What Are We Thinking?

HCN’S SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE FUTURE

High Country ForN people whoews care about the West

gas economics stillness explore desert duty climatewell pads law plants fracking science wetlands fairness toxicmap simplify uorocarbons hydro cost headwaters space sh hydrocarbons ethics CO2radical pollution preservationsociety vulture global warming dishonesty energy standing extreme rain courage air trees landscape deforestation future garbage oods places scale neighbors price greenhouse resources stalwartness community coal equality consumption ruin adventure wells winter compassion uranium diversity life snow spirited sacrifice styrofoam naturethrive ecosystems lost healing predator grassland integrity 1% farm creatures sin values sustainability Carson biology beauty ruin Whatmigration Are peace generosity strength 99% oblivion hyperobjects pipelines scavenger vice fire tar sands

We Thinking?sel shness population conservation west education wild short-sightedness rivers biota pinelandvirtue parks trespass drilling restoration cowardice tundra droughtovergrazing endangered consequences Abbey EPA Muir wilderness understanding protest plutonium stories native wanderingwaterprey legacy doom prudence dream dams solar inspire honesty unfairness KXL wastelands occupy Thoreau fir oil justiceanthropocene January 19, 2015 | $5 | Vol. 47 No. 1 | www.hcn.org No. 47 | $5 Vol. 2015 January 19, Editor’s note What Are We Thinking? Our annual special issue on the future High Country News More questions Executive director/Publisher Paul Larmer than answers MANAGING Editor Jodi Peterson When I started work at High SENIOR EDITOR Country News last May, I Jonathan Thompson Art director volunteered to oversee the Cindy Wehling January special issue, the one ASSOCIATE editor currently in your hands. Aside Brian Calvert from the general notion that ONLINE EDITOR Tay Wiles WRITERS ON THE RANGE it should include ideas about editor Betsy Marston the West’s future, with an Associate designer educational underpinning, I was given free rein Brooke Warren to come up with the theme, solicit the stories and Copy editOR Diane Sylvain put it all together. This was pretty exciting — if Contributing editorS a bit intimidating — because I’d just finished a esistance

Cally Carswell, Craig R Childs, Sarah Gilman, year at the University of Colorado–Boulder, as a

Judith Lewis Mernit, Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism. ands Jeremy Miller, As part of that program, I studied environmental S ar

Sierra Crane-Murdoch, arah G ilman Michelle Nijhuis, philosophy, so I knew there were some interesting . T

Josh Zaffos new ideas out there — responses to the very real tah

CorrespondentS , U Ben Goldfarb challenges we face today in the West. Krista Langlois These are complicated times. Our climate is prings Editorial Fellow shifting in ways that are hard to understand, with Sarah Tory PR S . S pitsC isco , U tah Associate Publisher implications for all the resource issues that High Alexis Halbert Country News is concerned with. Wild animals and Development Manager plants must adapt or die; fossil fuel and renewable FEATURE ESSAYS Alyssa Pinkerton energy demands are in flux; drought threatens our Development Assistant 18 Occupy the Book Cliffs By Cally Carswell Christine List water supply, our crops and our forests. We need to Subscriptions MARKETER step back, take a deep breath and consider the big They’re burning mad about climate change. Are you? JoAnn Kalenak picture, especially those ideas that challenge many WEB DEVELOPER Eric Strebel of our long-held assumptions and values. This issue Circulation ANALYST Kathy Martinez is meant to help in that endeavor. Though by no Community ENGAGEMENT means comprehensive, it is designed to re-root us INSIDE Gretchen King in past environmental thinking, while encouraging a ccountant 4 Beckie Avera us to think differently about our undeniably Where’s Aldo? Financial adviser diminishing world. The case for voluntary decency By Michelle Nijhuis Paul Gibb Nearly all of the stories in this issue are 6 Circulation manager Law and nature Tammy York essayistic. I’ve asked our contributors to share their The famed dissent of Justice William O. Douglas By Adam Sowards Circulation thoughts and ideas on a range of subjects, from 8 Doris Teel, Kati Johnson, whether renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold’s Hyperobjects Stephanie Kyle A new way to think about global warming By Timothy Morton Advertising Director land ethic is still relevant, to the philosophical David J. Anderson explanation behind a new term — hyperobjects — 10 Keeping the faith(s) Advertising Sales that describes phenomena like global warming By Amy Mathews Amos Jenny Hill How beliefs play into the new conservation debate Margaret Gilfoyle and nukes. We also consider pollution from a 12 Poisoning the well GrantWriter Janet Reasoner new angle, take a critical look at the idea that Thinking of pollution as a trespass By Benjamin Hale FOUNDER Tom Bell ecosystems have a price tag, and, in two reported [email protected] essays, dive into the ideas of sacrifice zones and 14 Beyond greenbacks [email protected] By Ben Goldfarb [email protected] climate justice. Along the way, you’ll find definitions Should we put a price on nature? [email protected] of philosophical principles, quotations from your

Board of Directors favorite environmental thinkers, and a review of top John Belkin, Colo. Western programs in environmental philosophy. Sean Benton, Mont. Two of the pieces in the back of the magazine Beth Conover, Colo. Web Only Jay Dean, Calif. are even more atypical of High Country News. Bob Fulkerson, Nev. www.hcn.org Wayne Hare, Colo. One is a lyrical essay by writer and editor Michael Laura Helmuth, Md. McLane, and the other is a science fiction short John Heyneman, Wyo. Nicole Lampe, Ore. story by award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi Wendy Pabich, Idaho (once HCN’s Web editor). They’re included because Marla Painter, N.M. Lou Patterson, Colo. I believe that poetry and fiction can help us think Dan Stonington, Wash. about problems in a different way. Rick Tallman, Colo. Young leaders Luis Torres, N.M. We need all the help we can get. For some Andy Wiessner, Colo. questions, there are no easy answers, and this changing the Florence Williams, D.C. issue does not pretend to provide them. Instead, West it’s meant as a kind of prompt — a sign that reads, From politicians to “Hey, slow down,” reminding you, before you move climate scientists, meet High forward, to ask yourself: What am I thinking? 10 people under 30 who are shaping the Country —Brian Calvert, associate editor News region’s future. hcne.ws/1x4QITC CREDIT Printed on recycled paper. Spencer Masterson, courtesy FEAST

High Country News is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) independent media organization that covers the issues that define human communities. (ISSN/0191/5657) is published bi-weekly, 22 times a year, by High Country News, 119 Grand Ave., the American West. Its mission is to inform and inspire people to act on behalf of the region’s diverse natural and Paonia, CO 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to High

2 High Country News January 19, 2015 Editor’s notE What Are We thinking? our annual special issue on the future High Country News More questions ExEcutivE dirEctor/PublishEr Paul Larmer than answers MANAGiNG Editor Jodi Peterson When I started work at High sENior Editor Country News last May, I Jonathan Thompson Art dirEctor volunteered to oversee the Cindy Wehling January special issue, the one AssociAtE Editor currently in your hands. Aside Brian Calvert from the general notion that oNliNE Editor Tay Wiles WritErs oN thE rANGE it should include ideas about Editor Betsy Marston the West’s future, with an AssociAtE dEsiGNEr educational underpinning, I was given free rein Brooke Warren to come up with the theme, solicit the stories and coPy Editor Diane Sylvain put it all together. This was pretty exciting — if coNtributiNG Editors a bit intimidating — because I’d just finished a ESISTANCE Cally Carswell, Craig year at the University of Colorado–Boulder, as a

Childs, Sarah Gilman, ILMAN

Judith Lewis Mernit, Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism. ANDS R Jeremy Miller, As part of that program, I studied environmental AR S

Sierra Crane-Murdoch, ARAH G . T Michelle Nijhuis, philosophy, so I knew there were some interesting . S Josh Zaffos new ideas out there — responses to the very real corrEsPoNdENts Ben Goldfarb challenges we face today in the West. Krista Langlois These are complicated times. Our climate is PITS , U TAH EditoriAl FElloW shifting in ways that are hard to understand, with ISCO Sarah Tory , U TAHPR S PRINGS C AssociAtE PublishEr implications for all the resource issues that High Alexis Halbert Country News is concerned with. Wild animals and dEvEloPMENt MANAGEr plants must adapt or die; fossil fuel and renewable FEAtUrE EssAys Alyssa Pinkerton energy demands are in flux; drought threatens our dEvEloPMENt AssistANt 18 Occupy the Book Cliffs By Cally Carswell Christine List water supply, our crops and our forests. We need to subscriPtioNs MArKEtEr step back, take a deep breath and consider the big They’re burning mad about climate change. Are you? JoAnn Kalenak picture, especially those ideas that challenge many WEb dEvEloPEr Eric Strebel of our long-held assumptions and values. This issue circulAtioN ANAlyst Kathy Martinez is meant to help in that endeavor. Though by no coMMuNity ENGAGEMENt means comprehensive, it is designed to re-root us insidE Gretchen King in past environmental thinking, while encouraging AccouNtANt 4 Beckie Avera us to think differently about our undeniably Where’s Aldo? FiNANciAl AdvisEr diminishing world. The case for voluntary decency By Michelle Nijhuis Paul Gibb Nearly all of the stories in this issue are 6 circulAtioN MANAGEr Law and nature Tammy York essayistic. I’ve asked our contributors to share their The famed dissent of Justice William O. Douglas By Adam Sowards circulAtioN thoughts and ideas on a range of subjects, from 8 Doris Teel, Kati Johnson, whether renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold’s Hyperobjects Stephanie Kyle A new way to think about global warming By Timothy Morton AdvErtisiNG dirEctor land ethic is still relevant, to the philosophical David J. Anderson explanation behind a new term — hyperobjects — 10 Keeping the faith(s) AdvErtisiNG sAlEs that describes phenomena like global warming By Amy Mathews Amos Jenny Hill How beliefs play into the new conservation debate Margaret Gilfoyle and nukes. We also consider pollution from a 12 Poisoning the well GrANtWritEr Janet Reasoner new angle, take a critical look at the idea that Thinking of pollution as a trespass By Benjamin Hale FouNdEr Tom Bell ecosystems have a price tag, and, in two reported [email protected] essays, dive into the ideas of sacrifice zones and 14 Beyond greenbacks [email protected] By Ben Goldfarb [email protected] climate justice. Along the way, you’ll find definitions Should we put a price on nature? [email protected] of philosophical principles, quotations from your boArd oF dirEctors favorite environmental thinkers, and a review of top John Belkin, Colo. Western programs in environmental philosophy. Sean Benton, Mont. Two of the pieces in the back of the magazine Beth Conover, Colo. WEb o nly Jay Dean, Calif. are even more atypical of High Country News. Bob Fulkerson, Nev. www.hcn.org Wayne Hare, Colo. One is a lyrical essay by writer and editor Michael Laura Helmuth, Md. McLane, and the other is a science fiction short John Heyneman, Wyo. Nicole Lampe, Ore. story by award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi Wendy Pabich, Idaho (once HCN’s Web editor). They’re included because Marla Painter, N.M. Lou Patterson, Colo. I believe that poetry and fiction can help us think Dan Stonington, Wash. about problems in a different way. Rick Tallman, Colo. Young leaders Luis Torres, N.M. We need all the help we can get. For some Andy Wiessner, Colo. questions, there are no easy answers, and this changing the Florence Williams, D.C. issue does not pretend to provide them. Instead, West it’s meant as a kind of prompt — a sign that reads, From politicians to “Hey, slow down,” reminding you, before you move climate scientists, meet High forward, to ask yourself: What am I thinking? 10 people under 30 who are shaping the Country —Brian Calvert, associate editor News region’s future. hcne.ws/1x4QITC CREDIT Printed on recycled paper. SPENCER MASTERSON, COURTESy FEAST

2 High Country News January 19, 2015 CONTRIBUTORS

What Are We Thinking? Our annual special issue on the future Amy Mathews Amos has spent her career at the interface of environmental science and public policy as an analyst and consultant. She writes about conservation, wildlife and health from her home in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. @AmyMatAm.

Paolo Bacigalupi, author of The Windup Girl, has won the Hugo, Nebula and Michael AMOS L. Printz awards and was a finalist for the National Book Award. The Water Knife, a political thriller about a water war between Las Vegas and Phoenix, will be published by Knopf in May. @paolobacigalupi

Cally Carswell is a High Country News contributing editor and freelance science and environmental journalist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work has ilman

G recently appeared in Science and Modern Farmer. @callycarswell

arah BACIGALUPI . S Sarah Gilman is a deeply ambivalent tah

, U hydrocarbon addict, freelance writer and

pits High Country News contributing editor now based in Portland, Oregon. She served as isco

C the magazine’s associate editor for six years. @sarah_gilman FEATURE ESSAYS Ben Goldfarb is a Seattle-based 18 By Cally Carswell 48 By Sarah Gilman correspondent for High Country News. Occupy the Book Cliffs Sacrifice Zone His writing has appeared in Scientific They’re burning mad about climate change. Are you? Where — and how — can we say ‘yes’ to oil and gas drilling? CARSWELL American, Pacific Standard, Earth Island Journal and Modern Farmer. @ben_a_goldfarb

INSIDE Benjamin Hale is associate professor in the Philosophy Department and the 25 Philosophy Ed. A new push in an old field By Alex Carr Johnson 4 Where’s Aldo? Environmental Studies Program at the 44 The New, New West Essay by 2015 Bell Prize Winner Nathaniel Kennon Perkins University of Colorado, Boulder. His The case for voluntary decency By Michelle Nijhuis essays have appeared in The New York 6 Law and nature 60 A Hot Day’s Night Fiction by Paolo Bacigalupi Times and Slate. @BenjaminHale3 HCN’S SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE FUTURE The famed dissent of Justice William O. Douglas By Adam Sowards 63 Postcards from Fire Essay by Michael McLane High Country ForN people whoews care about the West Alex Carr Johnson is a freelance journalist gas economics stillness explore desert duty climatewell pads law plants science GILMAN fracking wetlands fairness toxicmap simplify uorocarbons hydro cost headwaters space 8 hydrocarbons sh ethics CO radical living in western Colorado. @carr_johnson. Hyperobjects 2 pollution preservationsociety vulture global warming dishonesty energy standing extreme rain courage air trees landscape deforestation future garbage oods places scale neighbors price greenhouse resources stalwartness community coal equality consumption ruin adventure wells winter compassion uranium diversity life snow spirited sacrifice By Timothy Morton styrofoam lostnaturehealing thrive ecosystems dEPARTMENTS grassland predator A new way to think about global warming integrity 1% farm creatures sin values sustainability Carson biology beauty ruin Whatmigration Are peace generosity strength 99% oblivion hyperobjects pipelines scavenger fire tar sands vice is an editor for population Michael McLane saltfront: We Thinking?sel shness conservation west education wild short-sightedness rivers biota pinelandvirtue parks trespass drilling restoration cowardice drought 10 tundra overgrazing Keeping the faith(s) endangered consequences Abbey EPA Muir understanding protest and 16 THE HCN COMMUNITY wilderness studies in human habit(at) Sugar Research Fund, Dear Friends plutonium native wanderingwaterprey legacy stories doom prudence dream dams solar inspire honesty unfairness KXL By Amy Mathews Amos wastelands occupy fir How beliefs play into the new conservation debate Thoreau oil House Review. His work has appeared in justiceanthropocene 12 Poisoning the well 24 SPECIAL SECTION: EDUCATION MARKETPLACE Colorado Review, Interim, Western Humanities By Benjamin Hale Review and The Dark Mountain Project. Thinking of pollution as a trespass 56 MARKETPLACE 1 | www.hcn.org No. 47 | $5 Vol. 2015 January 19, 14 Beyond greenbacks Timothy Morton is Rita Shea Guffey Chair Should we put a price on nature? By Ben Goldfarb 64 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Jonathan Thompson COVER in English at Rice University in Houston. He is Illustration by the author of Realist Magic: Objects, Ontology, Eric Baker. MORTON Causality and Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End Of The World. He is currently working on a writing project with JOIN THE CONVERSATION Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk.

Whoa, cowpokes: Let’s back up a little and look at the big picture. Michelle Nijhuis is a longtime contributing Given the fact that the current ‘native’ habitat of this species was editor at HCN. After 15 years off the “ electrical grid in Paonia, Colorado, she fully glaciated and uninhabitable back at the end of the Pleistocene, we can now lives and writes in White Salmon, be damn near certain that these guys once were native in the La Sals. Washington. @nijhuism; michellenijhuis.com. —Chris Rosamond, commenting via Facebook on Krista Langlois’ story “Non-native goats in Utah’s Nathaniel Kennon Perkins lives and La Sal Mountains: How bad are these ungulates for the ecosystem?” hcne.ws/1zPm29S” NIJHUIS works in Salt Lake City. His creative work has appeared in Triquarterly, Decomp, Pithead Chapel and other publications. Complete access to subscriber-only content HCN’s website iPhone app Adam Sowards is an environmental historian hcn.org hcne.ws/wuZsWu at the University of Idaho. He is the author Digital edition iPad app of several books and essays, including The hcne.ws/digi-4701 hcne.ws/NGtBYx Environmental Justice: William O. Douglas Spencer Masterson, courtesy FEAST and American Conservation and the editor of Idaho’s Place: A New History of the Gem Country News, Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. 800-905-1155. All rights to publication of articles in this issue are reserved. See State. @AdamMSowards. www.hcn.org for submission guidelines. Subscriptions to HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: 800-905-1155 | www.hcn.org PERKINS

www.hcn.org High Country News 3 DEFINED Ecocentrism A theory of environmental ethics that extends moral considerations to entire ecosystems — not just humans or animals.

Where’s Aldo? The case for voluntary decency

Bhy Mic elle Nijhuis

“Examine each n 1948, Aldo Leopold suffered a fatal thing that reaches into all times and question in terms I heart attack while helping fight a fire on places. ... I can see only one such force: his neighbor’s farm. The next year, thanks a respect for land as an organism; a vol- of what is ethically to the determined efforts of family and untary decency in land-use exercised by and esthetically friends, Oxford University Press published every citizen and every land-owner out of right, as well as a collection of his essays called A Sand a sense of love for and obligation to that County Almanac. In the decades since, it great biota we call America.” what is economi- has become an environmental classic, and Voluntary decency. That polite phrase cally expedient. “The Land Ethic,” one of its final essays, doesn’t appear in “The Land Ethic,” but A thing is right has woven itself so tightly into the lan- the essay is an argument for its necessity guage of American conservation that it’s — and for its potential to power change when it tends often quoted unconsciously, without attri- at even the greatest scale. “A system of to preserve the bution. Like the apocryphal playgoer who conservation based solely on economic integrity, stability, complains that Hamlet is full of clichés, self-interest is hopelessly lopsided,” Leo- first-time readers of “The Land Ethic” are pold wrote. “It assumes, falsely, I think, and beauty of the sometimes surprised by its familiarity: So that the economic parts of the biotic clock biotic community. that’s where that line comes from! will function without the uneconomic It is wrong when it The endurance of Leopold’s essay is parts. ... An ethical obligation on the part at least partly explained by its eloquence. of the private owner is the only visible tends otherwise.” Plainspoken but poetic, dense in the best remedy for these situations.” —Aldo Leopold, of ways, it has a practical Midwestern Leopold thought that if Wisconsin “The Land Ethic” beauty that serves it well. It is com- farmers had a stronger sense of volun- plex yet eminently quotable, even in tary decency, they would have used the 140-character chunks. But it’s also more soil-conservation funds allocated by the than 60 years old. Today, decades after state in the late 1930s for more than just and prairie that survives today. it was written, the Western landscape immediately profitable measures. They Leopold’s response to the disasters of faces forces almost too big to understand: would have improved their farming prac- the 1930s was characteristic of his times. urbanization, global energy demand, the tices until their livelihoods, their neigh- Char Miller, an environmental historian compound effects of climate change on bors’ livelihoods, and the topsoil itself at California’s Pomona College, points out water and wildfire. Is Leopold’s land ethic were protected for the long term. Many of that many of Leopold’s contemporaries — big enough to take them on? us routinely accept such “obligations over composer Aaron Copland, filmmaker Pare and above self-interest” as members of Lorentz, anthropologist Margaret Mead “The Land Ethic” was the culmination the human community, Leopold observed. — also sang the praises of simpler, close- of decades of thinking about conservation We fund schools not attended by our to-the-ground living. But for Leopold, at and, more broadly, about the relationship immediate family; we pay for roads not least, going “back to the land” wasn’t a of people and nature. Leopold, a lifelong traveled. A land ethic, he argued, would retreat from the world’s problems; it was hunter and trained forester, recognized simply extend that sense of obligation be- an attempt to start solving them. — and cherished — the practical benefits yond people to the land itself — to what We, too, live in a time when ecological of nature. He accepted that people lived he called the entire “biotic community.” disaster seems very close and very real. inside ecosystems, not apart from them. Leopold wrote most of “The Land It’s tempting, perhaps even more now But he had also lived through the Dust Ethic” in a shored-up chicken coop on a than then, to hide out in the metaphori- Bowl and the Great Depression, and seen desperately overworked piece of farmland cal chicken coop. But Leopold’s ethic is the topsoil of southwestern Wisconsin, on the Wisconsin River. The place he and still working, covertly and overtly, against unmoored by drought and the profit mo- his family called “the Shack” was, like that urge. Leopold biographer Curt Me- tive, blow away and slip toward the sea. “The Land Ethic” and many of his other ine, in the 2011 documentary Green Fire, He understood, from bitter experience, writings, a product of the Great Depres- finds the land ethic expressed in subur- how humans could fail nature. How, he sion and the Dust Bowl, the paramount ban prairie fragments, urban habitat-res- wondered, could we do better by it? ecological challenges of the day. After the toration projects, and similar efforts that “There must be some force behind Leopolds bought the land in 1935, they aim to connect people with the nature of conservation,” Leopold mused in lecture spent years struggling to revive it, plant- nearby places. Such connections, he says, notes from the 1940s. “More universal ing hundreds of trees only to watch them foster the sort of voluntary decency Leo- than profit, less awkward than govern- be killed by drought. Eventually, they pold described: a respect for nature, even ment, less ephemeral than sport, some- restored a patchwork of pines, hardwoods in its most humble, altered and unlovely

4 High Country News January 19, 2015 QUOTED

We asked readers to quote their favorite writers — those whose ideas are driving much of how we think about the world now and into the future. You’ll find a sampling throughout the first section of the issue. See more at hcn.org/enviroquotes. Say rah Tor

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” —Aldo Leopold

As author, scientist, ecologist, forester and environmentalist, Aldo Leopold helped shape the modern conservation movement. He’s best known for A Sand County Almanac, in which he articulated what he called “The Land Ethic” — a broader understanding of the relationship between people and nature. Suggested by Carol Underhill

“The Peace of Wild Things” When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. states, an awareness of one’s place as a Aldo Leopold with Flick, c. 1944. In lecture And I feel above me the day-blind stars “plain member and citizen” of it, and a notes, Leopold wrote of “voluntary decency” willingness to sacrifice time, money and as an essential element of conservation. waiting with their light. For a time effort on behalf of its lasting health. C ourTESy The Aldo Leopold Foundation, aldoleopold.org I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. —Wendell Berry Leopold knew that nature never had, tion ethos that allows us to repair the and never would, exist in splendid isola- dilemmas we’ve created is going to be Wendell Berry is a poet, fiction writer and essayist. A passionate cul- tion. While he spoke eloquently against a much more useful in the coming century.” tural critic, he celebrates the small family farmer while promoting an conservation strategy based on economic Though that repair work requires us to economic and political order that preserves the connections between self-interest, he also distrusted purely muster yet more voluntary decency, it can people and the natural world. Suggested by Mike Hensley preservationist arguments such as those create the connections that foster it, too. advanced by Sierra Club founder John When Leopold wrote “The Land Ethic,” Muir. To Leopold, successful conservation he was at the top of his field, revered for the land ethic and the ideas that under- required human connection to the land, his pioneering work in forestry and wildlife pin it. Three generations after Leopold, and connection required use — respect- science. He was also in poor health, suffer- we’re even more distracted than the ful use, yes, and use for spiritual and ing from a painful facial tic that resisted people of his time, and our environmental aesthetic as well as economic benefits, treatment. It’s easy to see his most famous problems are in many ways vastly more but deliberate, active use. Even wilder- essay as the product of that confident mind complicated and pressing. The biotic ness, he submitted, was a form of land and failing body: Despite Leopold’s ambi- community is as interconnected as ever, use, perhaps the highest form of it. That tious scope, he is careful to emphasize that though our influences upon it are greater seeming paradox is more relevant today his is far from the last word. “Nothing so now, and voluntary decency must stretch than ever: We know, with greater and important as an ethic is ever ‘written,’ ” he to serve species and places we don’t know greater certainty, that it’s impossible to concludes. Ethics evolve “in the minds of a and never will. But we can still start put nature in quarantine — and equally thinking community,” he believed, and do in the same place Leopold did: in the impossible to survive without it. so slowly, amid more immediate obliga- chicken coop, and with the problems of “I think climate change, and the tions. (“Breakfast comes before ethics,” he the backyard biota. disruptions it’s bringing to biological once told his daughter, Nina.) Is Aldo’s land ethic big enough for the life, makes a preservationist impulse Our challenge, then, is to continue — modern West? No. But without its propel- problematic,” Miller says. “A conserva- or better, accelerate — the evolution of ling force, nothing else will be, either. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 5 DEFINED Standing Morally, a party whose interests must be considered by other moral beings; legally, a party that can bring suit in court.

