In “Let’s Get Small,” Judith Lewis writes that “global greenhouse gas emissions have increased 70 percent since 1970, and our energy-squandering ways are to blame” (HCN, 6/22 & 7/6/09). Note that since 1970, world population has increased from around 3.8 to 6.7 billion people, while the United States has gone from 200 to over 300 […]
Letter to the editor
Posted inJuly 27, 2009: The Most Cooked-Up Catch
Fightin’ words
Water entrepreneur Aaron Million is quoted as saying that if there were any problems with his proposed Wyoming-to-Colorado pipeline project, “I’d be the first to put a fork in it” (HCN, 7/20/09). To which I’d like to add my own thoughts: “What? After cutting up the public’s water, you’d dine on it?” Mr. Million is […]
Posted inJuly 27, 2009: The Most Cooked-Up Catch
Collaboration, schmlaboration
Regarding Ray Ring’s story “Thinking Outside the Timber Box”: While I think the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership is a good step and a grand idea in broad terms, what Ring missed is that the Partnership group barely tried to include county commissioners and others (HCN, 7/20/09). If the point of a collaborative approach is to bring all […]
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Let’s get bigger
The article “Let’s Get Small” noted some problems with incentives for distributed generation in California — many of which I experience with my 1.2 kilowatt photovoltaic system (HCN, 6/22 & 7/6/09). Two years ago, I generated $25 more electricity than I used. I lost this “credit” at the end of my one-year net metering period. […]
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Unintended castor-quences
“Voyage of the dammed” by Kevin Taylor doesn’t mention one of the negative impacts of beaver — their indirect influence on native plants and animals when non-native species are present (HCN, 6/8/09). For example, beavers strongly prefer native cottonwoods over non-native salt cedar (tamarisk) and Russian olive. This selective foraging gives a substantial additional advantage […]
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Biomass is where it’s at
I have checked your “Alternative Alternative Energy: An HCN Special Report” issue over carefully, twice now, and it appears that my eyes are not deceiving me — you really did ignore the potential contributions of woody biomass (HCN, 6/22 & 7/6/09). This is shortsighted, to say the least.Forest biomass is plentiful, carbon-neutral and essential to […]
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Wavin’ in Oregon
In your otherwise excellent series of articles on renewable energy in the West, a few gaps were evident (HCN, 6/22 & 7/6/09). Your map on page 16 leaves the impression that Oregon is far behind neighboring states in alternative energy projects (see correction, page 11). In fact, many wind energy sites not noted on the […]
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Bull riders for Jesus
I wish Craig Childs had attended Cowboy Church during his PBR bull riding experience in Billings (HCN, 5/25/09). He might have had a different perspective in his article concerning the “wild life” of bull riders. They are all not drinkers and carousers as implied in his article. Cowboy Church is organized and attended by many […]
Posted inJune 15, 2009: Let's Get Small
We’re Listening
Below are some of the comments you sent us on the most recent reader survey. Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think. We’ll be mulling over your responses during the coming weeks, and using them to help chart our course. Keep the mag as it is with stories like “My […]
Posted inJune 1, 2009: Voyage of the Dammed
Distributed Generation Is The Answer
I live out in the Mojave Desert near where a bunch of large utility-scale solar thermal power plants are being planned on public land (HCN, 5/11/09). Thousands of acres of desert tortoise habitat will be scraped, and the company is trying to buy ranchers and farmers out for their water rights, because this power plant […]
Posted inJune 1, 2009: Voyage of the Dammed
It’s All Somebody’s Backyard
Regarding the editor’s note, “For the love of wasteland,” make no mistake about it: Conservation alone is no silver-bullet solution (HCN, 5/11/09). Yes, conservation is often overlooked in favor of supply-side solutions. Yes, huge gains can be made through energy-efficiency programs. I fully agree and support energy conservation efforts — in fact, some conservation should […]
Posted inJune 1, 2009: Voyage of the Dammed
A Purpose-Driven Life
The excerpt from Lisa Jones’ book Broken is a story with a lot of pathos, a very human look at a world that most of us have little understanding of (HCN, 4/27/09). Lisa’s appreciation for the Arapaho culture and her openness to the values and rhythms of life of Daniel and his peers allows us […]
Posted inJune 1, 2009: Voyage of the Dammed
Of Ring and Rush
Ray Ring in “Sci-fi Conservation” writes that “the enviros are trying to establish a planetwide buffer zone around a few vulnerable species that have limited ranges” (HCN, 5/25/09). A lot depends on the words you choose, and it’s good that HCN is trying to be balanced. But this particular Ray Ring statement sounds like it […]
Posted inJune 1, 2009: Voyage of the Dammed
“Rodeo Kabuki”
“The Rise of the Minotaur” is a well-written article by Craig Childs on the bull-riding phenomenon (HCN, 5/25/09). The subtitle is misleading, though: “Bull riding explodes from its Western roots into a modern spectacle.” Bull riding was never part of life on a working ranch. It’s an event created specifically for the rodeo arena, the […]
Posted inMay 18, 2009: The Rise of the Minotaur
Ken Olsen responds
I stand by the story I wrote (HCN, 5/11/09). I don’t believe the facts support BPA’s arguments. Take publicly subsided hydropower: My story says that the region enjoys publicly subsidized hydropower at national taxpayer expense and that is accurate. Here’s why: The hydropower dams were built at national taxpayer expense and for about the first […]
Posted inMay 18, 2009: The Rise of the Minotaur
Salmon simplification
The article, “Salmon Salvation” offers a simple answer to a complex problem (HCN, 5/11/09). “Many scientists,” it says (without naming any), think taking out the four Lower Snake River dams will simply bring back salmon. That’s like saying many people voted for John McCain: perhaps true, but blind to the big picture. Scientists realize 150 years […]
Posted inMay 18, 2009: The Rise of the Minotaur
Gimme wheels
It’s about time someone talked about how the snowmobile issue in Yellowstone National Park has been defined by two opponents that don’t really represent the public at large (HCN, 4/27/09). Fall and winter travel is mostly regional, a large group of people who truly love the park and visit often. Over-snow travel has effectively locked […]
Posted inMay 18, 2009: The Rise of the Minotaur
It’s a dam mess
The “Salmon Salvation” article misses the point badly (HCN, 5/11/09). The obsession with the lower four dams on the Snake distracts from a much larger and more tangled problem. Although I, too, would like to see those dams go, the four lower Snake Dams are a relatively minor component of a vast set of problems; […]
Posted inMay 18, 2009: The Rise of the Minotaur
Open season on white males?
In many ways, the perspective piece “Last Rites and Forgotten Landscapes” by Laura Paskus was profoundly moving. She mourns the deaths of these women and justifiably decries investigators for labeling them as prostitutes even before the bodies were identified (HCN, 4/13/09). However, Paskus goes too far when she pointedly casts men as the perpetrators of […]
Posted inMay 18, 2009: The Rise of the Minotaur
New urbanists
Regarding your recent story “The Growth Machine is Broken”: The real estate bust is the best thing to happen to the Sonoran Desert, although fears that the bulldozers will be on the crawl again in a few years are legitimate (HCN, 4/27/09). Yet I believe important changes are taking place that were not mentioned in […]