think. But in Utah, it’s proven a resounding success – out of 17 chronically homeless people who took part in the state’s 2005 pilot program, all were still off the streets two years later, spurring a […]
Posted inWotr
Megaloads and wild-and-scenic rivers don’t mix
Opinion: These loads of mining equipment to Canada don’t belong on a narrow, scenic road that winds through my part of Idaho.
Posted inArticles
Are Yellowstone grizzlies ready for delisting?
A recent study of the bears’ diets has spurred a move toward ending endangered protections.