With wildfires looming, Flagstaff came together to support national forest closures.
Drought
Posted inAugust 6, 2018: What Are We Doing Here?
In this rapaciously dry year, a quiet question grows louder: What are we doing here?
Drought, dread and family in the American Southwest.
Posted inAugust 6, 2018: What Are We Doing Here?
When climate change hits home
Northern New Mexicans weigh their future in a drying climate.
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Wildfires hit the West: ‘We’re stretched to our limits’
Fires this year have covered 1 million more acres than the 10-year average from January to July.
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This year’s burn bans are crucial in parched Colorado
Another dry summer sparks memories of past wildfires — and worries for the future.
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A fiery Fourth of July threatens Southwest economies
Wildfire, forest closures and canceled fireworks displays keep tourists at bay.
Posted inJuly 23, 2018: Pay for Prey
Saving baby Jo from the smoke
A mother grapples with her decision to flee the 416 Fire with her infant daughter.
Posted inJune 25, 2018: Little Weed, Big Problem
Aridity heads east; a geyser wakes up; activists young and old
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inAugust 6, 2018: What Are We Doing Here?
In the Southwest, ‘drought’ doesn’t tell the whole story
Why ‘aridification’ is a better term for our new, more parched reality.
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Aspen may stockpile water under its golf course
As climate change looms, towns look to store water without dams.
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There’s nothing normal about ‘the new normal’
The phrase is the linguistic equivalent of a shrug.
Posted inMay 28, 2018: The River of Lost Souls
Some like it hot; the West’s unluckiest man; Phoenix’s future
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inJune 11, 2018: Reclaiming the Klamath
Interior revives the push for a higher Shasta Dam
But the state of California and Winnemem Wintu Tribe oppose the project.
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The playground of Lake Powell isn’t worth drowned canyons
Before a writer knew the true cost of Glen Canyon Dam, ‘ignorance was bliss.’
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Arizona agency angers Colorado River users upstream
The spat offers a preview of what water politics could look like in a drier future.
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All (climate) politics is local
During a dry spring, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet visits rural Colorado to talk economics and agriculture.
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Scuba flies
In California’s Mono Lake — whose alkaline waters are deadly to most insects — these diving flies don’t just survive; they thrive.
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A Southwest water dispute reaches the Supreme Court
Why a fight over groundwater has left farmers in New Mexico feeling stranded.
Posted inJanuary 22, 2018: A Separatist State of Mind
Climate change forced me to leave the place that I love
After finding their dream town, a family fled drought and fire.
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2017 in natural disasters
From massive wildfires to melting ice, the calamities that affected the West this year.