THE NATION Attention, unemployed daredevils: Jobs are opening up for athletic non-acrophobics. It helps if you’re the kind of risk-taker who thinks repairing the giant blades of a wind turbine sounds like good clean fun, in a blowy sort of way. The catch: The 122-foot arms don’t lower to the ground for tune-ups; instead, blade […]
Communities
Posted inGoat
Still snowed in
An editorial in last weekend’s Arizona Daily Sun described the paper’s “awe” at emergency response to the epic storm that dumped more than four feet of snow on Flagstaff. But while life in the city goes back to normal, stranded residents in Indian country are still digging out. The West’s recent rash of apocalyptic weather […]
Posted inGoat
Borderline environmental justice
Recently, the New York Times reported on immigration and drug traffic across the U.S.-Mexico border where it crosscuts the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona, a story HCN covered in-depth in 2007. The situation is horrific: strangers knock on doors to entice and scare tribal members into smuggling, while pervasive Border Patrol inconvenience and intimidate the […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 2010: 'The environment ... is where we live'
The grammar of picture writing
Explaining the “locator symbols” in petroglyphs
Posted inBlog
They say it’s your birthday
Two years ago I celebrated my 40th birthday. I wasn’t thrilled about turning 40 (who is?) and couldn’t convince myself that a celebratory shindig was a good idea (all that attention). But in her quiet way, a close friend convinced me it needed to happen. On an April evening, friends filled the upstairs of the […]
Posted inWotr
Marijuana stores get no respect
Cimarron, a ranching town of 1,000 in New Mexico, says it does not want a marijuana store. Residents cite the seaside town of Arcata in California where the Arcata Eye says people have finally had it because over 1,000 homes there have turned into “grow houses.” Crime has spiked, newcomers are protecting their stash with […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 2010: 'The environment ... is where we live'
The easy way to purify our geography
If it’s named for a scoundrel, change the namesake
Posted inRange
Western resource extraction, now and then
For four years Boston-based photographer Eirik Johnson, a Seattle native, travelled around Washington, Oregon, and northern California taking pictures of loggers and fishermen. His photographs, collected into the series “Sawdust Mountain,” are on display at the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington until this Sunday. The series depicts the visual impact of natural […]
Posted inWotr
A cheer for Interior Secretary Salazar’s new approach
As an economist, it startles me when representatives of the business community ignore basic economic relationships such as supply and demand. Yet oil and gas interests have been doing exactly that recently. It is hard to believe that there is anyone in the country who does not know that we are in a deep recession. […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 2010: 'The environment ... is where we live'
Drive that Hummer
Is it a car or a statement?
Posted inWotr
Counties take steps to build a new energy economy
The November elections came and went without the hoopla of a year ago, but voters in western Colorado quietly approved measures that could set the stage for a clean energy revolution. Rural mountain communities in Gunnison, Eagle and Pitkin counties voted to support clean, homegrown energy and energy efficiency. These clean energy investments are a […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 2010: 'The environment ... is where we live'
Ancient conversations
Interpreting the enigmatic patterns of Southwestern rock art.
Posted inRange
Sundance, Redford and Obama
The Sundance Film Festival is underway at Park City, Utah. This year the annual event is being covered by the alternative media news program Democracy Now!. Today, Democracy Now aired an interview with Sundance founder and LA native Robert Redford. Redford was asked to describe Utah where he owns land and a home. He did […]
Posted inGoat
It may be the apocalypse. . .
2012? Whatever. Clearly the apocalypse is nigh-er than that. First, there’s the weather to consider. Wave after wave of Pacific storms have left Southern California’s beaches a creepy Mad-Maxian mess of shopping carts, plastic toys and other manmade flotsam that’s washed down from various megalopoli. It’s been the worst series of storms in five years, […]
Posted inRange
Tribal push to regulate Native ceremonies
When I first saw the headlines coming out of Arizona regarding a push to regulate tribal ceremonies, I couldn’t help but think tribal sovereignty might be in danger. But then I learned that the effort is coming from tribal leaders themselves in response to the three Sedona, AZ deaths and 19 illnesses that took place […]
Posted inWotr
When some ranchers use poison — just like the old days
“Biocides” was Rachel Carson’s term for pesticides that kill indiscriminately. They haven’t been much talked about since the banning of DDT and relatives in the 1970s – until now. As Pete Gober, who heads the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s effort to save the black-footed ferret, America’s most endangered mammal, put it recently: “The incredibly […]
Posted inJanuary 11, 2010: Breakdown
Native power in Tucson
On the evening of Jan. 27, a distinguished group of journalists, environmentalists and tribal leaders will come together at the University of Arizona for an HCN-sponsored event entitled “Power Struggle: Energy, Activism and the role of the Media on the Hopi and Navajo Nations.” For more information, see our ad on page 20 and visit […]
Posted inJanuary 11, 2010: Breakdown
Wait ’til you read the one about Sean Hannity
Although Jonathan Thompson’s politics and mine are identical, I think that he does our cause a disservice by injecting ad hominem throwaway lines that detract from his excellent points. In the Dec. 7 editor’s note, he simply does not need the cracks about John McCain or Sarah Palin. For better or worse, McCain is doing […]