Libby is the most unsung of environmental disasters (HCN, 6/21/10). People know (or knew) about Love Canal and even Times Beach and Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, but no one has heard of Libby; and yet the exposures continue, as your “Data” stated. I have done work for the federal Department of Health and Human […]
Climate change
Posted inGoat
The Heart of the Beast
As a kid in northern Wyoming, I watched my dad dump a five-gallon bucket of Powder River Basin coal into the heater in our living room every winter night before bed. I’d lean against the stove in my jammies, enjoying its warmth while a blizzard rattled the chimney pipe. Though most Americans never hear coal […]
Posted inGoat
Calm before the storm
Drought, beetle kill, extended fire seasons, disappearing glaciers, early spring runoff—these signs of climate change flicker at the edge of Western life like the lightning flashes of an approaching summer storm. Late last month, the Western Governors’ Association, a nonpartisan organization that works with the governors of 19 western states and three U.S. territories, took […]
Posted inRange
Joshua Tree instructs students about climate change
When Joshua Tree National Park Ranger Caryn Davidson announced, “We cannot do much to change the course of climate change,” 30 students moved to the corner of the Black Rock Visitor’s Center under a large paper sign with the words “strongly disagree” written in black magic marker. “Mankind has the intelligence to destroy the world […]
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
Sinclair flare up
Accident-prone refinery burdens Wyoming town
Posted inApril 12, 2010: The Butterfly Sting
Our dirty past, our dirty present
Between 1972 and 1977, some 70 photographers set about documenting the American landscape, its environmental problems and its people for the then brand-new Environmental Protection Agency. Last summer, the National Archives and Records Administration began posting those Documerica Project images on Flickr.com in what will be a 15,000-shot collection. But 40 years after the EPA’s […]
Posted inRange
Climate Friendly National Parks
National parks across the country, including California’s desert national parks like the Mojave National Preserve, Joshua Tree National Park, and Death Valley National Park have begun developing action plans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as part of the National Park Service Climate Friendly Parks Program. The Climate Friendly Parks Program helps individual parks reduce […]
Posted inBlog
The Front Line of Climate Justice
Last December in Copenhagen, corporate heads of state failed to make the necessary agreements to save us from ourselves by agreeing to cap greenhouse gas emissions. If we learned anything from the recent national healthcare reform debate, it’s that we can’t count on the U.S. Congress either given the tens of millions of dollars and […]
Posted inWotr
When a scientist becomes an activist
In my office, I have a picture of a man testifying to Congress. He is haggard, with the look of someone under great strain. Behind him, engraved on the wall, is a quote from the book of Proverbs: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” The man in the picture is NASA climatologist James […]
Posted inGoat
Totally gnarly air, dude
What might California save if it met the EPA’s current air quality standards? From 2005-’07, the figure might have been $193 million — in hospital bills alone. That’s the approximate cost of about 30,000 emergency room visits and/or hospital admissions that might have been avoided if California’s skies were more breathable, according to a new […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2010: The War Next Door
The smoke police
Bay Area air quality inspectors on the alert
Posted inRange
Rolling Boulder up the mountain
“It is now abundantly clear that we have at our fingertips all of the tools we need to solve the climate crisis. The only missing ingredient is collective will.” If any place on the planet has the collective will to put those tools to use, it’s Boulder, Colorado — a city that is probably home […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 2010: Prodigal Dogs
A nature lover’s bucket list
Lately, I’ve been struggling to stay positive about the climate. It’s not easy. The 190 nations at the November summit in Copenhagen failed to reach agreement on greenhouse gases, and Congress seems determined to avoid the issue. Worst of all, polls show cooling anxiety about climate change among Americans; these days, we are too consumed […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 2010: 'The environment ... is where we live'
‘The environment … is where we live’
A New Mexico neighborhood offers a case study in the successes, and failures, of the environmental justice movement
Posted inDecember 21, 2009: Wind Resistance
The big bonfire
The U.S. already has a de facto climate policy
Posted inRange
What’s next for Indigenous people facing climate disruption?
Terri Hansen, a correspondent for Indian Country Today, attended the Copenhagen climate talks. She followed the story of how of indigenous rights, including those of American Indian tribes, were left out of the COP-15 talks, and filed this report for the HCN Grange blog. Indigenous peoples face big climate problems but had little say at […]
Posted inDecember 21, 2009: Wind Resistance
A frackin’ mess
I am convinced that hydraulic fracturing poses a significant threat to the quality of our drinking water, and that the legal framework governing this practice is piecemeal and inadequate at best (HCN, 11/23/09). As a Colorado resident, I am proud that Gov. Ritter stood up to the weighty industry influence here and demanded more protection […]