Law and nature The famed dissent of Justice William O. Douglas

By ADAM SOWARDS

n 1965, the Sierra Club sued to stop a intimate part of it,” he wrote in a typical ficial and inanimate. “So it should be as I ski development in Sequoia National passage from his memoir, Of Men and respects valleys, alpine meadows, rivers, Forest, California, arguing that Walt Mountains. “Every ridge, every valley, lakes, estuaries, beaches, ridges, groves Disney Enterprises’ proposed resort every peak offers a solitude deeper even of trees, swampland, or even air that would constitute an injury to Mineral than that of the sea. It offers the peace feels the destructive pressures of modern King Valley. In 1972, the Supreme Court that comes only from solitude.” technology and modern life,” he wrote. rejected the club’s reasoning, unwilling to An intellectually restless man who Extending standing to the real party at accept that natural objects had standing wrote and traveled extensively, Doug- risk of harm — the environment — would to sue in court. Instead, the court urged las published five environmental books preserve “priceless bits of Americana” the Sierra Club to amend its complaint between 1960 and 1967. One of them, A before they become “forever lost or are so to show how the club’s members, rather Wilderness Bill of Rights, argued for a transformed as to be reduced to the even- than the valley, would be injured. The “Bill of Rights to protect those whose tual rubble of our urban environment.” club did so, and the ski resort was spiritual values extend to the rivers and Douglas recommended accepting stopped. lakes, the valleys and the ridges, and nature’s rights — allowing nature’s own However, one justice, William O. who find life in a mechanized society voice to be heard in the courtroom — as a Douglas, was persuaded by the Sierra worth living only because those splendid lasting way to shield wild places and pro- Club’s original reasoning. His passionate resources are not despoiled.” cesses from the ever-accelerating threats dissent in Sierra Club v. Morton marks a In his dissent in the Sierra Club they faced. pivotal point in environmental legal bat- lawsuit, Douglas advocated for a federal His passionate plea didn’t persuade tles, one that still shapes advocacy today rule that would allow for litigation “in the his practical-minded judicial brethren, and points the way toward a potentially name of the inanimate object about to be even if fellow dissenter Justice Harry different way of thinking about nature. despoiled, defaced, or invaded by roads Blackmun called it “eloquent” and insist- The marbled murrelet, Douglas’ views were inspired by and bulldozers and where injury is the ed that Douglas read it from the bench. northern spotted owl, his own experiences in the wild. He subject of public outrage.” The proper la- Yet Douglas’ opinion influenced and and humpback whale, grew up in Yakima, Washington, hiking beling of the case, he argued, should have from left to right, have inspired environmentalists at the time all been involved in the foothills and peaks of the Cascade been Mineral King v. Morton. and ever since. The Wilderness Society court cases with help Range, and he sang the praises of nature It wasn’t a huge leap from other legal published the “stirring” dissent, and Rod- from humans. throughout his life. “When one stands precedents. Douglas pointed out that both erick Nash in his history of environmen- Jenna Cragg, Rhett Wilkins, on Darling Mountain, he is not remote corporations and ships had long been tal ethics, The Rights of Nature, said that Noaa and apart from the wilderness; he is an parties in litigation, despite being arti- Douglas had “located the conceptual door

6 High Country News January 19, 2015 QUOTED

“God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he to the rights of nature.” Michael Nelson, And so the debate about nature’s cannot save them from fools.” an environmental philosopher at Oregon standing then becomes a broader philo- —John Muir State University, sees Douglas’ dissent as sophical debate about law and what it “the cornerstone of a new environmental can and can’t, or should or shouldn’t, John Muir — the “Father of the National Parks” — was a natural- ethic, one premised upon empathy with do. Law is not intended to transform ist, adventurer, author and early advocate of wilderness preserva- the human and non-human world alike.” levels of consciousness or morality; it is a tion, who went on to help found the Sierra Club. His eloquent writ- In the years since then, environ- pragmatic discipline. As a practical mat- ing continues to influence the modern environmental movement. mental groups have been able to sue on ter, extending standing to natural objects Suggested by Jerry Welsh behalf of nature by demonstrating group may simply be unnecessary. members’ legitimate interest in conserva- As a moral matter, however, the tion issues or in places like Mineral King, failure to acknowledge nature’s rights a concept called associational standing. frustrates legal and environmental activ- But despite Douglas’ efforts, nature still ists and surely would have disappointed finds itself marginalized in courtrooms. (though not surprised) Douglas, who “Simplify, simplify.” Much as a Catholic’s confession must go retired from the Supreme Court in 1975, —Thoreau through a priest, nature needs a media- after a debilitating stroke, and died five tor, a conservation organization. years later. When Henry David Thoreau published Walden in 1854, the notion Where all this leads is unclear. The Today, global climate change, biodi- of “sustainability” held none of its modern cachet. Yet Thoreau’s ac- courts themselves have never fully versity losses and habitat fragmentation count of building a cabin and living in the woods near Concord, Mas- embraced the idea of nature’s standing, are creating unprecedented social and sachusetts, together with his keen-eyed exploration of the surrounding but they’ve come close in the years since ecological problems. Environmental landscape, helped inspire the modern environmental movement. For Douglas’ dissent. This has been particu- crises require serious changes in gover- him, nature was both an antidote to civilization and a glimpse of the larly true for endangered species like the nance and legal systems and, arguably, divine, and in celebrating the ground beneath his feet, he proclaimed marbled murrelet, the northern spotted in morality. When organizations such as the value of wild places everywhere. Suggested by Lawrence Walker owl and the coho salmon — all of which the Earth Law Center work to “advance found themselves in court cases as co- legal rights for ecosystems to exist, plaintiffs alongside humans. Nature has thrive and evolve,” or when Ecuador yet to stand alone in court, however. declares in its 2008 Constitution that A decade ago, the 9th Circuit Court nature “has the right to integral respect faced a test when a lawyer sued the for its existence and for the mainte- president and secretary of defense on nance and regeneration of its life cycles, “In the desert there is everything and there is behalf of marine mammals, without a structure, functions and evolutionary nothing. Stay curious. Know where you are — your co-plaintiff — essentially the approach processes,” they are paying homage to biological address. Get to know your neighbors that Douglas had promoted. In Ceta- Douglas’ vision and implementing it cean Community v. Bush (2004), the in governing structures where law and — plants, creatures, who lives there, who died court emphatically rejected the species’ morality may intersect. there, who is blessed, cursed, what is absent or in legal standing, finding no evidence that “The idea that what many take to be Congress intended whales or dolphins to inanimate objects (such as trees),” Nelson danger or in need of your help. Pay attention to the have it. The court found nothing prevent- says, “or abstract ideas and the places weather, to what breaks your heart, to what lifts ing the legislative branch from deciding we apply them to (such as wilderness) or your heart. Write it down.” to grant animals statutory standing, even a ‘symbol’ (such as a river) can be however. Still, the prospect of today’s wronged in some way, and therefore can —Ellen Meloy Congress acting along those lines seems be represented or spoken on behalf of, is Ellen Meloy wrote about dry places with a strong, distinctive lyricism unlikely on ideological, political and brave and thoughtful. And the idea that and a refreshing sense of humor. She saw the irony in the pea-green practical grounds, and it’s equally unclear those who know most about something lawns that dotted the arid landscape she loved but chose laughter that others — judges or policymakers and care most for it should be the spokes- over outrage. The Pulitzer Prize finalist was in the middle of her — would agree that the notion passes person seems wise and helpful as we fourth book when she died suddenly at her Utah home in 2004. constitutional muster. think about the future and what kind of Suggested by Amy Maestas And so it seems unlikely, at least for people we need to be or create (a society) now, that Douglas’ vision of nature as an that can and should speak about tough entity with the right to sue will manifest natural resource issues in the uncertain in our courts. But does that matter? It future we all face.” depends on your criteria. The aftermath Toward the end of his dissent, Doug- of the Supreme Court’s decision in Sierra las noted that well-meaning advocates and bear, the lemmings as well as the Club v. Morton helped establish standing often flock to the environmental issue trout in the streams. Those inarticulate for environmental organizations, thus du jour, an understandable tendency but members of the ecological group cannot facilitating environmental litigation. The one that cannot sustain environmental speak. But those people who have so fre- court’s opinion did not extend that right protection over the long run. “That is why quented the place as to know its values to natural objects, but Douglas’ dissent these environmental issues should be and wonders will be able to speak for the nudged the courts toward recognizing tendered by the inanimate object itself,” entire ecological community.” nature’s rights. This perspective pointed he wrote. “Then there will be assurances Douglas’ day may still come. In the the way, according to legal scholar that all of the forms of life which it rep- meantime, though, we humans, or at Christopher Stone, toward a new “level of resents will stand before the court — the least our organizations, will have to serve consciousness” for the courts. pileated woodpecker as well as the coyote as acceptable stand-ins. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 7 DEFINED Object oriented ontology A philosophical school that rejects privileging human existence over the existence of nonhuman objects.

known unknowns”: There are things I don’t know about the future, and I don’t Hyperobjects even know how much I don’t know about it. But it’s coming. Plutonium is a problem. Humans A new way to think about global warming made it, so we’re pretty much responsible By Timothy Morton for it. Beyond that, I can understand what plutonium is — which seems like a pretty good reason for assuming respon- sibility for something. Suppose I see ’m an environmental philosopher. In they out-scale me in the here and now. someone about to be hit by an oncoming I 2008, I invented a word to describe all Let’s think of another example. Not just car. I can understand that she’s about kinds of things that you can study and this one speck of plutonium, but all the to be killed, so I’m obliged to step in and think about and compute, but that are plutonium we’ve made, ever. That plu- save her. Hyperobjects are like that — not so easy to see directly: hyperobjects. tonium decays for 24,100 years before like the Dust Bowl, for instance, or the Things like: not just a Styrofoam cup it’s totally safe. That’s an unimaginable colossal drought in California. We are I can’t see it. or two, but all the Styrofoam on Earth, time. I can just about wrap my head obliged to do something about them, I can’t touch ever. All that Styrofoam is going to last around 500 years when I think about because we can think them. an awfully long time: 500 years, maybe. Styrofoam. But 24,100 years? Yet I’m That’s good news if you care about it. But I know It’s going to outlive me by a great extent. obliged to act with a view to the people, mitigating the effects of global warm- it exists, and I Will my family’s descendants even be whoever they are, who are alive at that ing. (I refuse to call it climate change. related to me in any kind of meaning- point. Who knows whether I would even The globe is literally warming because of know I’m part ful way by 2514? There is so much more recognize them as human? Maybe by greenhouse gases.) Thinking ecologically of it. I should Styrofoam on Earth right now than there then we will have merged with a whole about global warming requires a kind of is Timothy Morton. host of extraterrestrials. I don’t know. mental upgrade, to cope with something care about it. So hyperobjects outlast me, and I’m like Donald Rumsfeld and his “un- that is so big and so powerful that until

Light Bulbs depicts 320,000 light bulbs, equal to the number of kilowatt hours of electricity wasted in the United States every minute from inefficient residential electricity usage (inefficient wiring, computers in sleep mode, etc.). Chris jordan

WEB EXTRA To see more of Chris Jordan’s art from his series “Running the Numbers,” visit www.hcn.org.

8 High Country News January 19, 2015 QUOTED

“All the creatures on earth, and all the birds that now we had no real word for it. However, Or global warming. I can’t see or fly with wings, are communities like you.” thinking of global warming as a hyper- touch it. What I can see and touch are —Quran 6:38 object is really helpful. For starters, the these raindrops, this snow, that sunburn Suggested by Shayan Ghajar concept of hyperobjects gives us a single patch on the back of my neck. I can touch word to describe something on the tips the weather. But I can’t touch climate. of our tongues. It’s very difficult to talk So someone can declare: “See! It snowed about something you cannot see or touch, in Boise, Idaho, this week. That means yet we are obliged to do so, since global there’s no global warming!” We can’t warming affects us all. directly see global warming, because it’s Many people have told me, “Oh, now not only really widespread and really re- “It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even I have a term for this thing I’ve been ally long-lasting (100,000 years); it’s also trying to grasp!” We can see, for instance, super high-dimensional. It’s not just 3-D. more important to enjoy it. While you can. While that global warming has the properties of It’s an incredibly complex entity that you it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish a hyperobject. It is “viscous” — whatever have to map in what they call a high- I do, wherever I am, it sort of “sticks” dimensional phase space: a space that and mess around with your friends, ramble to me. It is “nonlocal” — its effects are plots all the states of a system. out yonder and explore the forests, climb the globally distributed through a huge tract In so doing, we are only following the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe of time. It forces me to experience time in strictures of modern science, laid down an unusual way. It is “phased” — I only by David Hume and underwritten by deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for experience pieces of it at any one time. Immanuel Kant. Science can’t directly a while and contemplate the precious stillness, And it is “inter-objective” — it consists point to causes and effects: That would the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy of all kinds of other entities but it isn’t be metaphysical, equivalent to religious reducible to them. dogma. It can only see correlations in yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your If you can understand global warm- data. This is because, argues Kant, there head firmly attached to the body, the body active ing, you have to do something about it. is a gap between what a thing is and Forget about needing proof or needing to how it appears (its “phenomena”) that and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise convince more people. Just stick to what’s can’t be reduced, no matter how hard we you this one sweet victory over our enemies, really super obvious. Can you understand try. We can’t locate this gap anywhere on over those desk-bound men and women with hyperobjects? Then you are obliged to or inside a thing. It’s a transcendental care about them. gap. Hyperobjects force us to confront their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes So hyperobjects are massively dis- this truth of modern science and philoso- hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: tributed in time and space and we are phy. You will outlive the bastards.” obliged to care about them, even if we It’s like being inside the gigantic —Edward Abbey didn’t manufacture them. Take the bio- worm in The Empire Strikes Back. For sphere. I can’t see it. I can’t touch it. But I a while, you can kid yourself that you’re Edward Abbey inspired a generation of radical environmentalists know it exists, and I know I’m part of it. I not inside a gigantic worm, until it starts with his spirited defense of wild places. His writing, rooted in the should care about it. digesting you. Because the worm is “ev- American Southwest, railed against government and corporate greed erywhere” in your field of vision, you can’t and its assault on the desert and canyon country. really tell the difference between it and Suggested by Jim Thurber the surface of the asteroid you think you landed on. The person who denies there’s global warming because he can still touch snow is partying like it’s 1759. He’s partying like modern science never happened. calf!”) It’s better to say that we’re 95 Modern science happened largely percent sure global warming was caused because of Hume, a Scottish skeptical by humans than to shout, “It was caused empiricist. In another life, Hume might by humans, dang it! Just believe me!” You have been the bass player for Pink Floyd, have some actual data to go on, in the 95 because he certainly could have written percent case. Try rolling two 10-sided dice some of the group’s lyrics. “All you touch and coming up with the numbers from and all you see / Is all your life will ever 96 to 100. (As a recovering Dungeons & be” — that’s basic Hume right there. Dragons player, I know what I’m talking You can’t know things directly; you can about here.) It’s incredibly unlikely. only know data. That’s the foundation of So hyperobjects are funny. On the one modern science. Cause and effect aren’t hand, we have all this incredible data things that churn away underneath about them. On the other hand, we can’t other things. They are inferences that we experience them directly. We’ve stumbled make about patterns we see in data. upon these huge things, like Han Solo Oddly enough, this makes modern sci- and Princess Leia and the giant worm. So ence more accurate and honest than any- we need philosophy and art to help guide thing we’ve previously come up with. The us, while the way we think about things thing is, statistical correlations are better gets upgraded. than bald statements of fact that you just Human beings are now going through have to believe or face the consequences. this upgrade. The upgrade is called eco- (“The Earth is flat! God is this golden logical awareness. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 9 DEFINED Anthropocene A proposed term for the epoch that began when humans started significantly impacting Earth’s ecosystems.

