William R. Cotton, Colorado State University On mountain peaks scattered across Colorado, machines are set up to fire chemicals into the clouds in attempts to generate snow. The process is called cloud seeding, and as global temperatures rise, more countries and drought-troubled states are using it in sometimes desperate efforts to modify the weather. But […]
The Conversation
Posted inClimate, Economy, Environment, News, Opinion, Outdoors, Water
Analysis: As Colorado River Basin states confront water shortages, it’s time to focus on reducing demand
By Robert Glennon, University of Arizona The U.S. government announced its first-ever water shortage declaration for the Colorado River on Aug. 16, 2021, triggering future cuts in the amount of water states will be allowed to draw from the river. The Tier 1 shortage declaration followed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s forecast that the water […]
Posted inNews, Opinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: 150 fire scientists urge the U.S. West to skip the fireworks this record-dry 4th of July
By Philip Higuera and Alexander L. Metcalf, The University of MontanaDave McWethy, Montana State Universityand Jennifer Balch, University of Colorado The heat wave hitting the northwestern U.S. and Canada has been shattering records, with temperatures 30 degrees Fahrenheit or more above normal. With drought already gripping the West, the intense heat has helped suck even […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: As megafires menace us, tech innovation can lead to smarter firefighting
Record-breaking fires over the past decade suggest the western U.S. has entered a new era of megafires. Fire itself is not the problem – it has been characteristic of the North American West for millennia. The problem is when fires, fueled by dry and overgrown forests, grow into giant blazes that move fast, fill the […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Rocky Mountain has it. Here’s why more national parks need a reservation system to get in.
If you’re headed out into the wild this summer, you may need to jump online and book a reservation before you go. For the second consecutive year, reservations are required to visit Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park, as well as California’s Yosemite and Montana’s Glacier national parks. Other popular sites, including Maine’s Acadia National Park, […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Wildfire
Opinion: Climate change is making Rocky Mountain forests more flammable now than at any time in the past 2,000 years
By Philip Higuera, The University of Montana; Bryan Shuman, University of Wyoming; and Kyra Wolf, The University of Montana The exceptional drought in the U.S. West has people across the region on edge after the record-setting fires of 2020. Last year, Colorado alone saw its three largest fires in recorded state history, one burning late […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Was it a coup? No, but the U.S. Capitol siege was the election violence of a fragile democracy
Did the United States just have a coup attempt? Supporters of President Donald Trump, following his encouragement, stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday, disrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. Waving Trump banners, hundreds of people broke through barricades and smashed windows to enter the building where Congress convenes. One rioter died […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Connecting to nature is good for kids – but they may need help coping with a planet in peril
As an environmental psychologist who works to improve young people’s access to nature, I recently completed a review that brings two bodies of research together: one on connecting children and adolescents with nature, and the second on supporting healthy coping when they realize they are part of a planet in peril. My review shows that […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Trillions in coronavirus spending is putting AOC’s favorite economic theory to the test
French philosopher Voltaire famously quipped: “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” Something similar can be said of modern monetary theory, also known as MMT, because it may be the economy’s only hope to get through the pandemic. Coined by Australian economist Bill Mitchell and popularized recently by Democrats like […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Opinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: How to use ventilation and air filtration to prevent the spread of coronavirus indoors
The vast majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs indoors, most of it from the inhalation of airborne particles that contain the coronavirus. The best way to prevent the virus from spreading in a home or business would be to simply keep infected people away. But this is hard to do when an estimated 40% of cases […]