DIGITAL VAMPIRES
The very timely article “The big digital buildup” (August 2025) was in my hands a day after the Tucson City Council voted down, by unanimous approval, Project Blue, which would have annexed desert property simply to enable Amazon and its front men to build data centers using Tucson city water and Tucson Electric Power.
John R. Leech
Tucson, Arizona
All data centers should be required to produce their own energy. Their high demand is requiring electricity rates to go up and be paid for by taxpayers. We did not ask for AI; it’s being forced on us, and the people who are doing the forcing need to pay for the electricity.
Gee DeMadera
Via Facebook
WE CAN’T FORGET THE PAST
“The Presence of Sheep” (August 2025) is a horrific story about livestock genocide on Diné lands, and a reminder that there are so many grotesque things in our history that are never discussed outside the communities they affected.
s.e. smith
Via Bluesky
MAKING IT WORK
Environmental conservation and protection are much harder under President Donald Trump, but states are still trying to make it work (“From oil field to oasis,” August 2025). Great article, as always, from High Country News.
Philip Loring
Via Bluesky
THE POWER OF GOOD PEOPLE
“The Heat Between Us” by Adam Mahoney (July 2025) is a tragic but inspiring story. The work of Tiffany Hawkins and Darren Chapman once again shows us that we the people are not powerless and should never believe that we are for one minute. When I lived in Glendale, Arizona, in the early ’90s, it was already apparent that the orange groves and cotton fields were succumbing to housing developments. We joked then that development occurred at the rate of an acre an hour. It’s easy to isolate oneself in one’s home, especially as one gets older, and not meet or interact in any meaningful way with the neighbors. It takes courage, persistence and hard work to build well-connected neighborhoods. Thank you, Ms. Hawkins and Mr. Chapman. You are an inspiration. Yesterday, I took one small step in my neighborhood to follow in your footsteps.
Mary J. Talbott
Colorado Springs
TAKE IT OUTSIDE
The July 2025 HCN was full of wonderful articles! When I opened the magazine, I actually took the editor’s note’s suggestion to take it outside, and that was just what I needed at that moment. I loved both feature articles — “Seeds of Diaspora” and “The Heat Between Us” — for their messages of hope and community. The seeds article was so beautifully drawn and tenderly written. It really hit home with me in the context of lots of other things going on in the world, not just climate change.
Betsy Moore
Hesperus, Colorado
SCIENTISTS SPEAK OUT
It is difficult to imagine a more critical and timelier article than Ruxandra Guidi’s “Politics and science can mix” (July 2025). Scientists need to speak up loudly, clearly and repeatedly in our fast-changing and often misguided political arena. Guidi mentions Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring about the dangers of several then widely used pesticides. At the time, Carson was vilified by the chemical industry, but her book eventually led to significant and lasting changes.
Another scientist, Linus Pauling (Nobel Prize in chemistry 1954) spoke out strongly about nuclear proliferation. Like Carson, he was also vilified, but his activism resulted in greater public awareness of the threat and his second Nobel Prize, for peace, in 1962.
Fortunately, as Guidi notes, scientists are becoming less reluctant to speak out. There are many scientists today who can be commended for their efforts to counter incorrect public perceptions and ill-advised public policies. This is no time for anyone — especially scientists — to stay on the sidelines.
John Whitmer
Bellingham, Washington
RESOURCES FOR RESILENCE
The recent article “Finding community in a world of wounds” (July 2025) profoundly captured the angst that many of us are feeling: a need to seek connection in a world where the natural environment is being overwhelmed by the man-made economy, and a political arena in the United States that feels akin to a Roman gladiator spectator event.
I have been teaching a course in environmental economics for the past 12 years at Colorado’s Front Range Community College — a scientifically sound and rational approach to policy if we can ever develop the political will to implement it. There are other economic policies besides unlimited growth, which is simply suicidal and needs to be called out as such.
The Great Turning by David Korten offers a way to “think outside the box” of the dominant economic paradigm and provides an inspiring vision that would reverse the past several centuries of global conquest and domination, a vision which I am glad to see that HCN is helping to bring about.
Rick Casey
Fort Collins, Colorado
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