I was very disappointed in the “Confessions of a Methane Floozy” article. The writer almost sounds like an energy industry hack. Her limited viewpoint and knowledge sound like another propaganda tool from the Bush administration: “You use the energy so accept the consequences.” I’m not sure where the numbers came from regarding the estimated percentage […]
New leaders, new future
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Fiddling while oil burns
In a society that reportedly has a per capita resource consumption 25 times larger than the global average, it is not surprising that the gritty piece by Hannah Nordhaus has more than a grain of truth. To some degree, however, Nordhaus’ cozy interviews with the various perpetrators obscure the fact that pots and kettles come […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
The West’s public lands are open for business
The 2003 EPCA report considered five Western regions. The 2006 report looked at 11, including Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and southern Florida. The difference in scope skews comparison of the reports, especially considering that ANWR’s 19 million acres are (still) off-limits to drilling. But a look at the five Western regions included in both […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Energy illusions
A new report seems to show that more land is off-limits to energy exploration, but appearances can be deceiving
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Red Feather builds homes and communities
NAME Red Feather Development Group HOMETOWN Bozeman, Montana FOUNDED IN 1994 FOUNDED BY Rob Young NOTED FOR Building straw-bale homes on Indian reservations across the West. In recent years, Red Feather has focused on Hopiland in Arizona, and the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana. FAVORITE FOOD Pop-Tarts. Legend has it that the two-dimensional pastries fueled […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Condemned
Out on the range, old eminent domain laws erode private property rights
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Two weeks in the West
As more people play in the snow, skirmishes heat up.
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Against the current
When I moved to Phoenix in the early 1990s, my first home was an apartment in a complex with a courtyard dominated by what seemed to be a football-field’s worth of vigorously green lawn. That lawn was no anomaly. The neighborhood I lived in over the next four years had a Leave It to Beaver […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Dear Friends
WINTER BOARD MEETING High Country News board members and staff traveled to Berkeley in late January to do some work, enjoy a little sunshine, and — with help from some old friends — put on a show for our Bay Area readers, present and future. Our idea of a show is, of course, fairly serious: […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
The Efficiency Paradox
Why water conservation along the Colorado River — a much-vaunted silver bullet for the West’s coming era of shortage — could have devastating environmental costs
Posted inWotr
The underbelly of prosperity in the resort West is illegal labor
The public affairs director for Park City, Utah, Myles Rademan, tells a story about tourists on a ski vacation asking him for directions to a Mexican restaurant. His answer: “They’re all Mexican restaurants. Go into the kitchen of any restaurant, whether it’s American, Italian or Chinese, and the people cooking the food are Mexicans.” I […]
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
Heard around the West
CALIFORNIA AND CONNECTICUT A Squaw Valley ski instructor with mechanical moxie and a $950 rope tow has created a backyard ski area. The Vail Daily says Ken Wittel’s rope tow is powered by a 5 horsepower gas engine that can pull skiers up Wittel’s 300-foot-high hill at 11 to 18 mph. If your backyard lacks […]
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
How to be #1 in the world and still be a loser
On one level, Giles Slade’s new book, Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America, can be read as the played-straight history of the demise of things like the paper shirt front, tailfins on cars, and the pinball machine. Slade ranges considerably wider than his title lets on, however, and raises fundamental questions about the […]
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
A family of criminals and killers
Danielle Marie Cox came from a loving family. She attended private school through the sixth grade, had a 3.8 grade point average in high school, and earned a scholarship to Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore. But the impressionable Cox fell prey to the drama and drugs of a homeless Portland street “family” she met […]
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
Born to be feral
As someone who has worked in the horse business as a breeder, trainer, competitor, packer and all-around horse-lover all my life, I still have very little patience with those who would place the welfare of the mythical “wild horses” of North America above the needs of wildlife and the health of our public lands. Try […]
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
The return of the (non) native
In his essay on wild horses, Williams offers no facts. Instead, he merely quotes harried former BLM employees and a New York Times article to buttress his specious arguments. Moreover, speaking from his presumably well-informed New England Audubon landscape, known perhaps somewhere for the wild horses of which he blithely opines, the kernel of his […]
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
Maybe they shouldn’t shoot them all
In response to Ted Williams’ article “They should shoot horses, shouldn’t they?” he is correct that wild horses should be managed appropriately on public lands. However, here in central Idaho we have one area where mustangs have roamed for decades and are managed by BLM. I have spent years hiking and photographing these horses. They […]
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
Winning hearts and minds — in the National Park Service
Thank you for the wonderful article “Old but Faithful,” about the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees. I agree with this group’s fight against commercialization, too many fees, and fees that are too high in our national parks. I cannot for the life of me understand how Holly Fretwell, of the Libertarian-oriented Property and Environment […]
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
One Christmas gift that won’t be returned
Just when I thought Santa would be skipping my house this year, I read April Reese’s article. A more wonderful and heartwarming Christmas present I could never receive! I first discovered Valle Vidal many years ago while roaming around the northern New Mexico mountains. When I came around the bend and my eyes feasted on […]
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
Just don’t toss it in the recycling bin
Ugh. It’s hard to accept that the likes of this stuff (sludge) is going on the ground that grows my food. But what are the alternatives? If we want to be — must be — a sustainable society, we have to do something with our waste besides bury it or throw it in the ocean. […]