A diver and thriving marine life at the bow of the USS Saratoga at Bikini Atoll. The ship sank during underwater bombing tests conducted by the U.S. military in the Marshall Islands. Reinhard Dirscherl/visualphotos

conservation will ultimately destroy Earth’s coevolved Eden. This divide has existed for many decades — at least since the days when Gifford Pinchot, the nation’s first forestry chief, promoted sustainable use while preservationist John Muir cham- pioned national parks. But it emerged with renewed intensity in 2011, with the publication of Emma Marris’ book Rambunctious Garden. Marris, a journalist, points out an awkward truth about modern conservation: Maintaining the “wildness” of a pre-European ideal takes a heck of a lot of artificial management. She notes, for example, that the National Park Service employs 16 exotic species management teams spread across hundreds of parks. And this kind of conservation will require even more heavy- handedness as the climate changes. Do we help species migrate to new locations, or do we let them sort it out themselves? Marris’ solutions are more utilitarian than reverent. Novel, human-influenced ecosystems involving non-native species can be valuable, she believes, providing benefits such as habitat for endangered species, protection for soil and shade for Keeping the faith(s) vulnerable seedlings. Instead of fighting the constantly changing natural world, she urges conservationists to embrace it How belief plays into the new conservation debate and find ways to make it work. Rambunctious Garden caused a stir By Amy Mathews Amos among traditional conservation biologists, most of whom seek to preserve a wild state of nature rather than prune it. The debate really caught fire in early 2012, n November, 240 scientists figuratively of nature, from intrinsic to instrumental, when Peter Kareiva, the chief scientist Ijoined hands to sign an opinion piece and welcomes all philosophies justifying of The Nature Conservancy, published a in the journal Nature, hoping to move nature protection and restoration, from provocative essay for the Breakthrough beyond internal dissent about the best ethical to economic, and from aesthetic to Institute with his colleague, Robert way to protect wild things — an age-old utilitarian.” Lalasz, and University of California-San- conservation debate that has resurfaced On the surface, this might seem obvi- ta Clara environmental science professor with renewed intensity in recent years. ous. Certainly for some of the signato- Michelle Marvier. Current approaches The commentary was co-authored by ries, it was an affirmation of a higher to conservation have failed to stem the Heather Tallis, lead scientist at The Na- truth: People value biodiversity and loss of biodiversity, they charged, despite ture Conservancy, and Jane Lubchenco, wild places for many different reasons. a tenfold increase in the number of pro- a renowned Oregon State University But after more than 25 years as an tected areas worldwide since 1950. marine ecologist. In it, they accused analyst for the federal government and Like Marris, they argued that pre- their colleagues of promoting a false conservation groups and consultant to serving nature while the planet adds dichotomy: that we must conserve biodi- private foundations, I suspect that the billions of people will require greater versity either for its own sake or largely fundamental conflict remains, especially conservation focus on working landscapes to benefit people. Instead, they argued, for those who consider wild, naturally –– the farms, timber lots and urban areas conservation science should embrace “a functioning ecosystems sacred. Nature that are currently gobbling up space. But unified and diverse conservation ethic; commentary or no, they believe that put- they bumped up the rhetoric, criticizing one that recognizes and accepts all values ting humans at the center of biodiversity protected areas for displacing indigenous

10 High Country News January 19, 2015 QUOTED

“One of the great dreams of man must be to find some place between the extremes people, scolding icons like Henry David protected areas to enhance natural values of nature and civilization where it is possible Thoreau for being hypocrites and chal- on the working landscapes in between. lenging the notion that nature is fragile. By including conservation projects that to live without regret.” (They noted, for example, that Bikini provide tangible benefits to people, they —Barry Lopez Atoll, the site of atomic bomb testing in argue, conservation can cast a wider net 1954, supports more coral species now of support. One of the nation’s leading contemporary nature writers, Barry Lopez than it did before the bombing.) Kareiva and Soulé added their names examines the relationship between human culture and the physical The conservation movement has pit- to the Nature piece soon after its publica- landscape. His award-winning nonfiction books include Arctic Dreams ted people against nature, they claimed, tion. “I don’t think anybody has just one and Of Wolves and Men. Suggested by Meg Hards and in the process, alienated would-be set of values as a motivation in conserva- supporters. Environmentalists need tion,” Kareiva told me. “I think (the issue to move beyond their focus on protect- is) painted as people who love the intrin- ing biodiversity to providing ecosystem sic value of nature versus people who services, working with corporations to love people. But I don’t think anybody integrate the value of nature into their who is motivated by the intrinsic value of practices, and enhancing natural systems nature would want to harm people in the “We must define a story which encourages us to that benefit people to promote economic process.” make use of the place we live without killing it, and development for all. Doing otherwise, they But Soulé remains unconvinced that stated, is unethical, given the billions liv- the conflict can be easily resolved. In the we must understand that the living world cannot ing in poverty. David and Goliath struggle between na- be replicated. There will never be another setup Traditional conservation biologists, ture and people, he believes, people will who seek to preserve biodiversity, found always win. He signed the Nature paper, like the one in which we have thrived. Ruin it and these ideas heretical. Michael Soulé, he said, because he agrees that it would we will have lost ourselves, and that is craziness.” professor emeritus at the University of be nice if we could all get along. But he —William Kittredge California-Santa Cruz, shot back in the fears that a human-centric world will pages of Conservation Biology, a journal lead to a “homogocene” in which the same he helped found, calling Kareiva’s ap- few hardy species prevail in degraded William Kittredge stopped working on his family’s eastern Oregon ranch and became a writer at the age of 35. He’s since explored such proach “a radical departure from conser- habitats around the world, limited only themes as the legacy of agriculture in the West and the impact of vation.” Soulé denounced the move away by the gross parameters of climate, while ownership and dominion on the land and its people. Along with writ- from protecting nature for its own sake ecosystems that persisted for eons perish. ing numerous essays, fiction and a memoir, he co-produced the Oscar- and replacing wild places and national I share his angst. Those of us raised winning film based on Norman Maclean’s story, A River Runs Through parks with domesticated landscapes. In a in the conservation fold of the 20th It. Suggested by Ryan Dorgan flurry of follow-up papers, he and others century bowed to the greats: John Muir, argued that the “self-centered dogma” Edward Abbey, Aldo Leopold. Their lofty of a human-centric approach and the (and sometimes rebellious) prose reso- false idol of limitless economic growth nated with the deepest parts of our souls, would fail to protect natural ecosystems validated our heartfelt beliefs, and in- in a world with finite resources. Their spired us to dedicate our lives to protect- arguments were partly scientific but also ing Mother Earth. To many of us, there is “On the edge of the rushes stood the black-crowned reflected a fundamental disagreement something deeply spiritual and immea- over core values. surably sacred about preserving intact night heron. Perfectly still. ... It will be this Current research, according to Soulé, natural ecosystems created and shaped stalwartness in the face of terror that offers supports the connection between biodiver- by forces we don’t understand fully. It’s wetlands their only hopes. ... She was showing us sity and ecosystem stability and produc- an article of faith that goes beyond logic. tivity. Even if a damaged ecosystem can But I know from heated family argu- the implacable focus of those who dwell there.” recover, extinction is permanent. But the ments at holiday tables and long cam- —Terry Tempest Williams arguments also reflect deep convictions paigns on Capitol Hill that not everyone about the intrinsic value of nature and shares my values. Surveys conducted on Activist and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams explores issues rang- the moral imperative to protect all spe- behalf of TNC confirm my observations. ing from women’s health and free speech to environmental justice cies, regardless of their benefit to human- They suggest that, at least in the U.S., and the connections between identity, memory and place. Her writing ity. “I value, really value, things that have emphasizing intrinsic values is preaching is deeply rooted in the sprawling landscapes of her native Utah, with been evolving in a place for hundreds of to the choir — Democrats who already its distinctive Mormon culture. Suggested by Marcia Hanscom thousands of years, are well adapted, that support conservation efforts — while em- have mutualisms and complex relation- phasizing ecosystem benefits can appeal ships with other species,” Soulé told me a more to the right. few months after his editorial appeared. In practice, too, conservation has al- “It’s emotional. I’m one of the few scien- ways reflected different goals and values. how the fates of nature and of people are tists who will admit that.” Theodore Roosevelt designated the first deeply intertwined –– and then offer new For the most part, the fire and wildlife refuges to protect birds from the strategies for promoting the health and brimstone has since died down. Kareiva hat trade even as he was creating nation- prosperity of both.” and other “new conservationists” deny al forests to produce timber for industry. Surely, there are many paths to envi- that they ever called for the abandon- So I’m embracing the more universal no- ronmental salvation. Perhaps if every- ment of protected areas as a conservation tucked amid the otherwise polarizing body on Earth chose one of them, any one tion strategy. Rather, they were simply words of the 2012 Breakthrough essay, of them, we could begin to reclaim our proposing to expand the toolbox beyond that “conservation must demonstrate diminishing Eden. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 11 DEFINED Tragedy of the commons A dilemma of cooperation, wherein self-interest diminishes resources used by the masses. Poisoning the well Thinking of pollution as a trespass

By Benjamin Hale

n 2013, Colorado Gov. John Hicken I looper sat before a Senate commit- tee and testified to drinking a glass of fracking fluid, in an attempt to illustrate just how safe hydraulic fracturing can be. He hoped, presumably, to allay growing concerns in what has become one of the West’s most contentious energy issues. But in doing so, the former geologist employed a basic assumption about wrongdoing that has long underlain the environmental debate. In my view, this assumption has done far more harm than good to the environmental movement. Maybe you’d care to join Hick in his swashbuckling imbibition. I certainly wouldn’t. Either way, it is easy to see how quickly this kind of discussion can spiral into a futile tug-of-war between two sides: One side insists that the practice is safe, and the other side insists that it’s not. Almost all discussions of pollution — oil spills, gas leaks, nuclear contamination, water pollution — end up lost in the same eternal back-and-forth. Many environmentalists will tell you that we should care about pollution because it threatens to degrade our environment and harm us in some palpable and important way. These statements reflect a much wider tendency within the environmental community to confuse wrongs with harms. The so-called “harms view” associates environmental damage with environmental wrongdoing, meaning that the moral complications of pollution can be captured by describing its harmful effects. According to this way of thinking, it is enough to say that it is wrong to harm people by adding toxic substances to their drinking water. But this view, in fact, is not the only way to understand fracking, or any kind

Heather McCartin, who lives in Salt Lake City, wears a breathing mask when she rides her bike during days that exceed acceptable pollution levels according to the Clean Air Act. She says driving her car to protect her lungs would only contribute to the problem. Kristin Murphy

12 High Country News January 19, 2015 QUOTED of pollution. As far as I’m concerned, it’s when it comes from the fracking compa- “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth not even the best way to do so. There is nies, it has the feel of “buying indulgenc- find reserves of strength that will endure as long a related but less common position that es”: doing good works in order to offset as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing considers the moral complications of one’s sins. pollution not in terms of doing harm, but The reason that pink drill bits seem in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance in terms of trespassing. And trespassing, ridiculous is that offsetting harms or that dawn comes after night, and spring after particularly in the West, is something we costs with benefits doesn’t actually offset w i n t e r.” can all understand. the moral burden of pollution. The tres- According to the “trespass view,” what pass still exists. So the pollution debate —Rachel Carson is wrong with fracking — or any kind of is about more than safety. It is also about pollution — isn’t simply that it causes, what kinds of substances we are willing Best known for her 1962 book Silent Spring, scientist and writer Ra- or risks causing, harm to me and my to allow into our bodies, our communities chel Carson brought environmental concerns into the consciousness family. It is that certain kinds of pollu- and our environment, and about how we of mainstream America. By spotlighting the ecological consequences tion harm me without my authorization, decide who we’ll trust to handle those of pesticide use, her work challenged the practices of agricultural sci- without clear justification. One might substances. entists and the government and ultimately led to the creation of the take this even further: It’s not necessar- Objections to pollution are as often Environmental Protection Agency. Suggested by Joanne Morris Gores ily the harm done that does the moral about preventing outsiders from pollut- work of distinguishing pollutants from ing our water or our air, as they are about non-pollutants. It is instead whether the who gets to make these decisions. What introduction of a substance, or the altera- makes it okay for Hick to pour himself tion of a situation, impacts my life in a a glass of fracking fluid is that he is the way that I can and will countenance. one who has authorized such drinking. Most of us would agree that it is If instead I had poured him a glass of “For a long time I realized I had only paid wrong to harm people or degrade value, fracking fluid and forced him to drink it attention to the predators, the scavengers, and the but I believe that understanding pollu- against his will, or brewed him a cup of tion as trespass is a more useful way to tea with fracking fluid and told him after- birds that were good to eat and the birds that had think of many environmental debates — wards what I had done — “Gotcha!” — I to do with hunting. … This looking and not seeing and it might also help us understand why am fairly certain he would feel differently things was a great sin, I thought, and one that so many people are so viscerally upset about it. I might even end up in jail. This about, say, fracking. would be true, I believe, even if the frack- was easy to fall into. It was always the beginning Just because there are some dangers ing fluid turned out to be perfectly safe of something bad and I thought that we did not associated with fracking does not mean and magnificently delicious. Pollution, by we need to stop it entirely. There are its nature, engenders a kind of trespass: deserve to live in the world if we did not see it.” dangers associated with a lot of things we It violates the moral space of people with- —Ernest Hemingway do. And sometimes we agree that it is OK out their authorization or good reason. to inflict harm on a person — as when a Clearly, there are middle-ground op- Although he’s rarely thought of as an environmental writer, Ernest surgeon operates to remove a kidney that tions that permit some level of industry Hemingway anchored much of his work in the natural world. His in- someone is voluntarily donating to a sick activity and energy development in terests went beyond big-game hunting and bullfighting to celebrate person. Likewise, we sometimes willingly some environments, but also restrict it outdoor life in the American West, where he was an avid fly fisher- degrade value, as when we cut down in others. man. In his acclaimed short story, Big Two-Hearted River, Hemingway trees near our homes to protect ourselves What makes the introduction of some perceives nature as an antidote to the trauma of war. Suggested by Jeff Foster against possible forest fires. The differ- “pollutants” permissible depends in large ence is that these harms are deemed per- part on whether the public can and does missible by the people who are enduring accept those substances. Many people them. These harms are not a trespass. simply do not want anyone putting mys- Consider the serious downsides of re- terious chemicals in their water supply. that fracking holds little risk, they miss lying on the “harms view.” It is predicated Equally so, many industry actors do not the point. It’s not simply that there are on the idea that one can determine the want the general public telling them how dangers to health, safety and environ- moral valence of an act by establishing to do their business. Ensuring that the af- ment, but that somebody somewhere else whether its benefits outweigh the costs. fected parties — both industry and private is making these decisions and altering Now imagine a scenario in which a frack- citizens — have space to voice their con- the environment in ways that affect a lot ing company decides to add fructose as cerns can help us find some middle ground of people, and the people who are most one of the many secret ingredients in its and develop mutually acceptable policies. affected can do nothing about it. fracking fluid. The benefits, after all, are The safety discussion is necessary, for Don’t get me wrong. I’m not naive; I obvious to anyone with a sweet tooth. sure, and certainly may go a long way in understand the practical difficulties of How odd would it be to read that alleviating any unfounded concerns about bridging this divide and bringing mul- Gov. Hickenlooper had not only poured some of the substances that enter our tiple voices to the table. Nevertheless, if himself a tumbler of the fluid, but also environment. But it cannot go all the way. we really want to overcome the current recommended it to his family? “Mmm. It cannot address the question of who stalemate, we need to drill deep into the Delicious!” is authorized to put which substances presuppositions that guide our think- The trespass view doesn’t acknowl- where. In a democracy, we have to hash ing. Once we understand pollution as edge this kind of complication. For ex- these questions out through a legitimate, trespass, and see that it is as important ample, the oil and gas industry recently public, transparent decision-making pro- to tackling the fracking debate as the launched a campaign to raise money for cess, determining together what we can concept of harm, we may finally be able breast cancer by painting its drill bits countenance. to raise our glasses — chin, chin! — and pink. In principle, supporting breast When Hickenlooper and industry drink together. Even if most of us pass on cancer research is a noble thing to do, but advocates seek to reassure the public the fracking fluid. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 13 DEFINED Instrumental value A state of affairs that creates another value, opposed to intrinsic value, which is valuable for its own sake.

Beyond greenbacks Should we put a price on nature?

By Ben GoldfarB

“When we’re he west coast of Vancouver Island disagree on the level of restriction that NatCap wasn’t the first group to talking about Tboasts the kind of wild shoreline that should be imposed to achieve different address the problem. In 1997, a team of could swallow a kayaker for weeks. Cren- goals.” Anyone who’s taken part in a researchers pinned nature’s economic what the future ellated with fjords and stippled with is- natural resource dispute will recognize value at $33 trillion worldwide — nearly will look like, most lands, it’s a place where old-growth stands the problem. How do you resolve all these twice the global gross domestic product, of the estimates of Doug-fir yield to rocky beaches, where conflicts? or GDP. That immense value flows from black bears stalk the tidelines, and where, In 2010, Day got help from the ecosystem services, the natural benefits that interest each March, some 20,000 gray whales Natural Capital Project, a Stanford- provided by everything from water- decision-makers cruise by en route to the Bering Sea. based cadre of economists, biologists and filtering shellfish to soil-forming microbes have nothing to Yet even in this natural outpost, human software engineers whose work meets at to storm-buffering reefs. The solution to enterprises clash: Cargo freighters and the increasingly crowded intersection of ecological woes, many policymakers have do with dollar commercial fishermen spar over shipping ecology, technology and finance. NatCap concluded, lies in incorporating nature’s values.” lanes and fishing grounds; salmon farm- was founded in 2005 in order to tackle dollar value into decisions. Put a price —Spencer Wood, ers and kayak guides struggle for control the very quandary faced by West Coast on ecosystem services, the wisdom goes, marine ecologist of coastal waters; logging, mining and Aquatic — how to juggle clashing human and watch the polluters, over-fishers and resort-building threaten seagrass beds. and natural values. To clear up such developers fall into line. “No one wants to go out there and dilemmas, NatCap’s scientists use their Humans’ material reliance on the wreck stuff,” Andrew Day, managing diverse talents to consider a question planet is undeniable, but shoehorning director of West Coast Aquatic, a local that seems simple but is actually baf- nature into modern capitalism makes for management board, told me. “But they flingly complex: What is nature worth? an uneasy fit: Our economy’s rapacity is arguably the reason we live in a time of environmental crisis in the first place. The challenge for ecosystem services, then, is to demonstrate our relationship with the natural world without letting its parts be bought and sold like scrap. To that end, as groups like NatCap are figuring out, sometimes the best way to calculate nature’s value doesn’t involve dollars after all.

The scientific literature is strewn with ecosystem appraisals. Bats provide up to $50 billion annually by eating insects; insects offer $57 billion by disposing of waste, pollinating crops and feeding fish and game. Beavers in Utah’s Escalante River watershed have the potential to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in flood control and other services. The humble street trees of Corvallis put $4 million in Oregonians’ pockets. The Colorado River Basin is worth up to $500 billion every year. But do these astronomical figures help? In theory, sticker shock can influence hearts and minds — “a gee-whiz way to get people’s attention,” as Mary

Starfish near a dock at low tide, Vancouver Island, Canada. Jurgen Freund/Aurora Photos

14 High Country News January 19, 2015 QUOTED

“We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring Ruckelshaus, one of NatCap’s directors, what’s best for the watershed. “We don’t ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the put it. Huge numbers are meant to con- have happier, healthier streams because vince folks who lack innate tree-hugging we have markets for them,” Lave said. geography of hope.” tendencies that beavers are more valu- “Mitigation banking has allowed the —Wallace Stegner able as aquatic engineers than as, say, fur status quo to continue.” hats. In practice, however, such valuation Often called the “Dean of Western Writers,” Wallace Stegner is best has fostered more acrimony than consen- How, then, might we better use ecosys- known for his biographies of John Wesley Powell and Bernard De- sus. To those environmentalists who keep tem services for conservation? NatCap’s Voto, and for his acclaimed novel Angle of Repose. His conservationist John Muir on their nightstand, simply work with West Coast Aquatic on Van- manifesto, Wilderness Letters, helped lead to the passage of the land- being a beaver — or a warbler, skink or couver Island could represent one path: mark National Wilderness Preservation System in 1964. Suggested by pikeminnow — justifies protection. a deployment of the concept that doesn’t Matthew R. Durrant “In many ways, those early dollar revolve around money. values did a disservice to the concept,” Picture Vancouver’s Lemmens Inlet, a Ruckelshaus said. “They caused a back- branching, limpid bay dotted with house- lash: ‘How can you put a dollar value boats that empty their toilets directly on nature? It’s priceless, it’s sacred.’ I into the ocean. That’s a problem, because understand that.” the inlet’s other inhabitants — kayakers, Despite such reservations, ecosystem oyster farmers and native gatherers of services have graduated from a rhetorical wild clams — don’t exactly welcome the “Places matter. Their rules, their scale, their design device into a conservation tool. Denver untreated sewage. So NatCap modeled Water and the U.S. Forest Service, for ex- how ecosystem services would change include or exclude civil society, pedestrianism, ample, cut a $33 million deal to manage under two different management plans: equality, diversity (economic and otherwise), the forest that supplies the city’s water; One, a “development scenario,” in which understanding of where water comes from and the utility paid for restoration activi- houseboats and oyster farms increased; ties like dead tree removal and beetle and the other, a “conservation scenario,” garbage goes, consumption or conservation. mitigation by levying fees on customers. in which the inlet was zoned as a marine They map our lives.” Bellingham, Washington, charges rate- park. Under the conservation scenario, —Rebecca Solnit payers to buy land around Lake Whatcom kayaking access would increase by more to protect their own water; Medford, Or- than 50 percent, and water quality by San Francisco-based writer and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author egon, pays farmers to plant riparian trees over 30 percent; under increased devel- of 15 books, ranging from meditations on landscape and community that keep streams cool for salmon. The opment, oyster harvest would rise but to art, politics and the power of stories. Underlying all her work is a arrangements keep getting more creative: water quality would decline. Importantly, love of wandering, a delight in the many ways in which a person can, Ducks Unlimited recently sold 40,000 while NatCap’s models did affix a dollar and should, get lost — both in the natural world and inside the self. Suggested by Derek Young tons of carbon credits to Chevrolet, which value to shellfish harvest, benefits like will pay farmers not to till grasslands clean water and kayaking opportunities that store carbon and harbor waterfowl. were expressed using other metrics — Not every market-driven conservation namely, the concentration of bacteria and project is a winner, though. Take stream the extent of paddling routes. Cap’s models for wildlife — as long as the mitigation banking, in which restoration Ecosystem services loom large in folks calling the shots value its survival. companies earn credits by repairing de- the theatre of ideas — savior to some, Whether we rely on traditional or new graded streams, then sell those credits to bogeyman to others. As practiced by forms of conservation, our ability to coex- anyone — logging companies, hotel build- NatCap, however, they’re just another ist with fellow creatures is fundamen- ers, transportation departments — who factor in West Coast Aquatic’s planning tally a matter of human will. There’s no expects to damage nearby habitat. The process. And though ecosystem services way around it. “Just like access to clam idea is that the free market will improve has become synonymous with money in beaches was important to them, so was restoration’s efficiency. But according to the popular imagination, NatCap’s clients having whales and eelgrass beds,” Wood Indiana University geographer Rebecca usually aren’t interested in currency. said. “To me, there’s no conflict there.” Lave, private enterprise and rivers don’t Many Native Vancouver Islanders, for Last year, NatCap withdrew from always mix. “For the market in stream instance, regard shellfish gathering as Vancouver Island, leaving behind its mod- credits to work, there has to be a defined a cultural amenity, not a pecuniary one. els and maps for West Coast Aquatic’s commodity,” Lave told me. But unlike Slapping a price tag on it would be beside use. Andrew Day and his constituents are gold or wheat, streams are inherently dy- the point. “When we’re talking about still figuring out how they want to use all namic — they shift channels, rearrange what the future will look like, most of the that science; inevitably, they’ve adopted boulders, build islands and wash them estimates that interest decision-makers some pieces and dropped others. Among away. That protean nature frustrates have nothing to do with dollar values,” the abandoned models are the black-and- evaluation. “If a stream is changing, said Spencer Wood, a marine ecologist white scenarios labeled “conservation” regulators have no way to certify whether who helped lead the project. and “development.” “We want to build it’s OK or not,” she said. Ecosystem services may never be per- relationships, rather than push sectors The result is that stream mitigation fectly equipped to save biodiversity. Not into artificial camps,” Day said. “You can projects tend to promote stable chan- every species is a crucial rivet holding fall into a polarization trap: ‘Do we take nels — good news if you’re a government aloft the machine of civilization: After all, an action out of a belief in the intrinsic accreditor trying to create a salable unit, forests can filter water and store carbon value of nature, or for totally mercantile not so good if you hope to restore the life without any help from wolverines. But as self-serving reasons?’ Well, why not use of a river. What’s best for the market isn’t Wood will tell you, there’s room in Nat- whatever motivation you can find?” n

