This holiday, the spouse and I have decided to use some of our days off work to catch up on long-overdue home maintenance projects. For us, as for most other people, money is tighter this year, and we’re looking for ways to save on the supplies we’ll need. However, we’re also hoping to be as […]
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A tale of two cities
“The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience,” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. once wrote. This can be interpreted to mean that justice is subjective, shaped and reshaped over the years by social norms, by evolving moral priorities and shifting power structures. Even under the rule of law its application differs […]
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No place for hate
At Wheatland High and West Elementary schools in eastern Wyoming, banners that declared the schools “no place for hate” raised a stir among parents early this year because the banners were sponsored in part by the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado as part of a national Anti-Defamation League campaign. The Platte County School District […]
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Hope for a cleaner energy future
In my work with the tough coal and environmental justice issues in the Southwest and the tougher, diverse communities I am honored to work with here, I see at key moments a hope for the future that can’t be snuffed out. In the past few months, there have been historical and landmark events that continue […]
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Small Nevada tribe sues BLM over coal ash landfill
At a Southern Nevada Health District public hearing this October, farmer Norm Tom said that he and his tribe had “seen a lot of death” in the last 35 years, and he placed the blame squarely on the neighboring Reid Gardner coal-fueled power plant, run by Nevada’s primary power company, NV Energy. “Every time we […]
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Pondering palm oil
On the surface, it seems that environmental justice should be one of those no-brainer, win-win concepts that everyone can support. Look a little deeper, however, and enacting environmental justice can become impossibly complicated and divisive. Few things exemplify this paradox more than the case of palm oil. In recent years this seemingly innocuous, rather boring-sounding […]
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Drill the parks
Flanked by fast food joints on its south side, the St. Vrain River on its north, residential development on the west and Interstate 25 on the east, St. Vrain State Park isn’t a reason for tourists to make a trip to Colorado. Its flat fields and cluster of ponds offer residents of Denver and its […]
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What’s old is new again
Two stories about mining projects in California that crossed my path last week remind me that some narratives just don’t seem to go away. Whether it’s taking advantage of gold’s record high prices or carving away at river-side hills for rock and stone, it seems a given that economic boons obscure questions about associated environmental […]
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Cobell, settled at last
Federal government finally accounts for money mismanagement of tribal nations.
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The fracking fracas
By Heather Hansen When the EPA sent a subpoena to Halliburton earlier this month, demanding to know what’s in the fluid used to drive their hydraulic fracturing process for natural gas and oil production, industry watchers braced for a showdown. But, less than a week later, the company (which is one of the largest oilfield […]
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Snoop Dogg Called To Wild
Can the power of celebrity bring more people of color into the National Parks? Yosemite Ranger Shelton Johnson thinks so, and now that he’s grabbed the attention of talk show host Oprah Winfrey, momentum is building to invite the rap star Snoop Dogg to go camping. A petition is being circulated in the hopes of […]
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Arizona on the edge of a precipice
Even though it’s been a couple weeks since the midterm election, I’m can’t seem to stop wincing. Apparently I’m one of the few Arizonans to have this reaction to both the national and statewide races. My fellow citizens (who, let’s face it, were “tea party” before tea party was cool) displayed their outrage with our […]
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Good news and bad news for New Mexico’s Navajo communities
At the end of a year defined by the Gulf oil spill, failed climate legislation, and an ever-mounting urgency as the weather intensifies, federal leadership makes strides towards clean energy at the same time that leaders continue to dig in their heels in favor of fossil fuels. And, as everywhere in the world, indigenous peoples […]
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A new article of faith: don’t make the poor balance the budget
There is a political article of faith: “Don’t raise taxes during a recession.” Just Google the phrase and you’ll find some 2.5 million results. The popular idea is that deeply embedded into our political thinking. Of course it makes economic sense: You want people to spend their money on goods and services. Then producers will […]
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Go play outside
An article in the most recent edition of New Scientist about a fascinating study conducted at the University of Washington offers yet more evidence that investing in community green space can pay off in significant public benefits. The University of Washington study tracked the Body Mass Index of 3,831 children over two years, New Scientist […]
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When Shelton met Oprah
Yosemite National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson was as surprised as anyone. “I was more than surprised,” he said in a recent phone conversation. “I was shocked. When the EMTs resuscitated me I was pretty much flat-lined.” Standing outside the south entrance to Yosemite National Park, Johnson thought he was awaiting the arrival of six African-American […]
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A just transition to a clean energy future off coal can happen
In my first opportunity to join the blogosphere of High Country News, I wish to extend a big thanks to all those who have come before and are currently working towards achieving environmental justice (EJ) in the west. Many EJ struggles are a real challenge, rooted in a complex history with timelines and landscapes that cross vast […]
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Where should green planning efforts come from?
Hundreds of urban planners, architects, developers, environmentalists, entrepreneurs and policymakers danced around this question last week as they convened on Portland for the second annual Ecodistricts Summit. Hosted by the Portland Sustainability Institute (PoSI), the event complements a maturing experiment to make five of the Oregon metropolis’s neighborhoods into “Ecodistricts,” neighborhoods designed to be more […]
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Buying “green” in the rural West
I recently took a little unscientific field trip to a Walmart Supercenter near my home in Mesa, Arizona. I chose Walmart partly because of its prices but also because it is widely available in rural areas in the West, where shopping choices are often limited. My “research” questions: Would the prices for ‘greener’ products be […]
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Obama admin speaks on diversifying the NPS
Boldness hasn’t been an appropriate adjective for the Obama Admistration’s approach on environmental issues. The White House seems better known in green circles for allowing Van Jones to be squeezed out of a job, failing to take aggressive strides on passing a climate bill, lifting a moratorium on oil drilling, lowballing information about the extent […]