With Trump’s blessing, cell towers are infiltrating protected public lands across the West.
Technology
Posted inMarch 1, 2020: Predator (Mis)perceptions
The Elon Musk dilemma
When big thinkers think badly.
Posted inArticles
Can better broadband and big data save rural America?
Independent farms need better internet to survive, let alone to compete with the large agriculture industry.
Posted inSeptember 2, 2019: In Bad Faith
Mom loves the desert. Daughter loves the Dollar Store.
Can a desert ‘superbloom’ compete with the flashy pull of toys and gadgets?
Posted inJune 10, 2019: 'None of this happened the way you think it did'
Wildfire escape routes? There’s (almost) an app for that.
Scientists are using crowdsourced data to help firefighters flee dangerous flames.
Posted inArticles
Online privacy is for the birds
As wildlife sharing apps proliferate, unintended consequences threaten endangered species.
Posted inArticles
Russian investors are keen on Nevada’s copper
Demand for clean cars is causing an uptick in copper mining in the West, but at what cost?
Posted inArticles
Extinction looms for southern California’s mountain lions
A new study presents a choice: Allow the big cats to vanish in 50 years — or build modest wildlife corridors.
Posted inMay 27, 2019: Public Pushback
Militias, MAGA activists and one border town’s complicated resistance
How Arivaca, Arizona, became a magnet for anti-immigrant activists – and what locals did next.
Posted inArticles
‘Why shouldn’t I try and save all you adults?’
A portrait of Haven Coleman, a young climate activist.
Posted inArticles
Can big data help save endangered species?
A new tool could improve rare species recovery — or justify letting some species perish.
Posted inNovember 12, 2018: Old Wests, and new
The contradictions of iconic lands
The photos inside two new volumes show the grandeur and vulnerability of landscapes like the Grand Canyon and Bears Ears National Monument.
Posted inArticles
In Yosemite, two deaths raise concerns about social media
A recent study documented 259 fatalities worldwide caused by people taking selfies.
Posted inArticles
See what a tech production surge means for Tesla workers
With few housing options in Storey County, Nevada, new employees are finding alternative living situations.
Posted inOctober 15, 2018: Nature Retreat
Conspiracy theories inspire vigilante justice in Tucson
How one man’s imagined discovery of a sex-trafficking camp in the Sonoran Desert gained life online — and in the real world.
Posted inArticles
Indigenous peoples are decolonizing virtual worlds
Video games have a malicious history of inaccurate portrayals of Indigenous characters.
Posted inArticles
How tweets can map a #wildfire
Social media could help monitor air pollution that physical monitors miss.
Posted inArticles
Counties lacking mental health providers turn to technology
A Montana clinic’s telemedicine network helps far-away patients receive care.
Posted inMay 14, 2018: Death in the Alpine
Death in the alpine
Social media is changing our relationship to risk, with deadly consequences.
Posted inMay 14, 2018: Death in the Alpine
The nowhereness of airports
The way air travel has devolved says something awful about humans.