www.hcn.org High Country News 15 THE HCN COMMUNITY

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Box 1090 | Paonia, CO 81428 | 800-905-1155 | hcn.org Merle Gates | Manteca, CA Warren Marr | Tujunga, CA Brian Gentner | Newport Beach, CA 16 High Country News January 19, 2015 DEAR FRIENDS Farewell to Theo Colborn Storytelling Room oculus at the Theo Colborn, an influential Corrections Senator John Pinto environmental scientist, died In our Dec. 22 issue, the cover Library at Diné Dec. 14 at age 87, in Paonia, story, “The Dust Detectives,” College, right. The Colorado. After spending years left off a portion of the name central structure as a pharmacist and sheep of the institution employing at the Southern Ute Cultural farmer in western Colorado, atmospheric chemist Kimberly Center and she decided to study watershed Prather: The Scripps Institu- Museum, below, science, earning her doctorate at tion of Oceanography at the was designed to 58. Her Great Lakes doctoral re- University of California, San evoke elements of search found manmade chemi- Diego in La Jolla. The article a wickiup. cals harming fish and wildlife; “Descent through time” mis- F rank VodVARK, right; the findings helped introduce takenly identified Georgia Tech Scott Smith, below scientists and policymakers to paleontologist Jenny McGuire the consequences of endocrine as Jess Miller-Campe. On disruption. the Letters page, the Stevens Theo worked as a congres- cartoon wasn’t quite as funny sional research fellow and then as it should have been, since a scientist for the World Wildlife the words dropped off when we Fund in Washington, D.C., and placed the final art. See the full helped organize the first gather- cartoon below. ing of researchers studying Alert reader John Karon of endocrine-disrupting chemicals Albuquerque, New Mexico, sent in 1991. us a note about our obituary Her 1996 book, Our Stolen for activist Martin Litton: “I am Future, coauthored with J. Pete likely the 1000th person to send Myers and Dianne Dumanoski, in the correction that Martin explained how chronic exposure was NOT the oldest man to raft to chemical compounds in flame the Colorado through Grand retardants, pharmaceuticals Canyon, but the oldest to row and fragrances is stunting hu- his own dory through the Can- Warren McDonald | Twain Harte, CA H.J. & Beverly Schoennagel | Pennington, NJ man development and increas- yon.” Thanks, John. Susan M. McKelvy | Buffalo Creek, CO Ann Schwab | Denver, CO ing the incidence of cognitive The restoration project map Gary McVicker | Golden, CO Mark Seaton | Mosca, CO and behavioral disorders, infer- in our Dec. 8, 2014, cover story Joseph S. Meyer | Golden, CO Ray Seidler | Ashland, OR tility, thyroid problems and can- “The Great Salmon Compro- Donald & Ann Michel | Amarillo, TX Ben Sellers | Basalt, CO cers. In 2003, Theo founded The mise” had a typo and a mis- Joel Milton | East Marion, NY Sally Sherman | Boise, ID Endocrine Disruption Exchange placed label. The Pend Oreille Bill & Martha Mitchem | Rangely, CO John A. Shower | Greenville, CA (TEDX), a research clearing- River comes out of Lake Pend Barbara Morrissey | Palo Cedro, CA Sarah Shurtleff | Longmont, CO house. She received many Oreille in Idaho, but it enters Robert Murphy | Littleton, CO Stan Siefer | Denver, CO awards for her work, including the lake as the Clark Fork. David & Molly Niven | Golden, CO Daniel Silver | Los Angeles, CA the TIME Global Environmental In our Nov. 24 story on Pete Nixon | Oakley, UT Cynthia H. Simer | Lander, WY Heroes award, in 2007, and the trains carrying crude oil, “a Joel & Marthanne Norgren | Corvallis, OR Larry Simon | Pleasant Hill, CA Jonathan Foreman award from sunny weekend afternoon in Nick & Ann Novich | Sheridan, MT Beverly R. Skinner | Marion, MT the American Academy of Envi- July” became one in September, Jan & Peter Perlman | Monte Rio, CA Janet Small | Bellingham, WA ronmental Medicine, in 2014. due to an editorial mixup. HCN William Petersen | New Orleans, LA Benjamin & Kathleen Smith | Aiken, SC “She was a visionary,” says regrets the errors; we all got Carolyn Poissant | Bozeman, MT Dan & Denise Snow | Divide, CO Carol Kwiatkowski, executive nice big lumps of coal in our director of TEDX, “(with a) com- stockings. Antoinette Pollack | Littleton, CO Margie Sohl | Salida, CO mitment to uncovering the truth —Joshua Zaffos and Horatio & Elizabeth Potter, Clementine Ranch | Donald Speakman | Grasonville, MD and sharing that information.” Jodi Peterson for the staff Wilsall, MT Linda M. Stanger | Idaho Falls, ID Robert Pung | Santa Ana, CA Nancy Steele | Altadena, CA Don Rea | Albany, OR Karl Stoszek | Moscow, ID Brian & Carole Reid | Tucson, AZ John Straw | Montrose, CO Michael Riggs | La Verne, CA Cassidy Tawse-Garcia | Crested Butte, CO com Clint Rogel | Spokane, WA Jason Tennessen | Bloomington, IN . Andrew J. Quintana | Pueblo, CO Joel E. Thacker | Lake Elsinore, CA Gerald Radden | Casper, WY Paula Trater | Oakley, UT Francis M. Raley | Grand Junction, CO D. Trent | La Crescenta, CA cartoonbank Paul Rana | Bigfork, MT Jeffrey C. Tufts | Medford, OR . Tom & Carla Ratcliff | Emmett, ID Nancy & Cutler Umbach | McCall, ID www Chris Reimer, Eco Planta Inc. | Cascade, CO Vern Vanderbilt & Lynne Brown | San Jose, CA / David Reinke & Roxanne Bradshaw | Keith Virostko | Jackson, WY Canon City, CO Fred Walls | Lafayette, CO Daniel Robinett & Linda Kennedy | Elgin, AZ ollection Sally Waterhouse & Dennis Radabaugh | C Don Rogers | Ridgway, CO Nathrop, CO

Donald & Sally Romig | Santa Fe, NM Yorker Liz Webb & Barbara Newman | Eugene, OR

Robert Rose | Carson City, NV Donald Weinstein | Sonoita, AZ ew Barbara Rothkrug | Corte Madera, CA N Teri Winchester | Magdalena, NM he

David Ruggles | Novato, CA Kent Winterholler | Park City, UT / T Tom Rule | Ketchum, ID Hal Wulff | Colorado Springs, CO

John & Cherry Sand | Oro Valley, AZ tevens Melissa Wyers, Breakthrough Strategies | S Max & Gene Schloemer | Reno, NV Washington, DC Ray Schoch | Minneapolis, MN Robert Zimmerer | Beaverton, OR www.hcn.org High Country News 17 DEFINED Deontology An ethical view whereby principles and duty guide actions; includes justice-based approaches.

Occupythe Book Cliffs They’re burning mad about climate change. Are you?

tarting last May, a small group of tor and impede construction of what could radical climate activists, mostly become the first tar sands mine in the U.S. from Salt Lake City, spent five They have stood in front of and locked months camped on the East Tava- themselves to heavy machinery. Once, Sputs Plateau, a jumble of conifer-choked they dressed up as chipmunks and chased Essay By canyons and broad sandstone and shale road graders around a construction site. Cally ridges in eastern Utah commonly known At least one woman trespassed regularly as the Book Cliffs. In the beginning, they into the mine’s test pit, to see if there was Carswell adhered closely to Bureau of Land Man- anything worrisome worth documenting. wind calm and temperature pleasantly agement rules: They moved camp every The September weekend that I climbing, I joined the “morning circle” 14 days, packing up tents, sleeping bags dropped in, the activists were hosting a –– around 15 people, sitting in camp and camp chairs; the makeshift toilet, special campout to encourage locals to chairs or on five-gallon buckets or in nicknamed “dirty Herbert” after Utah’s “connect with the land.” After a long drive the dirt around smoldering coals. Each governor; and a hanging sweater rack on winding backroads, I found the camp person introduced themself, and gave repurposed into a lending library, which on the shoulder of a sweeping ridge, hid- their preferred gender pronoun — he, she included literature by Toni Morrison and den among a stand of pine and fir. Tents or they — which everyone was asked to Louise Erdrich along with nonfiction on pincushioned the forest floor on either respect. Vigil stalwart Raphael Cordray, oil, imperialism and anti-coal activism. side of a slim spur crammed with cars and who once owned a gift shop for radicals Flies found them quickly at many new pickups and ending in a tight turnaround in Salt Lake, volunteered to lead a tour of spots, and they’d spend a couple of insuf- — a cul-de-sac in the woods. The days I the test pit. Chad Hamblin, a high school ferable days swatting thin air. Then, the was there, activists wore jeans, T-shirts, science teacher, offered to lead a nature bugs seemed to dissipate, perhaps thanks fleece, clogs and hiking boots. People read hike. Kathy Albury, a member of the to bats. books around the fire-pit, and lounged in environmental ministry at Salt Lake’s As the months wore on, their diligence the kitchen, an elaborately tarped affair Unitarian Church, wanted to march on about relocating exactly on time faltered with a spice rack and serving buffet. They Sunday, the same day demonstrators slightly. But in theory, it was important slept in, brewed endless pots of coffee, and would clog Manhattan for the People’s to do so, and generally to keep everything told camp tales: of encounters with bears, Climate March. Rachel Carter, also from about camp aboveboard, because the hikes gone awry, epic meals prepared and the Salt Lake area, agreed: “These sourc- things they did outside of camp weren’t eaten (one involved cashew cream sauce). es of extraction are where people should always, and they didn’t need additional It felt pretty laid-back for a hotbed of be marching,” she said, and suggested a scrutiny. radicals intent on revolution. Then again, hashtag: #comeherenextyear. The activists called their camp a “per- it was the weekend. Then it was on to explaining “camp manent protest vigil,” its purpose to moni- On Saturday morning, with the norms,” which were scrawled in colored

18 High Country News January 19, 2015 marker on a cardboard sign hanging from to stop construction for the day. Though greater crime of more carbon pollution, Protesters disrupt the food trailer: Don’t talk to the cops; sheriff’s deputies were camped out there, he said –– and refused a plea bargain. construction of the no racism, sexism, transphobia or other a few activists slipped in and locked But there was something disquieting road to the tar sands forms of bigotry; no violence of any kind. themselves to the equipment. Around about his story and the images of his project in the Utah Also, “no pants at the fire pit” –– code for 20 others linked arms and stood or sat comrades storming the Interior Depart- Book Cliffs in July 2013. no cell phones, which could be tapped by outside the fence, blocking the road. By ment in Washington and getting arrested; PeacefulUprising.org police, the FBI, or other Big Brothers. the end of the day, deputies had carted weeping outside the Salt Lake court- Welcome to the resistance. 21 people off to the Uintah County jail. house after his sentencing, sitting in the Reading about it brought me back to street, refusing to move, getting arrested. I first heard of the vigil in July 2014, a crowded theater in Paonia, Colorado, Climate change stirred something in him after reading a newspaper story about where in 2013 I watched the documen- –– in them –– that it had yet to stir in one of its rowdier moments. It came tary Bidder 70. It tells the story of Tim me. Anger, maybe? Passion? I wasn’t sure. after a weeklong campout, when 80 or so DeChristopher, a University of Utah But it was an emotion I didn’t recognize people came to the Book Cliffs to learn student who, in 2008, made bids at a in myself, or in most of my friends. about community organizing, nonviolent BLM oil and gas lease sale, driving up Which left me feeling conflicted. I’m direct action and “climate justice” –– the prices and winning 14 parcels he did not an environmental journalist, well in- idea that climate change solutions must plan to drill, worth $1.8 million he could formed on climate change. I write stories alleviate the social and environmental not pay. DeChristopher spent 21 months about the science, which keeps getting burdens our energy economy dispropor- in federal prison, becoming a minor folk worse, and the policy, which keeps tionately imposes on the world’s poorest, hero in the process. standing still. I write about irrevocable usually non-white, people. I remember being impressed by changes to the mountains and deserts Before dawn on July 21, a group of ac- DeChristopher’s eloquence and unbend- I love, and about how drought and heat tivists had made their way to a fenced lot ing adherence to his principles. He could render some of them uninhabit- where U.S. Oil Sands, the mine’s develop- deliberately broke the law to keep the oil able. I know the climate crisis is big and er, kept its heavy machinery. Their goal: and gas in the ground –– to prevent the bad. And yet I don’t get angry about it,

www.hcn.org High Country News 19 tion around 7,000, some 90 miles away. Soon, we climbed back in the van, and Hamblin, the science teacher, also from bumped down the road to see the scar of a the Roosevelt area, was up for his third failed 1980s mine. I asked why they called campout and brought his dad. He was the camp a “vigil.” Lionel Trepanier, co- excited to meet like-minded neighbors; founder with Cordray of Utah Tar Sands environmentalists are few in the Uinta Resistance, one group behind the protest, Basin, home to Utah’s top oil and gas explained that “vigils” were considered by producing counties. Still fewer are those courts to be constitutionally protected free willing to speak out against energy devel- speech. “Although there are tents and a opment. “It feels like the Lone Ranger out kitchen, this isn’t camping,” he said. “The there sometimes,” he lamented. vigil is the presence.” U.S. Oil Sands, a Canadian company, “So is it like being a witness?” Hamb- had secured permits and leases on state lin asked. Yes, several people replied. trust land, leaving environmentalists “If we’re here and witnessing what’s without legal leverage to stop it. Now, the going on, then we’ll know other ways company was clearing a building site for to respond,” Corday said, adding that a processing facility, aiming to begin com- their presence draws attention to the mercial production in 2015. CEO Camer- little-known mine. “And it creates a place on Todd told me the company respects the people can come and learn about the is- activists’ right to voice their opposition, sues. It’s a safe place if they want to show but that their tactics sometimes crossed their discomfort and not be arrested.” the line and posed safety risks. He said his company is willing to engage anyone The number of people willing — even interested in figuring out better ways to eager — to risk arrest trying to stop fossil do things, but added, “There’s not much of fuel developments is still small. But it a dialogue (you can have) with people who seemed notable to me that they existed just don’t want things to happen.” at all. The construction activity was at the The same month Tim DeChristopher building site, but there were actual tar went to prison, in 2011, 1,200 were ar- sands to see at the test pit. A future mine rested in Washington, D.C., protesting the was easier to imagine here. On the south- proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which facing slope below the pit, thick, jet-black would carry Canadian tar sands to Gulf goo oozed from rocks, forming drip pat- Coast refineries. Keystone helped gal- terns like coagulating blood, with the dry, vanize the national climate movement, oppressive smell of fresh asphalt. thanks to organized opposition from the As others scrambled downslope to tribes, ranchers and farmers whose land check out erosion and fossils, Hamblin it would cross, and from prominent activ- and I lingered on the rim. A tall, solid ists like former NASA scientist James man with a full beard and lively eyes, Hansen. Protests small and large, in Hamblin had an encyclopedic knowledge Washington and elsewhere, have followed New York City street not really angry. Neither do most of my of plants and animals. Zeal for nature the 2011 demonstration. Getting at tar art featuring Tim well-informed and idealistic friends. But burst from his lips like light from a spar- sands and making the oil takes a massive DeChristopher, who shouldn’t we? kler. He snapped photos, calling out that amount of energy, making the fuel hugely became famous for Reading about the U.S. Oil Sands he had casting equipment if anyone found carbon intensive. “If Canada proceeds, bidding on parcels lock-in, and remembering DeChristo- at a BLM oil and gas animal tracks. and we do nothing,” Hansen wrote in The pher’s story, made me curious about what lease auction that he The night before, he’d sported a New York Times in 2012, “it will be game was brewing in the Book Cliffs. Did these never intended to “Bidder 70” baseball cap –– a nod to the over for the climate.” people know something I didn’t? More to drill. Wally Gobetz, DeChristopher film. Like some others, But there are mini-Keystones all over the point, did they feel something I didn’t? cc via flickr DeChristopher was part of the reason — smaller pieces of less politically and he was here. In 2011, he spent a week- environmentally significant infrastruc- After Saturday’s morning circle, I end camping around Dinosaur National ture that are the foundation for a rush on piled into a big white van with seven Monument, where he ran into an acquain- fossil fuels right here at home, including others to tour the mine’s test pit, a few tance who said that his camping spot tar sands. Grassroots activists have taken minutes down Seep Ridge Road, which was would have become a “big oil well” if not notice, loudly opposing developments of in the process of being widened and paved for DeChristopher. That inspired him to all sizes and consequence. for future industrial traffic. At the pit, veg- later drive two-and-a-half hours to Salt In Massachusetts, a coalition aims etation had been cleared, a berm cut into Lake to see the movie, which is where to stop all new fossil fuel infrastructure, the ridge, and a hole dug, exposing brown, he met some of the activists and learned including three gas-fired power plants gray and ebony rock layers. Rainwater had about the tar sands development. and one pipeline expansion. Massachu- created a pond the color of dark tea, where Hamblin bemoaned what he saw as setts activists were among those who Raphael Cordray said she had seen cows the loss of public-land access to energy blockaded the Federal Energy Regulatory drinking. She suspected it was toxic. development. He recalled a university lec- Commission’s offices for a week in the fall. The tour was for outsiders (mainly ture about permafrost thawing: “I was the More than 100 were arrested in D.C. and me) and visitors from the nearby Uinta only member of the public who came,” he related protests, according to organizers. Basin who opposed the mine but came said. “It was like, ‘Wow, she’s saying a lot A Michigan man was recently given a sus- up only occasionally. There was Stagg, of what’s going on is not reversible.’ I like pended two-month jail sentence and one who goes by one name only, along with to cross-country ski, and climate change year of probation after being convicted David Bell and Lori Savage. They all is making it so there’s less snow and more of a felony for skateboarding inside an lived around Roosevelt, Utah, popula- rain. I’m concerned on a lot of levels.” unfinished pipeline and refusing to leave.

20 High Country News January 19, 2015 co-founded by DeChristopher after the Participants in the BLM auction and has continued working 2014 permanent locally, though he moved out of state to at- protest vigil at tend Harvard Divinity School. Carter wore the tar sands pit, a shaggy pixie cut and army-green pants. top, where some Her black T-shirt with its cut-off sleeves concealed their identities as they proclaimed: “I Am The Carbon Tax.” trespassed onto Though Carter didn’t spend all season the mine property. here, she frequently delivered food that At left, one of the Salt Lake supporters donated and foraged campsites for the from suburban grocery dumpsters, and months-long protest. joined for special campouts. I asked her Camps were packed why she joined Peaceful Uprising and up and moved about was surprised to learn she was relatively every two weeks, new to environmentalism and radical in accordance with activism, if not unfamiliar with it. Her BLM regulations. C ourtesy Tar sands Mormon parents were members of the Resistance AND ultra-conservative John Birch Society, MELANIE MARTIN which fought communism and the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s. In upstate New York, locals have blocked “Nature walk departing!” crowed a few She joined at 15 and was raised believ- the entrance to a gas storage facility since not-just-saints in unison, standing by the ing Joseph McCarthy was a hero. But as October, protesting a FERC-approved campfire, lit despite Saturday evening’s she grew older, she became uncomfort- expansion. At press time, 170 had been lingering warmth. Hamblin led a group able with her family’s politics. She moved arrested. down a trail and into a stand of Doug-fir, to Seattle and “was liberalized but not My question was not whether the piñon and juniper, carrying a shepherd’s activated,” as she struggled to sort out her activists in Utah or these other inci- crook in one hand, a camera carabineered feelings on Mormonism. “My approach for dents were right, wrong or somewhere to his shirt. He wondered aloud if finding a long time was just no involvement with in between, or whether in each case threatened or endangered plants might anything,” she said. their tactics were justified or strategic. help stop the mine. In 2008, she moved back to Utah, I wanted to know what motivated them. We lingered on a southerly slope, un- right after Proposition 8, which sought to Civil disobedience involves some level of der a haggard old piñon, its roots snaking ban same-sex marriage, passed in Califor- personal risk, and people wouldn’t engage out from the tan soil as though coming nia with hefty support from the Mormon in it, I assumed, without feeling a power- up for air. Among them, we discovered an Church. Carter, who had left the church, ful emotional involvement; the kind of antlion, an insect whose predatory larvae was incensed that it had entered politics intellectual response many of us have to bury themselves in sand, awaiting prey. “in a way that fucked a lot of people over.” the climate crisis is simply not enough. We poked its pit with a twig, which it at- A rare protest was held outside the Salt “Be as frank as possible,” an editor tacked, provoking oohs! and more pokes. Lake Mormon Temple just before she at High Country News advised before I I wandered back uphill to camp with moved home. Then DeChristopher went began reporting. “They’re not like regular Rachel Carter, a dedicated member of to the BLM auction. “There was a lot hap- people. They’re not just saints. They have Peaceful Uprising, a Salt Lake climate pening, and it was exciting,” she told me. a certain personality.” justice group sponsoring the vigil. It was “There’s something about being an under-

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“Every O ands successful S couver couver ar T an V

social , a movement in p reat Plainsreat our history G has been Mychaylo Prystu Mychaylo courtesy unrealistic. dog that engages me. Democrats being Fruhwirth, a member of Peaceful Upris- less people.” He joined the camp. Even people an underdog in Utah, I was interested in ing and vigil keeper, who was among the Occupy Salt Lake lasted a little more who were trying to help change that.” 26 in court this month. In early 2011, than a month before the city police dis- She volunteered with LGBT advocacy he was a reporter for City Weekly, Salt mantled it. Both Fruhwirth and Carter anti-slavery groups and worked with the Utah Demo- Lake’s alternative paper, covering crimi- were arrested during the eviction. Some cratic Party. In 2010, she got involved nal justice, homelessness, DeChristo- activists returned to their day jobs, thought with people in Peaceful Uprising after pher’s trial, and a 2011 effort by the Utah Fruhwirth said, “but some of us joined DeChristopher posted an ad on Craigslist Legislature to gut open-records laws. It the revolution and never looked back.” abolitionists seeking a “courageous congressperson” was the first time his editors allowed him He found Peaceful Uprising one of the were for Utah’s 2nd District. He and his cohort to “throw objectivity to the wind and be few refuges for the newly radicalized in were fed up with conservative Utah blatantly biased toward open access,” he Salt Lake. Climate change was not his completely Democrat Jim Matheson, who had voted told me in a phone interview. “I felt like top priority, but neither did these seem against health-care reform and cap-and- in real life I was a polarizing firebrand, like typical environmentalists. “I’d heard nuts.” trade. So they decided to “hire” his re- but that journalism snuffed that out. Not Tim DeChristopher question capitalism,” —Tim DeChristopher, placement. “Must have solid moral values everyone has that, and I feel like it’s the he told me. “Hearing an environmental- activist who went to and a resistance to selling out to corpo- best thing I’ve got.” ist talk about capitalism was not quite federal prison after rate interests,” the ad said. Job respon- By the spring of 2011, though, Fruh- as awesome as seeing a homeless person bidding on BLM oil sibilities included “stopping catastrophic wirth was feeling burnt out, and thought running the welcome booth at Occupy, and gas leases climate change” and “ending imperialistic his body was showing signs of stress. but it was one of those moments.” wars of aggression.” Once, when someone hugged him, he Peaceful Uprising members told me At a local library, Carter watched said, it broke a rib. He quit and bought their goal at present is to stop “extreme while select “applicants” answered a vegan hot dog stand in downtown Salt energy extraction” on the Colorado questions. That night, a candidate was Lake. But though he’d gotten a taste for Plateau. Grassroots activists across the chosen. “There wasn’t a ton of overhead polemics, he wasn’t sure how to satisfy country are converging on a similar aim: and bullshit and bureaucracy,” she said. it. He thought a lot of activism lacked a No new infrastructure for the extraction, “And it was just a lot of fun.” She worked winning strategy. When a friend dropped transportation or burning of fossil fuels. on the campaign (it failed after forcing by the hot dog stand to tell him about “Not here, not in Fort McMurray, not in Matheson into a runoff), and about six planning meetings for Occupy Salt Lake, Mobile, Alabama,” Lauren Wood, an early months later, helped prepare for DeChris- late in the summer of 2011, he remem- Peaceful Uprising member who just left topher’s trial. bers mentally rolling his eyes. But once the group, told me. “Not fracking, not “The climate end of it was not one the Occupy encampment was established, oil, none of it.” It’s a tall order; stopping of my main reasons for getting involved in early October, he stopped by. He was even one Utah mine will be tough unless with Peaceful Uprising,” she said, as we surprised to see a homeless woman he tumbling oil prices change things for the stood on the edge of camp. “It was more knew from his reporter days running company. Yet the activists’ ultimate goal about the culture of the group and what the welcome booth. “It didn’t match my is even more ambitious: to end growth- they were creating. It was a really cre- stereotype of what an activist was,” he at-all-costs capitalism and oppression in ative, energetic group of people.” said. “I was very inspired to see homeless all forms — to fundamentally restructure I heard a similar story from Jesse people acting politically with non-home- the entire economic and social order.

