It may have surprised some people, but really it was
as inevitable as sunrise: After seven years of denial, the Bush
administration can no longer ignore the biggest environmental
problem facing the West and the entire planet.
Thirteen federal agencies, led by the Department of
Agriculture, acknowledged reality in a thick May 28
report signed by three Bush cabinet secretaries.
The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land
Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United
States says the West has already been hit harder than
other U.S. regions.
The report adds up bleak predictions
from many researchers outside the Bush administration, and provides
new details. It says global warming in the West will likely get
worse in the next 25 to 50 years, with intensified drought,
continued declines in annual mountain snowpacks, and about a 20
percent reduction in runoff in Colorado and the Great Basin. There
will be more “extreme” weather, including “intense” rainfalls and
dust storms, and erosion, wildfire, weeds, pests and diseases will
pose increasing threats to forests, rangeland and crops. Even
“iconic, charismatic megaflora such as saguaro cacti and Joshua
trees” will have a harder time surviving.
Meanwhile, the
U.S. Senate began debating “America’s Climate Security
Act” — the first significant attempt to make industries pay some
of the costs of greenhouse gas emissions. But debate was
all that happened: A real “cap-and-trade” permit system still waits
in the future, shimmering like a mirage. The 492-page bill died
June 6 because several dozen lawmakers thought it would unfairly
impact industries like coal and oil.
Elsewhere in
politics, a black man won the Democratic presidential primary in
Montana, where less than half of 1 percent of the population is
black. Some found this surprising, because a few Northern Rockies
communities have a reputation for white-supremacist rightwing
militias. But those groups remain in the margins and don’t define
the character of Montana or the West as a whole. As the last state
to weigh in, Montana ratified the political will of the
West’s Democrats: Barack Obama won seven of the 11 Western
states. His rival, Hillary Clinton, won only in the
Southwest (New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California), where she
benefited from her rapport with Hispanic voters.
Montana
also shows how mixed-up the West’s politics have gotten. A
perennial candidate named Bob Kelleher, who’d run 14 unsuccessful
races as a Democrat or Green Party member, finally won a primary —
as a Republican. (That’ll probably be the end of it, though:
Kelleher wants to win the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Max
Baucus, something he has little chance of doing.) And Montana Gov.
Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat running for re-election, got endorsed
by the normally Republican National Rifle Association (thus
certifying Schweitzer’s reputation as the prototypical gunslinging
Western Dem).
After 44 years of
studying whether the nation should stash thousands of tons of
nuclear waste underneath Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, the
Department of Energy finally handed in the official application
seeking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s OK for the
project. The gigantic document had more than 8,000 pages
bulging with bureaucratic language, including such well-spun
euphemisms as “Stockpile Stewardship” and “seismic disruption
scenario.”
And in Idaho, most people were not surprised
that the richest person in the state — agribusiness
multibillionaire J.R. Simplot — died. He was 99 and had
pneumonia. But it apparently surprised Simplot: According to the
Idaho Statesman, “His death occurred moments
after he had invited a friend to his home to play cards.” An
avalanche of news stories on Simplot’s life revealed some
surprising facts, including that his formal education ended with
eighth grade. It was also surprising when someone stole the dead
man’s trademark cowboy hat, which was displayed in a floral
arrangement at the memorial service in the Qwest Arena in Boise,
attended by a thousand people. Don’t be surprised if the famous
straw hat turns up for sale on eBay.
Goliath
beats Goliath
Telluride’s movie stars, super athletesand service workers no longer have to worry about crashing their
hang gliders and mountain bikes into the 22 monster homes proposed
for this scenic patch of land outside the tony Colorado resort
town’s entrance. On June 2, the Colorado Supreme Court ended an
eight-year property rights scuffle between the community and a
developer when it ruled 6 to 1 that Telluride had the right under
the state Constitution to condemn the 572-acre parcel for open
space. But don’t expect many Colorado towns to follow Telluride’s
lead: The process is far too onerous and costly for most municipal
budgets. Telluride will have to pony up a court-ordered $50-plus
million ($24.3 million has come from 1,480 private donations, a
handful of which were seven-figure sums) to buy the land, as well
as several million dollars to cover interest and its own and the
developer’s legal fees. And restoring the land itself — home to
mine tailings and old sewage ponds — may cost up to $20
million.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Two weeks in the West.
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