A new analysis suggests that over half of communities in the West lack the capacity to take advantage of infrastructure bill funding. Now what?
Climate
Posted inMay 1, 2022: New Ways of Seeing the West
What does it mean to live well on an overheating planet?
A walk through the Quinault rainforest leads to a cascade of questions.
Posted inArticles
On grieving trees
For years, a young writer saw the tell-tale signs of beetle kill. And then the infestation came for the pines at her own home.
Posted inArticles
Biden pledged to stop drilling on public lands. What happened?
The president reversed a key part of his agenda that was intended to combat the climate crisis.
Posted inApril 1, 2022: The Archives Issue
A mystery worm is threatening the future of Washington’s oysters
Clues from 1,000-year-old shells could reveal the parasite’s past —and portend the future.
Posted inArticles
A mysterious solar farm crops up in Colorado
Are the solar panels, spread over 74 acres on the Western Slope, intended to power a crypto mine? No one’s saying.
Posted inArticles
Arizona faces a reckoning over water
The state’s powerful will to grow is challenged by extreme heat, deep drought and serious water-related stress.
Posted inApril 1, 2022: The Archives Issue
How the Earth stores records of the past
When human data doesn’t go back far enough, researchers turn to natural archives.
Posted inArticles
What’s missing in California’s solar debate
Energy justice advocates are pointing out a gaping hole in making renewable energy more accessible: community solar.
Posted inArticles
Pacific Coast crabs are suffocating
Climate change has created dangerously low oxygen levels in the ocean, causing problems for creatures and the communities that rely on them.
Posted inMarch 1, 2022: The Cloning Conundrum
How a Tacoma gas facility started a fight over climate change, sovereignty and human rights
A Washington methane gas project is compounding a crisis of tribal consultation, pension funds and national immigration practices.
Posted inArticles
Can a modified invasive trout save the cutthroat?
To eliminate invasive fish species, scientists have created a ‘Trojan’ brook trout that’s intended to help native fish in the West.
Posted inMarch 1, 2022: The Cloning Conundrum
Portland community leaders bring the heat to building standards
An activist collective says making buildings carbon-free is just the start.
Posted inMarch 1, 2022: The Cloning Conundrum
A new tundra, engineered by beavers
Once nonexistent in northwest Alaska, beavers are both benefiting from and changing a warming tundra.
Posted inArticles
The first answer for food insecurity: data sovereignty
A new report shows tribal communities have adapted to meet the needs of their people in ways that state and federal governments can’t.
Posted inMarch 1, 2022: The Cloning Conundrum
The place that coal built and fire burned
Extractive industry laid the infrastructure for the suburban sprawl that fueled Colorado’s destructive Marshall Fire.
Posted inArticles
Wildfires’ unequal impacts on pregnant people
An interview with one researcher studying the effect of wildfire on pregnancy outcomes in the West.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
The beauty and complexity of farm work in Washington
Artwork created by farmworkers and their communities paints an authentic picture of farm labor in Washington.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
A just transition for farmworkers
As agricultural laborers continue to bear the brunt of climate change, activists in Washington chart a new path for climate justice.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
Tribal nations are locked inside the U.S. water regime
Phoebe Suina on the Rio Grande River, Pueblo inclusion and the need for holistic solutions to our man-made disaster.