22 High Country News January 19, 2015 lockade.org B at o B ter obs L den, courtesyden, w o B Peter

“Of course it’s too big,” DeChristopher out party for a new breed of environmen- learned about the climate activists and Canadian told me, when I reached him by phone talism — one that’s louder and rowdier about myself. scientist and and inquired about the grassroots move- than the old-school greens.” I was surprised by how little they re- environmentalist ment’s ambitions. “If we’re going to create The Utah activists hoped the New sembled the environmentalists I usually David Suzuki, far any kind of change, it’s going to have York march would accomplish something interviewed. There was little talk of the left, fired up after to come from a mass movement. And to but were disappointed with its tame finer points of renewable energy policy, his grandson, Tamo Campos effectively mobilize people you need a big approach. It was planned in cooperation little time spent lamenting the death of (behind) was vision,” he said. “Every successful social with the police and did not confront any trees, or the troubles of pikas and polar arrested at a protest movement in our history has been unre- specific threats. They were more jazzed bears. But immigration reform came against energy alistic. Even people who were anti-slav- about Flood Wall Street, a more aggres- up. The legacy of colonization for Native company Kinder ery thought abolitionists were completely sive, unpermitted sit-in planned for the peoples came up. Capitalism and its sins Morgan’s pipeline nuts. There had literally always been following day. Its slogan: “Stop capitalism. came up –– a lot. expansion at slavery until it was banned. Why not aim End the climate crisis.” Radicals, more than one person told Burnaby Mountain, for something we actually want? Why not Here, though, things were pretty me, try to attack the roots of problems. a Vancouver, aim for the kind of world we want to see?” tame, too. When the marchers arrived at The word “radical,” they said, means Canada, suburb. Alec Johnson, On Saturday night back in the Book the test pit, about half of them scrambled “going to the origin.” And the members of center, strapped to Cliffs, I crawled into my tent and opened through an opening in the fence, past “no Peaceful Uprising have come to believe an earth mover in The Monkey Wrench Gang. I’d brought it trespassing” signs, some with bandanas that the root cause of climate change protest of the KXL with me, guessing that Abbey’s environ- or scarves pulled up like bandit masks. and other massive problems, like income pipeline. Above, mental call-to-arms had helped inspired They stood beside the pit’s brown pond inequality, is the profit-hungry capitalist Bristol County, the activists. If so, it never came up. and posed for pictures. The clown climbed system we’re all part of, and especially Massachusetts, atop a pile of excavated rock and thrust the people at the top of it. District Attorney Sam Sutter waves a Late Sunday morning, under a pocket a “No Tar Sands” sign in the air. Oth- “This isn’t just about CO2 in the at- of blue sky, some 30 people climbed out ers stayed on the legal side of the fence, mosphere and parts per million,” Carter Rolling Stone article of vehicles onto Seep Ridge Road. One either not interested in breaking the law, told me. “The various oppressions that by Bill McKibben as he speaks outside man wore a colorful clown mask; another or seeing little value in it in this instance. have led up to this have been going on for a courtroom after played “This Land is Our Land” on a The cops never appeared; I was the only centuries. All of these things are feeding announcing a deal to saxophone. A brown-and-white teacup of reporter. There was scarcely anyone out the same system of overlapping and self- drop charges against a dog scampered about, its fur ruffled by here to witness it. Nevertheless, the pro- reinforcing problems.” To Carter and her two environmental a whiplashing wind. testers were here to say “no” to the mine comrades, climate change represents the activists who had A couple of people unfurled a banner because, as a white-haired woman from last, worst example of the unjust relation- blocked a coal — “Together and Everywhere We Rise Moab named Dorothy put it: “These days, ship between rich and poor, white and shipment. Up for Climate Justice” — and the group if you’re not saying ‘no,’ you’re saying black, colonist and Native. “The refugee marched toward the test pit. The banner ‘yes.’ ” crisis we’re going to be seeing will affect was a nod to the People’s Climate March, the most marginalized. Wars –– that is now underway in New York, where hun- I drove home after the march, where real.” dreds of thousands jammed the streets in on and off for the next couple months, I got some of what they were saying an event Politico described as “a coming- I tried to figure out exactly what I had Please see Occupy page 54 www.hcn.org High Country News 23 EDUCATION MARKETPLACE

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24 High Country News January 19, 2015 philosophyNew push ined. an old field By Alex Carr Johnson n response to escalating environmental crises such as climate Can environmental philosophy and ethics programs spur young- I change and forest decline, many colleges and universities across er generations to build a sustainable society? Students, faculty and the West are developing a variety of on-the-ground action-oriented universities seem to think so. Colorado State University is just one degrees. Students who seek to shape future landscapes, cities and of dozens in the West now offering degrees and certificates in en- infrastructure can take advantage of an array of programs that vironmental philosophy at the undergraduate and graduate levels. range from land management to environmental policy, sustainable Many more colleges and universities offer at least some environ- What deep- business to wildlife biology. Yet a growing number of environmental- mental ethics coursework within their philosophy or environmental seated values in ly minded students are gravitating toward one of academia’s oldest studies departments. our society fields: philosophy. Environmental ethics courses are filling up more quickly than ever discourage the Courses in environmental philosophy and ethics push college before, and not just with philosophy geeks. Students from a variety of acknowledgment students to ask the broadest and most basic questions about the fields, including biology and geoscience, are enrolling in increasing underlying social causes of current crises. What deep-seated values in numbers. “Students are realizing that to only understand hydrological of ecological our society discourage the acknowledgment of ecological limits? What processes is useless without also understanding the broader social limits? ethical frameworks might lead us toward a more sustainable future? and ethical issues that have produced them,” says Lisa Floyd-Hanna, “Among young people, there is a real hunger for dealing with professor of environmental studies at Prescott College. these kinds of questions,” says Philip Cafaro, professor of philosophy The following list highlights some of the West’s most robust at Colorado State University. “The baby boomers were about having environmental philosophy programs. Though far from comprehensive, everything. They were looking for win-win solutions. They found lots it reveals the wide array of philosophical offerings now available to of successes, of course, but an ecologically sustainable society has not students regardless of major. Perhaps we’ll all sleep a little better at been one of them.” night knowing a more ethically minded workforce is on its way.

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26 High Country News January 19, 2015 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE

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28 High Country News | Special Advertising Insert January 19, 2015 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE ARIZONa With an academic culture deeply rooted in both inter- California In order to prepare future scientists to conduct research disciplinary and environmental studies, Prescott College Though Santa Clara University does not offer a degree and inform policy in an ethical manner, Arizona State (prescott.edu) offers fertile ground for would-be environ- in environmental philosophy, it does provide a wealth of University’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sci- mental philosophers. Courses include “Religious Ethics resources for its undergraduate students through the Mark- ences (newcollege.asu.edu/mns/degrees/naturalsci) has and Environmental Activism” and “The Idea of Nature.” kula Center for Applied Ethics (www.scu.edu/ethics/). The designed a BS in environmental sciences which requires Students can enroll in the more traditional full-residency Center offers an environmental ethics fellowship to fund all students to enroll in environmental ethics and policy environmental studies program at the undergraduate level student projects that address the ethical implications of courses. The program prioritizes the “connectedness of or can instead earn their self-directed undergraduate or particular environmental challenges. Past projects have disciplines” while encouraging students to take advantage graduate degrees through the school’s unique limited-resi- questioned the philosophical underpinnings of sustain- of top-tier research facilities. Another perk? With the help dency program. Why contemplate the future of nature and ability, solar power accessibility and agriculture, among of the Western Undergraduate Exchange (www.wiche.edu/ humanity in a fluorescent-lit classroom when you could do other issues. The center also publishes articles, blogs and wue), students from most Western states can attend for it while climbing a mountain, paddling a river or actively podcasts that address urgent challenges in applied ethics, reduced tuition. helping communities become more sustainable? including a 12-part short course on environmental ethics available for free online. Students enrolled in The Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California Santa Barbara can earn an interdisciplinary doctorate or master’s in environmental science and management (MESM). Students interested in ethics benefit from the program’s affiliation with the campus-based Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life, which organizes internships and lectures. Other resources include the UC Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology and the Center for Energy and Environ- mental Economics.

The 2011 Prescott College winter wilderness orientation in the Grand Canyon. Coy urtes Prescott College Archive

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30 High Country News January 19, 2015 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE Caolor do Idaho Colorado State University’s Department of Philosophy Scholars at the University of (philosophy.colostate.edu) offers one of the West’s oldest Idaho can earn a master’s in and most robust environmental philosophy programs. Un- environmental philosophy through dergraduate and graduate students can select from cours- the Philosophy Department es including bioethics and society, ethics of sustainability, (uidaho.edu/class/philosophy). and philosophy of natural sciences. Despite the abundance Since 2013, the program has been of offerings, student interest outpaces available seating: “I home to a student-published ethics am dealing with emails from a dozen students right now journal titled The Hemlock Papers. who are trying to get into a course that is already full,” Students can also present their says environmental philosophy professor Philip Cafaro. research at the annual Inland With its campus located in Fort Collins within sight of Northwest Philosophy Conference, Rocky Mountain National Park, students are encouraged organized this year by Boise State to engage with the land as well as the academic commu- University and Washington State nity. After reveling in the high country, they can “contex- University. tualize their euphoria” with full-time faculty member Katie McShane, whose past research includes finding the most effective ways to articulate a sense of wonder within larger environmental policy discussions. Also at the base of the Rocky Mountains, the Univer- sity of Colorado Boulder offers multiple opportunities for students interested in environmental philosophy. The Philosophy Department, a leader in the field of applied ethics, offers a graduate certificate in environment, policy and society. Meanwhile, the Environmental Studies Department (colorado.edu/envs) provides students with master’s or doctorate programs with an ethics-heavy “theory and values” concentration. No matter which program they choose, students stand to benefit from the close ties between CSU philosophy professor the departments. The university also hosts the Center for Philip Cafaro takes graduate Values and Social Policy (colorado.edu/philosophy/center), students on a hike in the Red Feather Lakes area of the which supports research, organizes conferences and spon- Roosevelt National Forest. sors lectures on the relevant applications of ethics. Coy urtes Philip Cafaro

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32 High Country News January 19, 2015 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE Ma ontan features historically marginalized ethical perspectives Nature and the Written Word. It doesn’t take long at the University of Montana to including deep ecology, ecofeminism and indigenous One of the only universities in the nation to offer a abandon the stereotype of philosophy students hiding out philosophy. The program also manages the environmental bachelor’s in environmental ethics and policy, the Uni- in the library. Missoula prides itself in being the closest leadership program, which places its students in local versity of Portland (college.up.edu/envscience) uses urban center to any wilderness area in the United States nonprofits, businesses and governmental agencies. a Catholic theological framework that emphasizes social — only a short drive to the largest contiguous wilderness Oregon State University’s Department of Philoso- justice to address the underlying ethics of its academic area in the Lower 48. Don’t want to take that much time phy offers a master’s in applied ethics with an emphasis in offerings. Located in the famously progressive city of away from your studies? Mountain bike trails leave directly environmental philosophy. The program requires students Portland, the university offers access to a wide variety of from campus. The Philosophy Department (cas.umt.edu/ to actively analyze and engage with ethical issues in the environmental nonprofit organizations. Steven Kolmes, phil) offers a master’s in environmental philosophy along field, providing opportunities to do so through the Phrone- chair of the Environmental Studies Department, says that with coursework for undergraduates. The program requires sis Lab for ethics research. For students with a more literary students flock to environmental ethics courses, including students to carry out a three-credit internship with a local bent, the university also hosts the Spring Creek Project for next semester’s “Ethics in Sustainable Food.” nonprofit. (Fortunately, Missoula boasts one of the highest per capita rates of nonprofits in the country.) The Envi- ronmental Studies Department (cas.umt.edu/evst) also offers a number of ethically oriented courses, including “Ethical Issues of Ecological Restoration” and “Greening of Religion.”

Oregon The University of Oregon prides itself on one of the strongest interdisciplinary environmental studies programs in the nation, with over 100 faculty members across a wide number of departments, so it is not surprising that it also possesses one of the strongest environmental philosophy programs as well. Doctoral candidates in the environmental sciences, studies and policy program (envs.uoregon. edu/graduate/doctoral) can choose philosophy as their focal department. The two departments also collaborate Students do research on grazed land as part of a class University of Oregon students gather stories to on “Ethical Issues in Restoration Monitoring” at the promote stewardship of the McKenzie River, Eugene’s to produce the journal Environmental Philosophy, one of University of Montana. only water source. the premier peer-reviewed journals in the field. Coursework Coy urtes Daniel Spencer Coy urtes Aylie Baker

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36 High Country News January 19, 2015 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE Utah Wyoming Students seeking a master’s of arts or science or a doctor- In order to serve undergraduates who are not majoring in ate in philosophy and applied ethics can find plenty of op- philosophy but still want a strong foundation in environ- portunities at the University of Utah (philosophy.utah. mental ethics, the University of Wyoming has created edu/graduate). The program works closely with the Col- an environmental values minor. Faculty in the Philosophy lege of Business, College of Law and School of Medicine to Department (uwyo.edu/philosophy) see it as a way to allow its students to pursue multiple degrees concurrently. provide “a vital link” between the humanities and the It also offers a joint program with the Institute of Human natural and social sciences. Coursework explores the “aes- Genetics, located on campus. With 19 full-time faculty thetics, culture, ethics, and policy” associated with current (not all of them specializing in environmental ethics), the environmentalism. The school’s location in Laramie, pop- department boasts small class sizes and close interaction ulation 30,000, allows students plenty of extracurricular with instructors. opportunity to contemplate the aesthetics of the nearby Laramie Mountains.

Philosophy students from the University of Wyoming gather at Table in the Wilderness camp near Centennial, Wyoming, to study stoicism for the annual Stoic Camp. While the camp is not a lesson in environmental ethics, students get the opportunity to explore the outdoors while considering the relationship between themselves and nature. Coy urtes Department of Philosophy, University of Wyoming

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38 High Country News January 19, 2015 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE Beyond the west a master’s or doctorate in philosophy with a concentration philosophers alike. Three times a year, the center poses a At the University of Victoria’s School of Environmental in environmental ethics. new “Question for a Resilient Future,” in order to spark con- Studies (uvic.ca/socialsciences/environmental), located in The International Society for Environmental structive public dialogue. Recent questions include: How beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, students seeking their Ethics (enviroethics.org) also provides online resources for far should we go to bring back lost species? Does hunting bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate can choose from three students, faculty and the general public. Since 1990, the make us human? And what does the Earth ask from us? interdisciplinary research areas: ethnoecology, ecological organization has facilitated discussions between environ- restoration or political ecology. Undergraduates can also mental philosophers around the world. It also manages an minor in the human dimensions of climate change or online bibliography with over 16,000 entries. conduct research through the intergovernmental Pacific Ready to tackle the big questions yourself? The There are many other environmental philosophy pro- Institute for Climate Solutions, which is hosted by the Center for Humans and Nature (humansandnature. grams out there — too many to list. If you know of one university. org) has created an online forum for scholars and armchair that merits attention, tweet it to us @highcountrynews. The University of Alaska Anchorage’s Philosophy Department (uaa.alaska.edu/philosophy) has created a certificate in applied ethics for undergraduates interested in entering any number of professional career tracks while seeking working knowledge in ethics. Though the certifi- John Nolt, from the University of Tennessee, and cate program is not devoted solely to environmental con- Umberto Sconfienza, from Tilburg University, below, listen to a talk at the annual International Society for cerns, in the course of their studies students can enroll in Environmental Ethics meeting. On a hike during the upper-level environmental ethics courses for engineering, meeting, left, philosophers experience the wind and business and law. With the long winter nights and sub-zero the earth like low-laying alpine plants. Coy urtes International Society for Environmental Ethics temperatures — and a campus shared by dozens of moose — students might be glad to spend hours contemplating the big questions inside the comforts of the gorgeous UAA/APU Consortium Library. Even though the University of North Texas is located a few degrees east of the 100th meridian, its environmental philosophy offerings deserve a place in this list. The Department of Philosophy and Religion is home to the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Ethics as well as to the Center for Environmental Philosophy (cep.unt.edu), a nonprofit that provides a number of online resources for anyone interested in the field. Graduate students can earn

www.hcn.org High Country News 39 EDUCATION MARKETPLACE

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www.hcn.org High Country News 43 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE The New, New West

hrough the mountains and over the desert in the rocky T and rugged American West, 200 years from now, a turkey vulture flies. Pink flaps of bald skin encircle her beady eyes; her crooked black feathers are slick with carrion grease. This weird bird could be considered the West’s last surviving heroine. That is because she is a perfect mirror for her native landscape, which has become more harsh and depleted than ever. Once, the powerful cities of Denver, Salt Lake and Phoenix held sway, surrounded by seemingly eternal miles of asphalt blah. Now, in the year 2215, these metropolises are empty, save for the tumbleweeds piled high against old chain-link fences and the walls of abandoned buildings. For wild things like the turkey vulture, this withdrawal of a crumbling civilization should have felt like a victory. And it might have, had many creatures other than vultures survived long enough to see it happen. But the desert tortoise, the prong- horn and the big cats vanished long before the humans fled this region. Even the coyote, that resilient, versatile trickster of the animal kingdom, finally surrendered. And there can be no restoration of this part of the world now, for there is no water. The

44 High Country News January 19, 2015 Byt Na haniel Kennon Perkins, 2014 Bell Prize Winner

landscape reflects the decaying décor of the dusty rooms in the as climate change and that the much-sought-after and heavily now-empty cities. It is a sun-blasted hell. exploited natural resources were still abundant. By the time Not that there is no water at all: There is a little, but it they realized that it was simpler, not to mention cheaper, to is hoarded; the land is not allowed to use any of it. The few simply take what they wanted by force, even from their fellow remaining springs and parched aquifers and the pathetic trickle citizens, the collapse had been underway for generations. of piss that was once the mighty Colorado River have long since No, the post-apocalyptic era has come and gone: 2215 is in been privatized. In 2215, there is only water enough for the the middle of the Age of Endurance. And there are those who en- water company employees themselves, with just enough left dure. Not in the Southwest, where such a feat would be impossi- over to sell at an ultra-high premium to the fracking technicians ble without a private army and a bankroll the size of Shiprock, who pull hazard pay just for venturing into the desert during but farther north, where some rain still falls. Every day there hot daylight hours. The crews who film them for reality TV are more who dare to believe that the experiences of life should shows must import their own water, as must the heavily armed be richer than mere survival. Their goal remains distant, but private security firms that watch over and guard the billion-dol- they are working toward it with steadfast determination: by lar water and energy operations. showing gratitude for the land that gives them life, by growing You could describe this scene as “post-apocalyptic,” but the sustainable organic crops, by taking care not to overharvest the term has become embarrassingly outdated. By 2215, historians mushrooms and berries they forage from the forest, by abandon- WEB EXTRA The Bell Prize is HCN’s annual agree that the so-called apocalypse began hundreds of years ear- ing cattle with their stinky beef and eating only the meat that essay contest for lier, sometime in the 20th century. This was back when corpo- comes from the deer and elk that they respectfully hunt or from young writers. Read rations and politicians were still pouring money into convincing the few salmon that they fish. They are healing by helping the the runner-up essay at some of the more gullible citizens that there was no such thing Earth to heal. In 2215, things are finally starting to change. www.hcn.org

