Climate change

Updated 8/13/2012 10 a.m. Last summer, visitors to Lacamas Lake, a reservoir outside the town of Vancouver, Wash., may have seen some strange devices floating on the reservoir’s surface. “It look(ed) like an alien lander,” says Washington State University doctoral student Bridgit Deemer. The mysterious objects were traps designed to catch air bubbles spurting up from the […]

“I was a victim of the snow,” former Chicago mayor Michael Bilandic told Chicago Magazine in 2000, referring to his failed 1979 reelection bid. Bilandic replaced the first Mayor Daley, who died in 1976, in the midst of his sixth term, and he was expected to glide back into office. He was the Democratic “machine’s” chosen one post-Daley, […]

The conventional wildfire wisdom goes something like this: Western forests are out of whack due to past fire suppression and logging practices. Forests that used to be open and free of undergrowth have turned into dense “dog hair” thickets of young trees that burn like kindling. Combine that with millions of acres of trees killed […]

The latest episode of our monthly podcast, West of 100, is ready for listening! It accompanies Greg Hanscom’s recent cover story about Black Diamond CEO Peter Metcalf, and his crusade to turn the outdoor gear industry into a force for nature.  As Greg reports, it’s been a process characterized by fits and starts, and the […]

You didn’t ask, but if you had, I would’ve told you: … The head of ExxonMobil should step down or be fired, because he’s revealed himself to be a caveman ill-equipped to lead the biggest U.S. oil company in the 21st century. All we need to do is “spend more policy effort on adaptation … […]

At first glance, nothing about the photo seems awry. It shows a truck spraying water on the dirt streets of Silverton, Colo., elevation 9,318 feet, to keep the dust down, a regular occurrence in May or June. This photograph, however, was taken on New Year’s Day. In the background, mountain slopes that regularly see some […]

Explaining what’s driving the big, scary fires consuming Colorado to the L.A. Times, Forest Service ecologist Bob Keane didn’t mince words: “The reason Colorado is burning is they’ve had prolonged drought.” That drought can prime forests for fire is well established, and, well, kind of obvious. Parched plants and trees are easier to ignite than […]

I’m as guilty as the next headline writer. When High Country Newsran a story about selenium pollution in May, I went with the two-headed fish. After all, a headline promising a grotesque tale of a deformed fish was one of our few opportunities to even approach the clickability of adorable miniature pig videos and celebrity sideboob […]

I’ve done a few stories on air pollution in the last year, and many a source has told me this: When it comes to pollution, all fossil fuel power plants are not created equal. It’s a principle enshrined in the Clean Air Act. Power plants that began generating electricity before 1978 are grandfathered into the […]

Ah, geoengineering. That crazy idea to manipulate earth’s atmosphere to do the opposite of what our current manipulations are doing — cool the planet instead of warm it — has made its way back into the headlines recently, with pieces in the New Yorker and Scientific American. Geoengineering would be a desperate measure indeed, stemming […]