There are few sights as lovely as a diatom. Single-celled, photosynthetic algae with intricate skeletons made of pure silica, they fascinated famous 19th century German zoologist Ernst Haekel, who painted this illustration in oils. Recently they have also become fascinating to scientists developing biologically-based solar panels. Diatoms are ecological workhorses. For at least 100 million […]
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spam…
Spam – not SPAM – is the stuff of evil Internet marketers. It’s bred in dark, dark spaces and spread to the intangible depths of E-mails and pop-up ads of YOUR computer. And today, I found out that spam’s got quite the environmental impact! Well, I’d never actually eaten SPAM until today, but I thought […]
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Score one for Grand Staircase-Escalante
Thirteen years ago, when outgoing President Clinton designated Grand Staircase-Escalante a national monument, the outcry from some southeast Utah residents was deafening (and HCN was there to write about it). Angry ranchers called their representatives and demanded repeal, locals burned Clinton in effigy, billboards saying NO MONUMENT! went up along the highways. Garfield and Kane […]
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Tea Party Day is coming
Even here in the boondocks, far from any place that Fox News has ever covered, it’s impossible to escape the publicity about the impending “Tea Party on Tax Day.” First came a robocall on Saturday; a husky male voice advised me to “show that you care about our country” by “attending a Tea Party on […]
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Subterranean seltzer water
In an ideal world, we’d be able to stash most of our planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions in underground formations, where they would turn to stone. As High Country News has reported in the past, the carbon in C02 can be incorporated into calcium carbonate, or limestone, through chemical reactions. That’s a good thing for climate […]
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Your turn, our turn
Today and tomorrow only, fellow intern Terray Sylvester and I will be guest blogging at the National Recreation & Parks Association Blog. The forum is called Y Become Involved? Basically, we’ll be discussing a big issue that public lands are facing: How to get young people involved in parks, recreation, and conservation activities. As with […]
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It takes a village…
It’s National Library Week (April 12 – 18), and here in HCN‘s hometown of Paonia, Colo. we just celebrated the opening of our brand-new public library. After 5 years of hard work, the old, dingy, 3,700-square-foot library has been replaced by an 8,000-square-foot building with tall windows that let in plenty of light and a […]
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California’s Central Water War Heats Up
California’s State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) – which serve the vast Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys of California – have projected dramatically reduced water delivery to all water users. Municipalities, wildlife refuges and farmers who hold water rights can expect to receive 50% to 60% of what has been requested. […]
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The Water Theft Bill
This week, the Montana Senate is voting on legislation that could give gas companies much more control over water pumped out of coalbed methane wells in the Powder River Basin. Senate Bill 505, if passed, will legitimize what many Montanans consider “water theft.” A single coalbed methane well can produce around 16,800 gallons of water every day. Water […]
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A fine feathered re-do
Over the years, we’ve run a lot of stories about the spotted owl (most recently, Spotted owl or red herring? and Hostile Takeover). The threatened raptor, which depends on old growth forests, was blamed for the decline of logging in the 90s, and timber companies have continually pushed to reduce the bird’s protection. Both enviros […]
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The whites are back in town
Whites are moving back into the city of Denver, and people of color are sprawling into suburbia, according to a case study in the Sunday edition of The Denver Post. Hey, that’s the same story in Washington, D.C. Dubbed “Chocolate City,” D.C. is due to transition from majority black to majority white in 2014, according […]
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The irony of home brew
At first glance, I thought it was an April Fool’s Day joke, the front-page headline in the Denver Post which announced that “Utah to ease liquor laws.” But upon further reading, I discovered that it was no joke. As of July 1, Utah’s liquor laws will resemble those of most other states. You’ll be able […]
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Outlaws with guns
Tomorrow Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will visit Mexico to discuss ways to halt the flow of guns across the border. Mexico has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world, but its drug cartels are armed with high-powered weapons smuggled over the border from the United […]
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Climate change is easy money
At their worst, carbon offsets are opaque, morally-ambiguous items that reek of guilt, arcane rites of penance and the potential for profiteering. When you buy an offset it’s hard to tell whether your money will actually be used to plant the promised grove of trees or install, for example, a slew of compact florescent light […]
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James Herriot, we need you
How would you like to be a doctor with 37,000 patients? If you’re the lone veterinarian in Washington’s Adams County who treats food animals, that’s how many cows, sheep and pigs await your attention. A fall 2007 survey showed that many counties don’t have even a single vet trained to treat livestock. Three-quarters of newly-trained […]
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A flick of the wrist…
Yesterday, President Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009. His signature ensures protection for more than 2 million acres of wilderness nationwide, and sets the long-awaited Navajo-Gallup water project in motion, delivering badly needed infrastructure and acre feet to the Navajo Nation. More than 70,000 people in the Navajo Nation do not have easy access […]
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Outlawed…
The fruit farmers in Paonia have been a bit worried about our weird weather. Spring came early, so the trees started budding. And this week, it’s been cold – sometimes freezing. If it gets too frosty, we might be out of luck for the season. Something else that’s on farmers’ minds: H.R. 875, a bill […]
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Paranoia, helicopters, herbicides
March 25th: An association of Hispanic residents from two Texas barrios near the Rio Grande river file a lawsuit complaining that the Department of Homeland Security has acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The group, called Barrio de Colores, hopes to stop the Border Patrol from going forward with their plan to apply […]
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Fire from the faucet
“Shock” and “terror:” that’s how Colorado resident Amee Ellsworth feels about her tap water. The stuff stinks, it causes strange sounds in her toilet and washing machine; and worst of all, she’s afraid it’ll blow up her house. When she turns on her kitchen faucet and flicks a lighter, foot-high flames leap from the tap. […]
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Is the San Andreas slipping?
Fill the water jugs and put the wrench back near the gas valve, Southern Californians, the Big One’s about to blow! Or not. You never can tell with these things. But geologists are watching closely a “swarm” of recent earthquakes on the Southern San Andreas Fault, the largest of which logged in at 4.8 on […]