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46 High Country News January 19, 2015 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE

www.hcn.org High Country News 47 DEFINED Utilitarianism An ethical approach wherein the best action is considered the one that creates the maximum happi- ness or welfare for all beings. Sacrifice Zone

aye Fissinger collects Don Quixote. 2013, to, most recently and significantly, Where — I met the diminutive 70-year-old at the state of New York, which overlays a K her home in a quiet subdivision of booming shale gas formation. and how Longmont, Colorado. Amid memorabilia Though many bans face long odds from her work in musical theater, black- in court — Longmont’s and others have — can we and-white portraits and an eye-popping already been shot down and are headed snapshot of her body-builder daughter, for appeals — activists and local officials the man of La Mancha stared from prints keep fighting. “We’re in it for the long say ‘yes’ to and paintings, posed in wooden statu- haul,” Fissinger told me emphatically. ettes and porcelain figurines. “Fracking is a toxic, extreme energy oil and gas “Why Quixote?” I asked. extraction method. I don’t think it can be She regarded me over gold-rimmed made safe.” drilling? glasses, a smile quirking her mouth. “Be- The prospect of a drill rig towering cause he tilts at windmills,” she said. over one’s home would terrify just about In a way, so does Fissinger, but hers anyone, me included. But I still felt Essay By are the oil-drilling rigs that have popped conflicted: A near-term transition from oil up lately in her area. She looked comput- and gas is profoundly unlikely. Natural er-tired, clad in a white turtleneck, her gas is slowly supplanting coal as a prima- Sarah hair pulled into a ponytail. She led me up- ry electricity-generating fuel. Petroleum stairs to a cluttered home office, cleared a runs our planes, trains and automobiles. Gilman stack of documents from a chair and urged Both make it into a dizzying array of me to sit. When she came here from L.A. plastics and personal care products. in 2006, she explained, she was worried The corporate machine of hydrocar- about the separation of church and state. bon development contains a ghost. And She didn’t yet realize that the plains the ghost in that machine is us. Until further to the northeast were pin-cush- that changes, every fracking ban — Long- ioned with tens of thousands of wells, mont’s, Mora County’s, New York’s — no many of them hydraulically fractured, or matter how heroic and justified, simply fracked — a process that involves firing pushes drilling somewhere else. I wanted water, sand and chemicals thousands of to know: Where are we saying yes to such feet underground at incomprehensible development, and how can we say it in a pressures — or that the boom had inten- way that lessens impacts on landscapes sified in recent years. and people? Then one day in 2011, an automated I had one hunch. To see if it bore out, I phone survey asked her an odd question: rented a red Chevy Cruze, filled the tank, How would she feel if drilling took place and got behind the wheel. “Remaining on Longmont open space? “Radar, radar!” Oil Life: 97%” blinked on the dash. How she exclaimed. A company, it turned out, appropriate, I thought, and drove west, lined ponds: The final resting place for the had proposed drilling around a local toward Energy Country. waste from the drilling operations I had reservoir. The more she learned, the more passed in western Colorado. she worried. She thought of her great- I wasn’t the only lone driver headed In their 2003 report, What Every West- grandkids. A lung cancer survivor, she into the mountains on I-70; hundreds of us erner Should Know About Energy, histo- thought of her respiratory health. She sped along in Subarus, Tacomas and other rian Patty Limerick and her colleagues thought about the flat lot near her house sporty rigs — Colorado cockroaches, we observe that there seems to be nowhere that might be a perfect place for a rig. call them — likely bound for the outdoor left to put energy infrastructure without And in 2012, she helped found the meccas around the Continental Divide. a fight. “We have run out,” they wrote, “of nonprofit Our Health, Our Future, Our But once the resort bedroom community unloved and unlovely places.” Clearly they Longmont, which spearheaded a ballot of Glenwood Springs was in my rearview, weren’t talking about this spot, I thought, initiative that made the city the first in traffic thinned. The tiny Cruze wobbled peering across the chain-link fence at the Colorado to ban fracking. The next fall, in the wake of scattered semis ferrying stagnant water and plugging my nose. despite industry’s expensive counter-cam- goods. Compressor stations and natural To the northwest, exploding from the paign, several other Front Range com- gas well pads lined the roadsides. Not far flat expanse of weed-scattered earth, the munities followed suit. Places across the west of the Colorado-Utah line, I pulled Book Cliffs looked like a better example West and the country have also joined in, off at the exit for Danish Flat. There, amid of a lovely, loved place. Beyond their rims from rural Mora County, New Mexico, in eerie silence, was a vast complex of plastic- stretch great swaths of unbroken piñon-

48 High Country News January 19, 2015 Sacrifice Zone

juniper forest that eventually give way in a way that was least to sun-etched canyons pouring into the harmful to landscapes Green River where it wends through Des- it wanted to protect. It olation and Gray canyons. About 6,000 was also making a sort boaters annually ply an 84-mile stretch of of tradeoff. whitewater through their remote depths. On a sunny October For years, the hardline Southern Utah day, I hitched a ride to Wilderness Alliance, based in Salt Lake the top of the plateau City, has fought development that threat- with Bureau of Land ened these and millions of other acres of Management Price wilderness-quality land. Field Office Manager And yet, in 2010, SUWA essentially Ahmed Mohsen to see what said yes to hundreds of gas wells that a SUWA got in return. “Isn’t this pretty?” Bill Barrett Corp. agreed not to company called Bill Barrett Corp. had Mohsen said as we gazed from one of the drill wilderness-quality lands in and around proposed on the West Tavaputs Plateau field’s well pads on a finger of mesa top Utah’s Desolation Canyon, top, in exchange for the Southern Utah not far west of Desolation Canyon. By do- into a red-rock fissure called Jack Can- Wilderness Alliance’s agreement not to sue over hundreds of gas wells ing so, SUWA wasn’t caving. It was allow- yon. A wilderness study area, it feeds into the company planned to drill nearby and farther west, including these ing inevitable development to go forward the much larger Desolation Canyon wil- in the Nine Mile Canyon area, above. EcoFlight

www.hcn.org High Country News 49 derness study area that encloses a stretch Hundreds of young families — many of the river’s west flank. The promontory pregnant or toting infants or both — we stood on was part of Horse Bench, an milled around a circuit of jack-o-lantern unroaded sagebrush mesa sweeping to the dioramas and a giant pallet fire while an northeast, backed by a pastel layer cake of old-time band strummed sweet-sounding buttes. On a primitive road at the field’s harmonies. I felt on edge as I lined up for edge, I found black bear tracks threaded a cheeseburger: Could they tell I hailed along the tire marks of an oilfield services from Boulder, Colorado, an epicenter of pickup. anti-fracking sentiment? I had heard Bill Barrett had legal right to drill in stories of public meetings here where all three places, and had proposed nearly the mere suggestion of limiting drilling 240 wellpads there. But it relinquished incited virtual riots. But a teenage girl in plans for all but a half-dozen of those, a Nirvana T-shirt, with ratted hair and sparing some 65,000 acres of wilderness a face painted like a sugar skull, offered quality land, in exchange for SUWA’s me a shy smile along with my food. agreement not to sue to delay the entire I sat down at a picnic table next to a project, most of which sprawls farther woman named Ellen Mecham, who point- from the canyon to the west. The cluster of ed out her father picking a guitar at the remaining wellpads that Mohsen showed far end of the bandstand. She wore dark me that day were near historic wellpads eye makeup and her hair in stiff black that the company has since reoccupied, spikes and bounced a fussy granddaugh- and their infrastructure was set out of ter in her lap. She grew up in the nearby sight below ground, with seasonal restric- town of Gusher, she told me: “Lots of “If you want a tions on drilling to avoid disturbing boat- time outside, not much TV.” All three of except for one thing: “It would pretty ers. Jarring as the naked scrapes of earth her brothers work in the oil fields; her much just be lonely pumpjacks. All those sacrifice zone, were, they clearly beat the alternative. mother, sitting across from her, also tanks would go away.” Instead of being move it to The deal — the largest of a handful counted a son-in-law. Nearly everyone I stored on individual well pads, oil and of similar compromises SUWA has since spoke to said the same: Multiple mem- other fluids would be pumped through Boulder. Let’s made — seemed like a win-win from here. bers, multiple generations. Hydrocarbons bundles of black piping to giant central- have big money It also openly made the judgment implied run deep here: in the ground and in the ized plants where off-gassing chemi- in every fracking ban: Some places are blood of the people. cals are much easier to contain. These fight big money more valuable than others. “Part of the Below our feet stretched the same thousands of individual, widely scattered and see who thinking was to push development back geologic treasure trove that contains tanks are, it turns out, a major source of to stay next to existing development, and West Tavaputs’ gas. The Uinta Basin has air pollution, as are the trucks required comes out the that way limit new roads, new intrusions, tar sands, oil shale, even obsidian-esque to service them. winner.” new infrastructure,” SUWA attorney Da- gilsonite, used in inks and drilling fluids. If all the companies developing here vid Garbett had told me earlier. Because Natural gas and oil have been produced adopted similarly stringent controls, as —Herm Hoops, Jensen, Utah, resident the group’s focus is on wilderness protec- here for decades. The bulk of that devel- they increasingly must under Utah’s tion, from its perspective, “once oil and opment — more than 10,000 active wells and the U.S. Environmental Protection gas is a use in an area, it’s the dominant — is concentrated several miles south- Agency’s tightening air quality rules, use. It’s already a sacrifice zone.” west of Jensen and Vernal in the central then perhaps the basin really can sustain That’s not an unusual sentiment part of the basin, in an area informally the more than 25,000 new wells projected among conservationists working on oil called The Fairway. What’s another 1,000, in the coming decades. I tried to picture and gas issues, particularly in politically even 10,000, wells in a place like that? their sprawl: the perfect place to drill, conservative states: With limited re- That Saturday, Mike Stiewig, who colonized to the max. But the scale was so sources, many opt for triage, focusing on oversees much of the development as mind-bogglingly vast that I couldn’t help protecting superlatively beautiful places BLM’s Vernal Field Office manager, drove but doubt the premise of my trip. or intact islands of important wildlife me through The Fairway’s west side. I The fact that controls like those in habitat — just as the Fissingers of the could see what SUWA’s Garbett meant: Monument Butte even exist in such a world work to protect their communi- A web of connecting roads and dozens rural part of Utah is evidence that devel- ties — while actively or tacitly accepting of densely spaced pumpjacks, tanks and opment is already hitting some very real development in other places. That same wellpads stretched to the horizon across limits. When wintertime inversions seal compass of reasoning suggested I might dun-colored grass, amid plumes of dust oilpatch pollutants into the valley like a find what I had come for in the gray area kicked up by service trucks. Each pump- giant Tupperware lid, ozone levels here between the two, in places already drilled jack’s engine blatted with backfires, accu- spike well beyond federal limits designed enough that more could be tolerated. And mulating into a low frequency thrum like to protect human health. The gas can it pointed due north from West Tavaputs, a swarm of approaching bees. Whatever harm healthy lungs and exacerbate exist- to the massive oil and gas fields at the might have been lost here looked like it ing respiratory problems. Some of the heart of the Uinta Basin. was already long gone. primary chemicals that contribute to its As I pulled down the main drag Stiewig showed me the Monument formation, called volatile organic com- toward my hotel in Vernal, Utah, a sign Butte field, where one company hopes to pounds — including benzene, a potent for a juice bar and camo seat-cover shop drill over 5,000 new wells, more than half carcinogen — also collect in the valley’s popped into view: “I DRILLING.” likely from the wellpads of thousands communities at high-enough concentra- Perhaps, I thought, “tolerated” is the it already operates. It’s basically infill, tions to warrant further scrutiny. But wrong word. like when new homes and businesses are thanks in part to a lack of year-round built within a dense urban core instead of monitoring and comprehensive studies, On a chilly night the weekend be- leapfrogging across old farmland as far- the health risks they pose remain myste- fore Halloween, I visited the Pumpkin flung suburbs. “The appearance wouldn’t rious. It leaves some residents wondering, Festival in Jensen, southeast of Vernal. really change much,” Stiewig explained, especially given reports of birth defects,

50 High Country News January 19, 2015 increased infant mortality and other subdivisions, and soon enough, the giant and require weird health problems near drilling sites scaffolds of drill rigs came into view, companies to here and elsewhere. towering over car dealerships, strip malls test nearby The day before I left the Uinta Basin, and houses, with the massive pyramidal groundwater I went back to Jensen to visit a curmud- bulk of Long’s Peak looming to the west before and geonly river rat named Herm Hoops. on the Front Range skyline. I looked after drilling. Oar blades engraved with the names of at the dash: “Remaining Oil Life: 74%.” Most notably, last winter it passed Well the rapids that broke them from their Perhaps Hoops was right, I thought. If strict industry air pollution controls that pads dot the shafts decorated his garage; rare books we’re worried about peoples’ health and are the first in the nation that aim to landscape in Utah’s on historic river expeditions shared shelf welfare, and if we truly value the wilder curtail releases of methane, the primary Uinta Basin, above space with volumes by Mary Oliver and parts of the world, then our wealthy and component of natural gas that also hap- left. George Burnett, Ellen Meloy in his living room. Stocky bustling suburbs and cities are exactly pens to be a potent greenhouse gas. owner of Covers & and boisterous with a full beard, Hoops where we should be drilling. Not because “It’s sort of like in forestry,” Pete Mor- Camo in Vernal, regaled me with tales of many trips down anyone deserves the accompanying night- ton, a Boulder-based economist with the holds a sign outside Desolation, including one that involved mares, but because no one does. Conservation Economics Institute who in support of the oil boom that has hiking dozens of miles overland back to Drilling was going strong in the served with The Wilderness Society for made Vernal the civilization after getting stuck in an ice West’s rural oil and gas basins long be- 18 years, told me over breakfast at Hotel nation’s sixth- jam early in the year. fore fractivists like Fissinger began fight- Boulderado. The sound of jazzy music fastest-growing “There are nights when we can’t sleep ing, long before fracking was a household and clinking flatware wafted over the “micropolitan area” with the windows open,” Hoops told me. word. But companies have figured out mostly empty tables as a hard rain fell of 10,000 to 50,000 Hydrogen sulfide gas pools around the how to develop much more of our energy outside. “They used to put in the beauty people. Michael Collier, above house, pouring in from an old oil field and domestically, tapping giant, once-mar- strip to hide the clear-cut. What we’ve left; AP Photo/The Salt complex of waste evaporation ponds down ginal reserves and drilling more wells done is cut down the beauty strip on oil Lake Tribune, Francisco the road. He gave me directions to see at a faster pace to maintain production. and gas. Now we have all these eyes on Kjolseth, above more; there are about 160 such ponds in As drilling has reached more densely industry.” And some companies are clear- the basin, each adding its own chemical populated areas in the West, or rural ly paying attention. When Colorado of- vapors to the hazy air. A bitter cold west areas not far from places like New York ficials rolled out those new air measures, wind kicked up while we spoke; when I City, oil and gas development has at last they did so alongside representatives stepped out the door, the smell of rotten begun grabbing regular national media from three of the state’s major operators, eggs slammed me in the face. I headed coverage. And vastly more people have Noble Energy, Anadarko Petroleum and south, then southwest, descending through been forced to directly confront the costs Encana, which worked collaboratively scrub-topped benches and knobs of painted of something they’ve always used freely. with the pragmatic environmental group earth, all of it dotted with gas wells. In That awareness is already having an Environmental Defense Fund and the the distance beyond, the Green River impact, inspiring reams of new research state to help develop the proposal. carved toward Desolation. From here, the into how development affects air, ground- More significant, though, is what land between looked no less lovely, no less water, health, economies and more. It’s this new awareness may do to galva- worthy of protection. “There’s enough drill- helped spur both federal and state govern- nize action around the root cause of the ing here,” Hoops had told me. “If you want ments to begin reining in an industry problem: our own energy use. As Patty a sacrifice zone, move it to Boulder. Let’s that had long enjoyed a regulatory carte Limerick told me before I embarked on have big money fight big money and see blanche. Colorado, arguably the Western my journey, those same suburbs rail- who comes out the winner.” focus of this clash, is widely regarded as a ing against drilling were enabled by the leader, though its rules are hardly perfect. availability of cheap gasoline. “We live,” And so it was that my quest led me Over the past several years, the state has Limerick said, “in the era of improbable back home. As I drove down I-25 toward moved to better protect wildlife, force discomfort made possible by a taken-for- Longmont and Boulder, ranchland and closure of jealously guarded fracking fluid granted but truly astonishing infrastruc- sporadic cornfields gave way to new chemicals, increase setbacks from homes, ture. Now that we have peoples’ atten-

www.hcn.org High Country News 51 tion, maybe this production-consumption carbons in time to avert the worst effects of innovation and invention and creates thing can get thought about.” climate change. No matter how completely opportunities.” In other words, “no” can There are signs that this is beginning we might mitigate drilling’s local impacts, squeeze us toward an acceptable “yes.” to happen on a scale that transcends a few no matter how carefully we protect special And expanding development is giving “They used solar homes and plug-in vehicles, Morton places, near or far, oil and gas develop- us a bigger, more widespread NO than, told me. Liberal Boulder, often dismissed ments ultimate externality, global climate perhaps, we’ve ever heard before — a “no” to put in the as the ultimate Not-In-My-Back-Yard change, still looms. that seems to hint at genuine change. beauty strip community, is trying to become its own It’s a conundrum that demands the With the rise of fractivism, “you have electrical utility in order to reshape its “ideal future” that Yi-Fu Tuan envisioned people who were never involved in these to hide the power supply around renewable sources in Topophilia, his seminal 1974 work on issues before, and they’re moving the goal clear-cut. What balanced by natural gas. As part of that cultural geography. A future wherein we posts 200 yards down the field,” Morton effort, a working group that includes give our deepest loyalties to home — the said as he polished off his eggs benedict. we’ve done is Morton is looking at how the city might place we love beyond all others, Tuan “I think it’s the rebirth of the environ- cut down the use its buying power to influence the way writes, the shelter of memory and family mental movement.” that gas is extracted by adopting environ- — and “at the other end of the scale, to beauty strip mental certification standards not unlike the whole earth.” On a clear November Saturday, Vic’s on oil and gas. those developed for the sustainable timber And therein lies the true power of the Coffee in north Boulder buzzed with hip industry. Someday, Boulder might replace hardliners’ “no.” “The reality is that we’re 20- and 30-somethings grabbing late- Now we have all natural gas entirely with biogas, gener- not going to flip a switch tomorrow and morning lattes and pastries. Petroleum ated perhaps by excess manure from Gree- everything’s OK,” acknowledged Jeremy geologist Matt Silverman, a fit 61 years these eyes on ley, a former cowtown ironically positioned Nichols of the environmental group old with salt-and-pepper hair and a tidy industry.” in the midst of Colorado’s oil boom. WildEarth Guardians, which hopes to mustache, blended in surprisingly well, —Pete Morton, Boulder- Little of this comforts fractivists like leverage anti-fracking energy to influence lounging on the sunny patio. He led me based economist with the Fissinger, who worry that regulations are a public-land battles over oil and gas in to his SUV, apologized as he moved some Conservation Economics cynical political ploy that will only encour- the absence of higher-level climate policy. yoga equipment, then ushered me into Institute age people to embrace a dangerous and “But I don’t want to say, ‘(development) the front seat. inherently unsustainable status quo. And is OK here.’ Some of it is going to happen A little ways northeast of town, we indeed, whatever you believe about the whether I say yes or not. If no one points pulled off the road at a barbed-wire fence. risks of fracking and horizontal drilling, out the costs or says no, there’s really Beyond it, at the center of a wedge-shaped the techniques have ensured that scarcity not going to be incentive for anyone to plot of rib-high grass with a clear view of won’t be the crisis that weans us off hydro- develop something different. Crisis fuels Boulder’s iconic Flatirons, was an ancient-

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52 High Country News January 19, 2015 looking pumpjack and tank coated in chipping green paint and rust. This is the McKenzie #1-21 — the first producing, and the last remaining, well from a 200- well oil field that has since been replaced by city open space and stately homes. The equipment is from the ’50s, Silverman explained, but the McKenzie was drilled in 1902 and produced until the 2000s. This was the first field in the basin that is now booming to the northeast, and helped establish Denver as the energy capital of the Rocky Mountain region, he said. “Let’s not turn our back on any of our history. Let’s recognize all of it.” I looked past the pumpjack at the three buzzing highways hemming us in, planes floating into the nearby munici- pal airport, and, to the south, the boxy complex of National Center for Atmo- spheric Research offices where scientists study climate change. If the McKenzie is a monument, I thought, does it celebrate all that hydrocarbons have given us and, as Silverman argues, provide a lesson that the scars of their extraction are fleeting? Or could it become a memorial to a world that we no longer want — a reminder that, if we push hard enough, this history could someday be just that, the past and nothing more? n A neighborhood in Erie, on Colorado’s Front Range near Boulder, backs up to a well pad. Evan Anderman

www.hcn.org High Country News 53 Occupy continued from page 23 ashamed. And then I got pissed. story about the fight for $15 an hour, pro- The healthcare law had been carefully filing one of the campaign’s leaders, Ter- about the climate fight being not just designed to win support from private rance Wise, a father of three who worked about the environment, but a web of insurance companies, but it still resulted at both Burger King and Pizza Hut and A lot of “intersecting oppressions.” I understood in crappy options that squeezed scrappy still had trouble paying rent and util- that poor communities of color had long people like us. It was hardly surprising, ity bills. When he asked his manager at things start- shouldered an unfair share of pollution, but it didn’t seem fair. Then it occurred Pizza Hut for a raise, she showed him the and that climate change promised to to me that maybe in that moment, I was pay policy, saying she could boost his pay ed converging punch them hardest again. But was the angry about climate change, too. My basic at most 25 cents after three years, even climate fight really of a piece with the complaints about the healthcare reform though he made less than $8 an hour. “If I in my mind: immigration fight? The struggle against sounded pretty similar to the critique gave you 25 cents,” he recalled being told, Occupy. The police brutality? The connections weren’t the activists I spoke with made about the “that means you’re perfect.” always obvious, and in any case, was it failed 2010 federal climate bill: It tweaked “It makes me angry, and you should fast food possible or practical to take on everything a broken system at its edges, appeasing be angry, that these billion-dollar corpora- that was wrong with the world at once? polluters for political viability rather than tions are robbing from my kids and your workers’ Then, on a December evening, after proposing the kind of changes the crisis kids,” Wise said in the story. “So we’re “Fight for wrestling with writer’s block in my actually demanded. It was a false solu- going to have to stand up and fight back.” Santa Fe office, I tackled what seemed tion, people told me, and many didn’t care It was the same sentiment I’d heard in the $15.” The like a more manageable task: applying that it failed. I thought about their argu- Book Cliffs. People wanted a society with a for health insurance through the new ment about “root causes,” and recognized little more humanity, one whose outcomes outrage and marketplace. I’d left my staff job at High twinges of their anger in myself. are less determined by corporations that Country News about seven months earlier, A lot of things started converging in serve only their shareholders, valuing prof- despair over to see if I could make it independently. my mind: Occupy. The fast food workers’ its above the stability of the atmosphere or the killings My husband, a potter, had also recently “Fight for $15.” The outrage and despair the dignity of their workers. started his own business. I typed in our over the killings by police of Michael When I first arrived at the vigil, I by police unimpressive income, and up popped our Brown, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner. All imagined the activists as agitators on options. The cheapest plan would cost had one thing in common: the sense that the fringe of the environmental move- of Michael around $225 a month. If we had a baby, our society is designed to work for some ment. They saw themselves, instead, as Brown, Tamir a brochure informed me, it would cover and not for others, with the balance tip- one twitchy muscle in a much broader $1,240 of average delivery costs, and we’d ping ever more in favor of those who need and building unrest. I was starting to see Rice and Eric pay $6,300. This was insurance, new and the least help. When I applied for health them that way, too. improved? None of it was affordable. None insurance, I felt something similar: The Be as frank as possible. They’re not Garner. ... of it. As I drove home, I cried alone in my deck was stacked, against me. like regular people. That may be true, but car, then a little more in my kitchen. I felt The New York Times recently ran a these are not regular times. n

