Death Valley wakes up with a bang

I work as an environmentalist and as a geologist. I worked as a geologist at the Hamilton vermiculite mine mentioned in the Libby, Mont., article, when exploration and permitting was in progress (HCN, 2/21/05: Where were the environmentalists when Libby needed them most?). At a community meeting, I heard the managers tell officials and the […]

Let’s see if I have Ray Ring’s point of view right: Powerful resource extraction corporations spend years demonizing environmentalists. Not-very-sophisticated locals join the powerful and spend years speaking ill of “damn environmentalists.” Local enviros move on to other “opportunities.” Is Ray Ring telling us we should feel guilty for not assisting those whose lack of […]

At a time when the morale of the environmental community is at such a low point, why do Ray Ring and the editor wish to feature a story casting aspersions and fomenting factional bickering? One is led to believe that behind every issue, especially here in Montana where I have lived and worked as an […]

I’d like to respond to one of your letter-writers, D.D. Sparks, in the Jan. 24, 2005, issue. Sparks hopes “that those who become so passionate about the environment realize there are other people in the world besides themselves.” I would have thought that any reader of High Country News would already know this fact, but […]

I kept hoping as I read “The Death of Environmentalism” that Shellenberger and Nordhaus meant their title literally, that the repetitive thud of the word across their text would lead them to suggest burying the word. They didn’t. But I will. Let’s stop using “environmentalism.” It’s a lousy word, not least for its harsh embedded […]

Jim McCarthy’s comments relating to the end of power rate subsidies for farmers in the Klamath Basin illustrate clearly why conservationists are losing the battle for hearts and minds outside of our largely urban and/or liberal base of support (HCN, 2/7/05: Klamath farmers face new threat). According to the story, Klamath Basin farmers are faced […]

High Country News asks: “Where were the environmentalists when Libby, Mont. needed them most?” (HCN, 2/21/05: Where were the environmentalists when Libby needed them most?). However, the more interesting question, closer to the bone, is: “Where were the labor unions?” As Montana’s congressman for 18 years, I knew many of the miners from W.R. Grace’s […]

Ray Ring’s bizarre exercise in contorted logic raises the bar of non-sequitur journalism to dizzying new heights. But then, that should have been expected, given the fatuously malignant banner lead on your Feb. 21 cover: “Have Environmentalists Failed the West?” What’s next, HCN? “Did Seismologists Fail the Sumatrans?” Or maybe … “Did Firemen Fail the […]

As an environmental scientist who has been working on related issues for 30 years, I’ve never felt myself a member of any “movement,” and I would surmise that few of my practicing colleagues do either. On Earth Day, we’re generally out doing something besides marching in parades and selling T-shirts. If the “movement” as it […]