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Look Ma, I’m Elite!

Unearthed blog editor, wordsmith, and all around superdad Terry Winckler gave me a hard time this week for being an "elitist" urban bike commuter. We had a good laugh over the use of the word. It got me thinking. What does the term "elitist" really mean these days? Has elitist become political shorthand for "someone…

Are Ritter, Bush in Unity on Roadless Threats?

There’s still a chance for the public – and the Governor – to weigh in for FULL protection of Colorado’s spectacular roadless lands. Colorado’s more than 4 million acres of roadless national forest are at risk in the coming months because of an apparent alliance between our lame duck president, George W. Bush, and Colorado’s…

Be Careful What You Ask For

Many of us, self included, have long lamented that environmental issues never play much of a role in presidential elections. I firmly believed that if Al Gore had stressed some of those issues in 2000 he’d be the one now winding up his second term. John Kerry likewise, maybe. Well, now we’ve got a campaign…

Mercury: Too Toxic to Ignore

What do San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound, and Chesapeake Bay have in common? They provide a distinctive signature to some of America’s greatest cities, of course. Residents and visitors to San Francisco, Seattle, Baltimore and Washington love to walk along, play beside, and boat across these waters. All three have storied histories and strong citizens’…

Shades of Nixon—A New Enemies List

Jamie Saul is a young lawyer, a graduate of Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland and one-time law clerk in the Seattle office of Earthjustice. As he entered his third year of law school, he applied for a position in the Department of Justice in order, as his application said, to “serve as part…

Petroleum's Two Faces on Colorado Health Protections

They tell Colorado that proposed regulations will cripple the local economy, but investors are told that profits will still boom. Doom? Or boom? Is it the best of times? Or the worst? The oil and gas industry is saying it’s both. But they’re very careful about who receives which message. And the truth is a…

500 Years of Fossil Fuel Furor

Long before global warming came along, fossil fuels were bad for humankind, sez Michael Stermer, a professor and author who laid out his theories this week for the Los Angeles Times. Stermer blames non-renewable fossil fuels for the world’s unending political/economic turmoil of the last 500 years. "Our civilization is fast approaching a tipping point,"…

Promises or Pudding?

A few months ago, we told you about the Lafarge cement kiln in Ravena, NY giving itself an environmental award, despite being the largest mercury polluter in the state. Well, it looks like Lafarge may actually reduce mercury emissions according to new plans to update their plant. Construction, however, won’t even start until 2013. Unfortunately,…

At What Cost?

I just returned from a week in Pinedale, Wyoming, where my fiancé’s great-uncle, Grant Beck, an 82-year-old local and long-time ranching celebrity of southwest Wyoming, has owned and operated a ranch for 63 years. Grant’s ranch is a piece of heaven, complete with a barn, livestock, and endless views that stretch for miles into the…