54 High Country News January 19, 2015 A protester sits atop a pile of rocks dug from the pit at the PR Springs site. C ourtesy Tar Sands Resistance

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www.hcn.org High Country News 59 Fiction by Paolo Bacigalupi A Hot Day’s Night Illustrations by AimÉe Van Drimmelen

ass me that allen wrench,” Charlene said. Lucy didn’t take the bait. She kept her arm grimly in the Lucy hesitated, considering the ethical boundaries gap, holding up the panel and trying not to think about 220 of journalism, then stretched across Spanish roof tiles volts ripping through her body. She wondered if the sweat cov- for“P Charlene’s toolbox. Warm metal clinked under her fingers. ering her would make her a better conductor. One hundred-and- The wrench glinted in the moonlight as she passed it over to two degrees at 2 a.m., and the temperature probably wouldn’t Charlene, where she had lifted a solar panel and was fiddling make it down to a hundred before dawn. She blinked salt out of beneath it. The black shadow of Charlene’s body shifted. Metal her eyes, trying not to think about sweat beads dripping from ground against clay tile. Something cracked, a sharp, vandalis- her arm and closing some circuit that would leave her as fried tic report in the silence of the suburb. scavenge meat for crows and magpies and vultures. “Hold this up,” Charlene said. “I need to get underneath to I thought you wanted to see the real Phoenix. the alarms.” From Lucy’s vantage, she could see plenty of the city sprawl- “You didn’t say anything about alarms,” Lucy said. ing across the basin. In the past, at this time of night, it would “You think utilities just leave the good stuff lying around? have been a heavy quilt of light, ending only where mountains Just because the people are gone, don’t mean the electric com- and wilderness designations pushed back against develop- pany don’t want their electricity. Now hold the panel up, will ment. Now, though, abrupt geometric holes of inky blackness you?” punctured the blanket. Building-block cutouts of darkness as if With a sigh, Lucy shoved her arm into the gap. Charlene’s a child had taken scissors and started cutting patterned holes, flashlight flickered on, its red beam illuminating the hole between industriously trimming swatches out of Phoenix. A subdivision the panel and the roof. “Hold it there.” Charlene pinched the pen- here. A development there. A whole township, cut right from light in her teeth, peered into the shadows. “Well, I’ll be damned.” the heart of the blanket. Lucy didn’t like the tone of Charlene’s voice. “What now?” In the daytime, with desert sun searing down, the metro “They got it set to close a circuit with the grid current if we area’s sprawling suburbs appeared largely equal. Chandler was cut this loose. Electrify the whole damn roof. Do me a favor and the same as Scottsdale, was the same as Gilbert, was the same don’t move. I don’t want to end up as a crispy critter.” as Avondale or Peoria or Mesa or Fountain Hills. All dusty, all “Christ. I thought you said you knew what you were doing.” the same. But at night, these gaps were revealed. Places where Charlene laughed. “I thought you said you wanted to see the aquifer had collapsed after overpumping. Places where inter- the real Phoenix.” She crawled over Lucy, and starting rooting city water-sharing agreements and hydro development contracts through the toolbox. “You know where my snips got to?” had shattered. Places where Central Arizona Project water no “I’m trying not to get electrocuted!” longer re-filled the aquifer, and where water wells had sucked Charlene grinned, a flash of white cones of depression so deep and wide that others were left pump- teeth and a black gap where her ing sand. Points of failure in an overstressed system, that now incisors had gone missing. showed as black swatches of hollowed houses, where nothing “What’s the moved except coyotes and the occasional Merry Perry refugee. matter? Charlene’s Phoenix. The real Phoenix. The only aspect of Too much Phoenix that seemed to be growing. story for Charlene finally found her tools and returned to the panel. you?” She flopped prone and dug into the wiring. In the far distance, traffic rumbled on the broad boulevards that crisscrossed the city, but here in the abandoned subdivision, all was quiet except for the rattle and click of Charlene’s tools. It was hard to write stories about silence, Lucy thought. Most journos who covered the drought spent their time out near the borders of California and Nevada and Utah, filing stories about Arizona barbarism and Merry Perries, who’d fled out of Texas only to be cruci- fied in the medians of the interstate. Sometimes they wrote stories speculating about who was responsible for attacks on the Central Arizona Project, describing the exquisite vulnerability of a canal that stretched across three hundred miles of burning desert just to give Phoenix a sip of the Colorado River. They spun conspiracy theories on whether it was California or Las Vegas to blame for repeatedly bombing this last critical IV drip, always tying it to the apocalyptic depths of Lake Mead and Lake

60 High Country News January 19, 2015 Havasu and the rest of the Colorado’s shrinking storage capac- would fill up again, or ity, no longer able to share. These stories at least had a few there’d be enough water pictures of blue lake reservoirs with white bathtub rings on red in the CAP to share sandstone to recommend them. The reporters fed eagerly on the around. Made junk pa- scarcity and mayhem and conspiracy, wrote their stories, and trol feel like they had then jumped on the next flight out, eager to get back to places a real job. Protecting where water still came out of the tap. private property and Meanwhile, Lucy stayed, and hoped for something deeper. all that shit.” She snorted. “Ha!” Charlene held up a triumphant tangle of wiring. “But the reality is, there’s just “We’re not frying tonight!” Her gap-toothed smile flashed in the not much use for granite coun- darkness. “Told you I know what I’m doing.” tertops or three bathrooms in Charlene’s missing teeth: They had first caught Lucy’s eye a house if there’s no water going while she was drinking in the late afternoon up on the rooftop of down the toilets or filling up the sink. Sid’s, watching the regulars as they reclined under raggedy um- These places deserve to be scavenged brellas and passed a .22 down the line, taking potshots at what- now, and junk patrol knows it. Big- ever moved in the half-built subdivision that Sid’s occupied, like gest problem is getting to the good stuff an outpost in a stick-frame construction wilderness. first, before someone else does.” She set the panel at the edge of And then Charlene had emerged, climbing up the ladder to the roof. Waved to Lucy. “Grab a crowbar. We need to get the the roof, buying a round for everyone because she’d just scored rest of these panels down before they come back.” big, grinning that gap-tooth smile. As soon as Lucy figured out “I didn’t agree to that. I’m just here to write your story.” what Charlene did for a living, she knew this was the story that Charlene shot Lucy an irritated look. “You want to be here would break open the silence of Phoenix’s emptying subdivisions. when the junk patrol loops back around? Maybe get a smile like The suburbs were quiet, but Charlene was loud. Lucy would mine?” write a little about the woman’s background — and then shift “I didn’t say I was going to help you ––” focus, different angles for different publications. She could do “Steal?” Charlene supplied. one about the changing nature of Phoenix sprawl for Google/ “— take things. We agreed I was going to write your story.” NYTimes. A piece for The Economist about the scavenge econ- Charlene shrugged. “Well, you don’t get shit unless you help. omy rising from the ashes of the old construction and sprawl The way this works is you put your sweat into my business, and economy. A longer piece for Kindle Post that she could keep the I put a little of my own sweat into yours. We help each other rights to. Three stories, at least, easy money. Except that Char- out, right? Either that, or you can go back downtown and hang lene’s story came with strings. with the rest of the out-of-state reporters, drink your hotel mar- “Duck!” Charlene whispered. tini, file some vulture story about Merry Perries getting strung “I can’t!” up on the interstate and get the hell out. Your choice.” Headlights shone in the darkness, coming around a curve Lucy hesitated. and illuminating their street. “Can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs,” Charlene said. It was too late to run. Lucy smashed herself flat against the Eggs. roof tiles, feeling like a bug on a microscope slide. The SUV was Ethics. nearly silent, riding on its batteries. Only the hiss of its tires as Lucy remembered a J-school professor of hers, Shondra Goh, it drove up the dust-rutted street announced it. talking ethics and boundaries and the dangers of identifying too “You ready to run?” Charlene whispered. much with subjects. “Run where? My truck’s parked in the garage down there!” She sighed. “Give me the crowbar.” “Oh yeah.” Charlene chuckled. “Good thing I closed the “That-a-girl!” garage door. Otherwise they’d nail us for sure. Or you, at least. They went to work, prying up each panel, Charlene crouch- You, they’ll definitely track down. Probably better hold still.” ing down to cut wires and disable the silent alarms that would Down on the street, the SUV seemed to be slowing. summon the junk patrol. Lucy handed allen wrenches and “I’ll bet you’re wishing you were back in Connecticut right snips and diamond-bladed hacksaws, and Charlene dismantled now, writing stories about seawall breaks and hurricanes, in- twenty kilowatts worth of solar panels with medical precision. stead of lying here waiting to get your face kicked in.” “You know I used to install these systems?” Charlene said. Lucy bit off an angry response. Maybe she could just explain “Back when people were building them?” She chuckled. “And herself. Explain that she wasn’t really with Charlene at all. Just now here I am getting paid to rip them out.” a journalist doing a story. Not a thief. Not part of the story. Just Lucy didn’t answer. With each crack, pry and heave, she writing about the lady they were locking up — wondered if she’d finally become too compromised to call herself The SUV eased closer, rolling just below them. The whole a journalist. Her and her stories: Before she’d moved down to area was illuminated, daylight invading nightscape. Every in- Phoenix, they’d seemed so nicely compartmentalized. And now, stinct told Lucy that they’d been spotted, that she needed to bolt. here she was, pulling her truck out of the garage so they could Charlene gripped her wrist, hard. “Don’t you dare rabbit load solar panels into the back. Taking part in Phoenix’s most now, sweetheart.” popular pastime. The nearly silent electric vehicle slid past, reached the end Maybe that was the story, Lucy thought, as she heaved of the street and disappeared around another curve. Lucy let herself back up onto the roof. The real story. Not that Charlene out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. had remade herself as a pillager of other people’s lives, but that Charlene scrambled up and grabbed the solar panel she’d Phoenix had a way of stripping away a person’s moral compass. been working on. Started wrestling it down to the edge of the Once it got bad enough, you got desperate enough; the person roof, moving quickly. you started out as wasn’t the person you ended up as. “You’re lucky we got a lazy one. Sometimes they’re motivat- “Hey, Charlene?” Lucy asked as she lowered another panel ed, swinging their searchlights all over, using their damn eyes over the rim of the roof and into Charlene’s waiting hands. to look around. Nothing worse than a motivated junk patrol.” “Yeah?” Charlene took the panel with a grunt, and hauled it “Are there a lot of those?” Lucy could still feel her heart over to set it with the rest in the back of Lucy’s truck. pounding. “How come you didn’t leave? I mean. When you could?” “Nah. It’s way easier, now. Used to be that everyone thought Charlene returned and held up her hands, waiting for Lucy the owners would come back. They kept saying Roosevelt Lake to hand down the next panel. “Hell. I don’t know. Guess it just

www.hcn.org High Country News 61 didn’t seem real to me. Slow apocalypse, you know? In hind- With the truck off, the garage was pitch black. In the silence, sight, it all looks real clear. But at the time?” She got hold of Charlene’s form rustled. There was a faint buzz and then a fire- the panel as Lucy lowered it, set it down on the driveway’s hot fly of light came on, the purple tip of a cigarette, glowing as she concrete. Leaned against it. Her sweat gleamed on her face in took a drag, illuminating her sun-wrinkled features. the moonlight as she looked up at Lucy. “You could kind of see it “You want?” she asked. creeping up, like, out of the corner of your eye, but you couldn’t Lucy took the cigarette. Activated it. Felt the nicotine buzz see it up close and sharp.” She shrugged, picked up the panel as she inhaled. and hefted it into the truck with the rest. “We’re good at doing “Never feel as alive as when you think you’re about to get shit like running away from the junk patrol. I mean, that’s a your teeth kicked in,” Charlene said as she accepted the ciga- threat you can understand, right? But who the hell thinks about rette back. She started to laugh. running away from an extra hundred-degree day?” “Would you be quiet?” Lucy whispered fiercely. Charlene turned sharply at a noise. “What’s that?” she “Don’t worry. They’re gone.” called. “What do you see up there?” “How do you know?” Lucy straightened. One street over, headlights glowed. “Junk patrol isn’t subtle when they’re on your trail.” She “Junk patrol!” took another drag, then rolled up the garage door. Moonlight “You were supposed to keep your eyes open! You’re the one flooded in. The air outside was cooler than in the garage. A up top!” relief. Fresh after the black heat. Lucy didn’t bother saying that it was hard to keep a “Nice night,” Charlene said. “Bet it gets down to ninety-nine lookout and dangle panels over the edge of a roof. She took a before dawn.” She took another drag on the cigarette. “You want breath and jumped. Her ankle twisted as she hit the driveway, to search the house, see if there’s anything else you want?” but she staggered for the truck, limping and hopping while “I just want to get out of here.” her ankle flared. She yanked open the truck door and heaved “Suit yourself.” herself inside. An hour later, just as the dawn was starting to break the “Get it back in the garage! They’re almost here!” horizon, they dropped the panels with a tattooed man who paid For a horrible moment, Lucy couldn’t make the truck start, Charlene with a wad of paper money along with a Crypto-Cash but then it came alive. The truck’s headlights came on auto- card. Charlene checked the card value, then pressed the paper matically, a beacon announcing that there were thieves in the money into Lucy’s hand. neighborhood. “What’s this?” “What are you doing?” “Your share.” Lucy killed the lights. Lucy tried to give it back, but Charlene waved her off. “No. “Come on! Come on!” Take it. It’s yours.” “I’m trying!” Lucy jammed the truck into gear and roared “I can’t —” into the garage. Charlene slammed the garage door down. Lucy “You journos always make your money selling stories more jumped out, almost fell as her ankle flared again. than once. Just think of it as another angle on your story.” “Did they see us? Did they see us?” She climbed into her own truck, rolled down the window “Shut up! I’m trying to listen.” and leaned out. “I’ll meet you at Sid’s tomorrow, and we’ll do it They both pressed their ears to the metal of the garage again. There’s a place down in Chandler that looks like it’s prob- door, straining for tell-tales. Listening for voices. For radios. ably got twenty-five kilowatts.” For someone calling for backup. A minute ticked by, while blood “I’m not going again.” pounded in Lucy’s ears and sweat dripped from her nose. “Sure.” Charlene laughed. “Keep telling yourself that.” n

62 High Country News January 19, 2015 ESSAY By Michael McLane

Postcards from Fire

Mom, Region of sacrifice. Erogenous zone of faith. We hold a federal I am driving. The night bursts. Stars explode millions of wafer to our lips, take it into the body. Transubstantiation of all years ago and flood the car. Stars explode a hundred thousand things beyond the naked eye. Though we walk in the valley of years ago and ping off the hood and windshield. Stars explode 60 death, we fear no light. We will rise from the ashes, sweep them years ago and flurry in little ground storms around the spinning from our children’s hair and go about their business. tires.

Years ago, we walked deserts. You pointed out geometry in Yggdrasil bore the weight of ancient Norse cosmology. Scholars the cracking terrain. Salt flats and playas delicately bent and argue over the etymology of the word. Some link it to “Odin’s poised. Thirst metastasizes perfectly, one pattern juxtaposed horse;” others to “tree of terror” or “tree of gallows.” It is one onto one ever larger. We can follow these lines to the very end, of many trees of lineage, of memorial, a means of tracing. Just pace the logic of time until overwhelmed. Of course, there is over a rise on Highway 50 in central Nevada, there is a tree interference. We cluster and dig and cannot help ourselves. covered in shoes. It is old but very alive. No one knows when Tandem acts of violence — one silent, one loud enough to briefly passers-by began crowning it. There is no plaque or commemo- interrupt the course of the planet. Just as we walked, others ration visible. We can only guess the intent. A sacrifice? Were paced their offices, following things through to the end. shoes no longer necessary? Did they just not have far to go?

Your thyroid will be quickly forgotten. There will be pills, but Dear Mom, that is charted territory. Your voice will change a little, become I pull off near the gate. No services, no people, nothing to rockier, but will have a certain gravitas. Be glad the doctors spare. They call this place Bravo. One of many Bravos, but this insisted. Be grateful that other people canceled appointments. happens to be one of the most bombed places on Earth. Pitted Be sure to thank them for their speed. sandbox. Playground of those far removed. I walk it, at least what I can. A photographer wants to make this a national park. He documents it tenderly, calls the series Cantos – a nod to Dear Mom, Dante, a wink to Pound. We are in deep here. Bravo, bravo. Teller, Oppenheimer and the others were obsessed with walking, their pacing slowly shifting the spin of the earth, wearing away the soil. Problems found solutions in motion. The There is a town in Pennsylvania called Centralia. It is far from pressure, the weight of their feet. Did it churn the soil to glass? this desert. It has burned for 60 years now. A ribbon of coal Oppenheimer lobbied hard for Los Alamos as the site for his tucked beneath the crust was ignited by a fire in a garbage work, partly because of its beauty, its mesas. There is no men- dump. This set the minotaur chasing its own tail deeper and tion of him venturing out to look into Trinity’s mirror. Perhaps deeper into the earth. A town burns; its people are told the fire at night, alone. will burn itself out in a year. The earth swallows a bicycle and a pet; they are told it will burn itself out in five years. A subsidence opens and a child tumbles in, is hospitalized by the fumes. They I’m told that correlation does not equal causation. That phrase are told it will burn itself out in 20 years. One year ago, the last is too much an aside, too slippery on the lips. Too many organs remaining residents were forcibly evacuated. Centralia no longer gone missing. Too much iodine substituted for questions. Too appears on maps. It is like this desert, but honest with itself. It few miles to justify comfort. I can’t prove anything, and you burns; it trysts in the open. Here, the fire is cold, windswept. choose not to think this way. But out here, it is quiet. Out here, no one can tell me I’m wrong. Out here is red-handed.

Mom, At ground zero, heat is so intense the sand turns to glass. Mom, There are mirrors dotting the desert that are so large, no mat- We take cartographic knowledge for granted. If an X is pres- ter how long we stare, we always disappear. By now, they are ent, we say, “There,” say, “Something.” If it is missing, we jump covered in sand. And when some unimaginable descendant to conclusions, say “Nothing.” This is the origin of “region of stumbles upon one, what will he think? Will he look up at the sacrifice,” the designation given to the Great Basin. The missing sky and wonder who was so vain, who was looking down? X’s denote areas of low population densities and few resources — in other words, wasteland. If you are brave enough or foolish enough to cross the bombing ranges that dot the region, you will see enormous targets painted haphazardly on the earth and huge X’s splayed in the sand, pocked and waiting on the next pilot.

I am writing this at the foot of your bed. The desert behind us both. You are sleeping, whole, though your throat is sore. You will want ice when you wake. I have a cup ready. My fingers rest on the cubes, their tips burned ever so slightly. I did not want you to see yourself here, so I took the mirror from the bathroom and hid it beneath the bed. When I grabbed it, it was hot to the touch. n

Photo: Mark Esguerra www.hcn.org High Country News 63 U.S. $5 | Canada $6

HEARD AROUND THE WEST | BY Jonathan Thompson

BOVINE RETRIBUTION still higher than this time last year) and rents Many things define the West: our vast swaths of in the boomiest of the boomtowns, Williston, public land, our fiercely independent spirit and, North Dakota. According to Craigslist, in early of course, our cows and the zany — sometimes January, Williston rents were holding steady, disturbing — ways we interact with them, i.e., hovering in the stratosphere: Two-bedroom whether living or dead. Consider this Salt Lake apartments are still listed for up to $2,500. In Tribune headline: “Dead cow clogs Utah slot other words, the boom hasn’t busted. Yet. We canyon; rancher’s impromptu barbecue makes checked out the “Bakken Oilfield Fail of the things worse.” You know you want to know what Day” Facebook page, which documents equip- happened. Well, in early December, the cow ment breakdowns and truck crashes, and also in question ambled down Peek-a-Boo canyon serves as a general soundboard for oil-patch in southern Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante workers and residents. There, opinion regarding National Monument, apparently unaware that oil prices is also mixed, with some posters fore- ungulates of its ilk are forbidden. When the casting an imminent crash (“work has definitely cow’s owner found out, he headed out on his slowed down the last two months”), while others ATV (also forbidden) to retrieve the cow. Slot cling, cautiously, to optimism. (“Take a deep canyons are skinny; the cow was not, and it breath. Do not jump ship. This is the patch. It became irretrievably jammed. The frustrated always bounces back.”) And some, though con- rancher then shot and killed the cow. He tried cerned about the impact of low oil prices, see a to extract the carcass, first by butchering it, silver lining, particularly when it comes to what then by burning it. Neither succeeded. As of they regard as justice for local landlords: “What mid-December, monument staff were still trying goes around comes around. I hope their greed to remove the carcass. In the meantime, hikers comes back to bite them in the a--.” CALIFORNIA The sign says it all.C arolyn Rosner are forewarned: That thing that smells like a charred, dead cow really is. AROUND THE WEST And in Pocatello, Idaho, a cow escaped the ARIZONA In Wyoming, a man was shot by his dog when the frying pan in December only to end up in the Rural Westerners are so accustomed to seeing dog jumped on a loaded rifle in the backseat line of fire. An unhappy heifer bolted from a bears roam residential streets that they barely of the car. The man survived; the dog, as far butcher shop’s chopping block, racing out into notice. Except in suburban Mesa, Arizona, as we know, avoided arrest, without having to the town. Local cops gave chase, and the desper- where a single black bear sighting sent every- argue about standing its ground. Twenty-one ate cow rammed an animal-control truck and one into a tizzy. After local television channels elk died in Colorado after falling through the ice two police cars, according to the Idaho State showed aerial footage of the bear “on the loose” on a reservoir south of Pagosa Springs. When a Journal. Police officers, concerned about the (as if bears aren’t supposed to be “on the loose”), moose was buried by an avalanche in Hatcher safety of residents, shot the cow once, without running from wildlife officials through an alfalfa Pass, Alaska, in late December, a group of result, then again, fatally. The former cow was field à la O.J. Simpson in his Ford Bronco, folks passing snowmobilers dug it out. “It didn’t even returned to the meat-processing facility from headed out to watch the show in person. Social fight us,” a rescuer told Alaska Dispatch News. whence it escaped. media was abuzz, and the bear even got his own “It was like, ‘Help me. Help me.’ It was totally Meanwhile, in Salmon, Idaho, cows have Twitter account. Unlike the Pocatello runaway docile and let us touch it. It just (lay) there.” been vanishing at an alarming rate. Modern-day cow, the bear was deemed no threat, and it The moose survived, apparently unharmed. rustlers are believed to be trying to cash in on eluded its tranquilizer-dart-shooting pursuers And officials from Canada’s national parks are high beef prices. It’s a logical explanation. But for several days. Finally, on Christmas Day, it placing red plastic chairs, costing $550 per pair, then again, with cows elsewhere hiding out in was captured and relocated to more bear-appro- at various locations in the parks to help people slot canyons and busting out of butcher shops, priate habitat in nearby mountains. “connect with nature.” you gotta wonder. … Is the Cow Liberation Moo- vement to blame? THE OIL PATCH WEB EXTRA For more from Heard around the West, see If you want to see how plunging petroleum prices www.hcn.org. are affecting oil country, look at applications for Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and drilling permits (down), rig counts (down, but often shared in this column. Write [email protected].

High Country I saw three bright white snowshoe hares in small snow News patches on an otherwise dull brown turf. I hope the For people who care about the West. “ High Country News covers the important issues and rabbits make it through the winter, and I hope stories that are unique to the American West with a magazine, a weekly column service, books and a Web they can adapt to climate change. site. For editorial comments or questions, write High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428, e-mail Andy Gulliford, in his essay, “Caught wearing the wrong color,” [email protected] or call 970-527-4898. www.hcn.org. from Writers on the Range,” www.hcn.org/wotr 64 High Country News January 19, 2015 ContribUtors

What Are We thinking? our annual special issue on the future Amy Mathews Amos has spent her career at the interface of environmental science and public policy as an analyst and consultant. She writes about conservation, wildlife and health from her home in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. @AmyMatAm.

Paolo bacigalupi, author of The Windup Girl, has won the Hugo, Nebula and Michael AMos L. Printz awards and was a finalist for the National Book Award. The Water Knife, a political thriller about a water war between Las Vegas and Phoenix, will be published by Knopf in May. @paolobacigalupi

Cally Carswell is a High Country News contributing editor and freelance science and environmental journalist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work has ILMAN recently appeared in Science and Modern Farmer. @callycarswell

ARAH G bACiGAlUPi . S sarah Gilman is a deeply ambivalent hydrocarbon addict, freelance writer and

PITS , U TAH High Country News contributing editor now based in Portland, Oregon. She served as ISCO

C the magazine’s associate editor for six years. @sarah_gilman FEAtUrE EssAys ben Goldfarb is a Seattle-based 18 By Cally Carswell 48 By Sarah Gilman correspondent for High Country News. Occupy the Book Cliffs Sacrifice Zone His writing has appeared in Scientific They’re burning mad about climate change. Are you? Where — and how — can we say ‘yes’ to oil and gas drilling? CArsWEll American, Pacific Standard, Earth Island Journal and Modern Farmer. @ben_a_goldfarb

insidE benjamin Hale is associate professor in the Philosophy Department and the 25 Philosophy Ed. A new push in an old field By Alex Carr Johnson 4 Where’s Aldo? Environmental Studies Program at the 44 The New, New West Essay by 2015 Bell Prize Winner Nathaniel Kennon Perkins University of Colorado, Boulder. His The case for voluntary decency By Michelle Nijhuis essays have appeared in The New York 6 Law and nature 60 A Hot Day’s Night Fiction by Paolo Bacigalupi Times and Slate. @BenjaminHale3 HCN’S SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE FUTURE The famed dissent of Justice William O. Douglas By Adam Sowards 63 Postcards from Fire Essay by Michael McLane High Country ForN people whoews care about the West Alex Carr Johnson is a freelance journalist gas economics stillness explore desert duty climatewell pads law plants science GilMAn fracking wetlands fairness toxicmap simplify uorocarbons hydro cost headwaters space 8 hydrocarbons sh ethics CO radical living in western Colorado. @carr_johnson. Hyperobjects 2 pollution preservationsociety vulture global warming dishonesty energy standing extreme rain courage air trees landscape deforestation future garbage oods places scale neighbors price greenhouse resources stalwartness community coal equality consumption ruin adventure wells winter compassion uranium diversity life snow spirited sacrifice By Timothy Morton styrofoam lostnaturehealing thrive ecosystems d EPArtMEnts grassland predator A new way to think about global warming integrity 1% farm creatures sin values sustainability Carson biology beauty ruin Whatmigration Are peace generosity strength 99% oblivion hyperobjects pipelines scavenger fire tar sands vice is an editor for population Michael Mclane saltfront: We Thinking?sel shness conservation west education wild short-sightedness rivers biota pinelandvirtue parks trespass drilling restoration cowardice drought 10 tundra overgrazing Keeping the faith(s) endangered consequences Abbey EPA Muir understanding protest and 16 THE HCN COMMUNITY wilderness studies in human habit(at) Sugar Research Fund, Dear Friends plutonium native wanderingwaterprey legacy stories doom prudence dream dams solar inspire honesty unfairness KXL By Amy Mathews Amos wastelands occupy fir How beliefs play into the new conservation debate Thoreau oil House Review. His work has appeared in justiceanthropocene 12 Poisoning the well 24 SPECIAL SECTION: EDUCATION MARKETPLACE Colorado Review, Interim, Western Humanities By Benjamin Hale Review and The Dark Mountain Project. Thinking of pollution as a trespass 56 MARKETPLACE 1 | www.hcn.org No. 47 | $5 Vol. 2015 January 19, 14 Beyond greenbacks timothy Morton is Rita Shea Guffey Chair Should we put a price on nature? By Ben Goldfarb 64 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Jonathan Thompson CoVEr in English at Rice University in Houston. He is Illustration by the author of Realist Magic: Objects, Ontology, Eric Baker. Morton Causality and Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End Of The World. He is currently working on a writing project with Join tHE ConVErsAtion Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk.

Whoa, cowpokes: Let’s back up a little and look at the big picture. Michelle nijhuis is a longtime contributing Given the fact that the current ‘native’ habitat of this species was editor at HCN. After 15 years off the “ electrical grid in Paonia, Colorado, she fully glaciated and uninhabitable back at the end of the Pleistocene, we can now lives and writes in White Salmon, be damn near certain that these guys once were native in the La Sals. Washington. @nijhuism; michellenijhuis.com. —Chris Rosamond, commenting via Facebook on Krista Langlois’ story “Non-native goats in Utah’s nathaniel Kennon Perkins lives and La Sal Mountains: How bad are these ungulates for the ecosystem?” hcne.ws/1zPm29S” niJHUis works in Salt Lake City. His creative work has appeared in Triquarterly, Decomp, Pithead Chapel and other publications. Complete access to subscriber-only content HCn’s website iPhone app Adam sowards is an environmental historian hcn.org hcne.ws/wuZsWu at the University of Idaho. He is the author digital edition iPad app of several books and essays, including The hcne.ws/digi-4701 hcne.ws/NGtByx Environmental Justice: William O. Douglas SPENCER MASTERSON, COURTESy FEAST and American Conservation and the editor of Idaho’s Place: A New History of the Gem Country News, Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. 800-905-1155. All rights to publication of articles in this issue are reserved. See State. @AdamMSowards. www.hcn.org for submission guidelines. Subscriptions to HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: 800-905-1155 | www.hcn.org PErKins

www.hcn.org High Country News 3 dEFinEd Ecocentrism A theory of environmental ethics that extends moral considerations to entire ecosystems — not just humans or animals.

Where’s Aldo? The case for voluntary decency

by MichEllE Nijhuis

“Examine each n 1948, Aldo Leopold suffered a fatal thing that reaches into all times and question in terms i heart attack while helping fight a fire on places. ... I can see only one such force: his neighbor’s farm. The next year, thanks a respect for land as an organism; a vol- of what is ethically to the determined efforts of family and untary decency in land-use exercised by and esthetically friends, Oxford University Press published every citizen and every land-owner out of right, as well as a collection of his essays called A Sand a sense of love for and obligation to that County Almanac. In the decades since, it great biota we call America.” what is economi- has become an environmental classic, and Voluntary decency. That polite phrase cally expedient. “The Land Ethic,” one of its final essays, doesn’t appear in “The Land Ethic,” but A thing is right has woven itself so tightly into the lan- the essay is an argument for its necessity guage of American conservation that it’s — and for its potential to power change when it tends often quoted unconsciously, without attri- at even the greatest scale. “A system of to preserve the bution. Like the apocryphal playgoer who conservation based solely on economic integrity, stability, complains that Hamlet is full of clichés, self-interest is hopelessly lopsided,” Leo- first-time readers of “The Land Ethic” are pold wrote. “It assumes, falsely, I think, and beauty of the sometimes surprised by its familiarity: So that the economic parts of the biotic clock biotic community. that’s where that line comes from! will function without the uneconomic It is wrong when it The endurance of Leopold’s essay is parts. ... An ethical obligation on the part at least partly explained by its eloquence. of the private owner is the only visible tends otherwise.” Plainspoken but poetic, dense in the best remedy for these situations.” —Aldo Leopold, of ways, it has a practical Midwestern Leopold thought that if Wisconsin “The Land Ethic” beauty that serves it well. It is com- farmers had a stronger sense of volun- plex yet eminently quotable, even in tary decency, they would have used the 140-character chunks. But it’s also more soil-conservation funds allocated by the than 60 years old. Today, decades after state in the late 1930s for more than just and prairie that survives today. it was written, the Western landscape immediately profitable measures. They Leopold’s response to the disasters of faces forces almost too big to understand: would have improved their farming prac- the 1930s was characteristic of his times. urbanization, global energy demand, the tices until their livelihoods, their neigh- Char Miller, an environmental historian compound effects of climate change on bors’ livelihoods, and the topsoil itself at California’s Pomona College, points out water and wildfire. Is Leopold’s land ethic were protected for the long term. Many of that many of Leopold’s contemporaries — big enough to take them on? us routinely accept such “obligations over composer Aaron Copland, filmmaker Pare and above self-interest” as members of Lorentz, anthropologist Margaret Mead “tHE lAnd EtHiC” WAs tHE CUlMinAtion the human community, Leopold observed. — also sang the praises of simpler, close- of decades of thinking about conservation We fund schools not attended by our to-the-ground living. But for Leopold, at and, more broadly, about the relationship immediate family; we pay for roads not least, going “back to the land” wasn’t a of people and nature. Leopold, a lifelong traveled. A land ethic, he argued, would retreat from the world’s problems; it was hunter and trained forester, recognized simply extend that sense of obligation be- an attempt to start solving them. — and cherished — the practical benefits yond people to the land itself — to what We, too, live in a time when ecological of nature. He accepted that people lived he called the entire “biotic community.” disaster seems very close and very real. inside ecosystems, not apart from them. Leopold wrote most of “The Land It’s tempting, perhaps even more now But he had also lived through the Dust Ethic” in a shored-up chicken coop on a than then, to hide out in the metaphori- Bowl and the Great Depression, and seen desperately overworked piece of farmland cal chicken coop. But Leopold’s ethic is the topsoil of southwestern Wisconsin, on the Wisconsin River. The place he and still working, covertly and overtly, against unmoored by drought and the profit mo- his family called “the Shack” was, like that urge. Leopold biographer Curt Me- tive, blow away and slip toward the sea. “The Land Ethic” and many of his other ine, in the 2011 documentary Green Fire, He understood, from bitter experience, writings, a product of the Great Depres- finds the land ethic expressed in subur- how humans could fail nature. How, he sion and the Dust Bowl, the paramount ban prairie fragments, urban habitat-res- wondered, could we do better by it? ecological challenges of the day. After the toration projects, and similar efforts that “There must be some force behind Leopolds bought the land in 1935, they aim to connect people with the nature of conservation,” Leopold mused in lecture spent years struggling to revive it, plant- nearby places. Such connections, he says, notes from the 1940s. “More universal ing hundreds of trees only to watch them foster the sort of voluntary decency Leo- than profit, less awkward than govern- be killed by drought. Eventually, they pold described: a respect for nature, even ment, less ephemeral than sport, some- restored a patchwork of pines, hardwoods in its most humble, altered and unlovely

4 High Country News January 19, 2015 QUotEd

We asked readers to quote their favorite writers — those whose ideas are driving much of how we think about the world now and into the future. you’ll find a sampling throughout the first section of the issue. See more at hcn.org/enviroquotes. sArAh tory

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” —Aldo Leopold

As author, scientist, ecologist, forester and environmentalist, Aldo leopold helped shape the modern conservation movement. He’s best known for A Sand County Almanac, in which he articulated what he called “The Land Ethic” — a broader understanding of the relationship between people and nature. Suggested by Carol Underhill

“The Peace of Wild Things” When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. states, an awareness of one’s place as a Aldo Leopold with Flick, c. 1944. In lecture And I feel above me the day-blind stars “plain member and citizen” of it, and a notes, Leopold wrote of “voluntary decency” willingness to sacrifice time, money and as an essential element of conservation. waiting with their light. For a time effort on behalf of its lasting health. COURTESy THE ALDO LEOPOLD FOUNDATION, ALDOLEOPOLD.ORG I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. —Wendell Berry lEoPold KnEW tHAt nAtUrE never had, tion ethos that allows us to repair the and never would, exist in splendid isola- dilemmas we’ve created is going to be Wendell berry is a poet, fiction writer and essayist. A passionate cul- tion. While he spoke eloquently against a much more useful in the coming century.” tural critic, he celebrates the small family farmer while promoting an conservation strategy based on economic Though that repair work requires us to economic and political order that preserves the connections between self-interest, he also distrusted purely muster yet more voluntary decency, it can people and the natural world. Suggested by Mike Hensley preservationist arguments such as those create the connections that foster it, too. advanced by Sierra Club founder John When Leopold wrote “The Land Ethic,” Muir. To Leopold, successful conservation he was at the top of his field, revered for the land ethic and the ideas that under- required human connection to the land, his pioneering work in forestry and wildlife pin it. Three generations after Leopold, and connection required use — respect- science. He was also in poor health, suffer- we’re even more distracted than the ful use, yes, and use for spiritual and ing from a painful facial tic that resisted people of his time, and our environmental aesthetic as well as economic benefits, treatment. It’s easy to see his most famous problems are in many ways vastly more but deliberate, active use. Even wilder- essay as the product of that confident mind complicated and pressing. The biotic ness, he submitted, was a form of land and failing body: Despite Leopold’s ambi- community is as interconnected as ever, use, perhaps the highest form of it. That tious scope, he is careful to emphasize that though our influences upon it are greater seeming paradox is more relevant today his is far from the last word. “Nothing so now, and voluntary decency must stretch than ever: We know, with greater and important as an ethic is ever ‘written,’ ” he to serve species and places we don’t know greater certainty, that it’s impossible to concludes. Ethics evolve “in the minds of a and never will. But we can still start put nature in quarantine — and equally thinking community,” he believed, and do in the same place Leopold did: in the impossible to survive without it. so slowly, amid more immediate obliga- chicken coop, and with the problems of “I think climate change, and the tions. (“Breakfast comes before ethics,” he the backyard biota. disruptions it’s bringing to biological once told his daughter, Nina.) Is Aldo’s land ethic big enough for the life, makes a preservationist impulse Our challenge, then, is to continue — modern West? No. But without its propel- problematic,” Miller says. “A conserva- or better, accelerate — the evolution of ling force, nothing else will be, either. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 5 dEFinEd standing Morally, a party whose interests must be considered by other moral beings; legally, a party that can bring suit in court.

Law and nature The famed dissent of Justice William O. Douglas

by AdAM soWArds

n 1965, the Sierra Club sued to stop a intimate part of it,” he wrote in a typical ficial and inanimate. “So it should be as i ski development in Sequoia National passage from his memoir, Of Men and respects valleys, alpine meadows, rivers, Forest, California, arguing that Walt Mountains. “Every ridge, every valley, lakes, estuaries, beaches, ridges, groves Disney Enterprises’ proposed resort every peak offers a solitude deeper even of trees, swampland, or even air that would constitute an injury to Mineral than that of the sea. It offers the peace feels the destructive pressures of modern King Valley. In 1972, the Supreme Court that comes only from solitude.” technology and modern life,” he wrote. rejected the club’s reasoning, unwilling to An intellectually restless man who Extending standing to the real party at accept that natural objects had standing wrote and traveled extensively, Doug- risk of harm — the environment — would to sue in court. Instead, the court urged las published five environmental books preserve “priceless bits of Americana” the Sierra Club to amend its complaint between 1960 and 1967. One of them, A before they become “forever lost or are so to show how the club’s members, rather Wilderness Bill of Rights, argued for a transformed as to be reduced to the even- than the valley, would be injured. The “Bill of Rights to protect those whose tual rubble of our urban environment.” club did so, and the ski resort was spiritual values extend to the rivers and Douglas recommended accepting stopped. lakes, the valleys and the ridges, and nature’s rights — allowing nature’s own However, one justice, William O. who find life in a mechanized society voice to be heard in the courtroom — as a Douglas, was persuaded by the Sierra worth living only because those splendid lasting way to shield wild places and pro- Club’s original reasoning. His passionate resources are not despoiled.” cesses from the ever-accelerating threats dissent in Sierra Club v. Morton marks a In his dissent in the Sierra Club they faced. pivotal point in environmental legal bat- lawsuit, Douglas advocated for a federal His passionate plea didn’t persuade tles, one that still shapes advocacy today rule that would allow for litigation “in the his practical-minded judicial brethren, and points the way toward a potentially name of the inanimate object about to be even if fellow dissenter Justice Harry different way of thinking about nature. despoiled, defaced, or invaded by roads Blackmun called it “eloquent” and insist- The marbled murrelet, Douglas’ views were inspired by and bulldozers and where injury is the ed that Douglas read it from the bench. northern spotted owl, his own experiences in the wild. He subject of public outrage.” The proper la- Yet Douglas’ opinion influenced and and humpback whale, grew up in Yakima, Washington, hiking beling of the case, he argued, should have from left to right, have inspired environmentalists at the time all been involved in the foothills and peaks of the Cascade been Mineral King v. Morton. and ever since. The Wilderness Society court cases with help Range, and he sang the praises of nature It wasn’t a huge leap from other legal published the “stirring” dissent, and Rod- from humans. throughout his life. “When one stands precedents. Douglas pointed out that both erick Nash in his history of environmen- JENNA CRAGG, RHETT WILKINS, on Darling Mountain, he is not remote corporations and ships had long been tal ethics, The Rights of Nature, said that NOAA and apart from the wilderness; he is an parties in litigation, despite being arti- Douglas had “located the conceptual door

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“God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he to the rights of nature.” Michael Nelson, And so the debate about nature’s cannot save them from fools.” an environmental philosopher at Oregon standing then becomes a broader philo- —John Muir State University, sees Douglas’ dissent as sophical debate about law and what it “the cornerstone of a new environmental can and can’t, or should or shouldn’t, john Muir — the “Father of the National Parks” — was a natural- ethic, one premised upon empathy with do. Law is not intended to transform ist, adventurer, author and early advocate of wilderness preserva- the human and non-human world alike.” levels of consciousness or morality; it is a tion, who went on to help found the Sierra Club. His eloquent writ- In the years since then, environ- pragmatic discipline. As a practical mat- ing continues to influence the modern environmental movement. mental groups have been able to sue on ter, extending standing to natural objects Suggested by Jerry Welsh behalf of nature by demonstrating group may simply be unnecessary. members’ legitimate interest in conserva- As a moral matter, however, the tion issues or in places like Mineral King, failure to acknowledge nature’s rights a concept called associational standing. frustrates legal and environmental activ- But despite Douglas’ efforts, nature still ists and surely would have disappointed finds itself marginalized in courtrooms. (though not surprised) Douglas, who “Simplify, simplify.” Much as a Catholic’s confession must go retired from the Supreme Court in 1975, —Thoreau through a priest, nature needs a media- after a debilitating stroke, and died five tor, a conservation organization. years later. When henry david thoreau published Walden in 1854, the notion Where all this leads is unclear. The Today, global climate change, biodi- of “sustainability” held none of its modern cachet. yet Thoreau’s ac- courts themselves have never fully versity losses and habitat fragmentation count of building a cabin and living in the woods near Concord, Mas- embraced the idea of nature’s standing, are creating unprecedented social and sachusetts, together with his keen-eyed exploration of the surrounding but they’ve come close in the years since ecological problems. Environmental landscape, helped inspire the modern environmental movement. For Douglas’ dissent. This has been particu- crises require serious changes in gover- him, nature was both an antidote to civilization and a glimpse of the larly true for endangered species like the nance and legal systems and, arguably, divine, and in celebrating the ground beneath his feet, he proclaimed marbled murrelet, the northern spotted in morality. When organizations such as the value of wild places everywhere. Suggested by Lawrence Walker owl and the coho salmon — all of which the Earth Law Center work to “advance found themselves in court cases as co- legal rights for ecosystems to exist, plaintiffs alongside humans. Nature has thrive and evolve,” or when Ecuador yet to stand alone in court, however. declares in its 2008 Constitution that A decade ago, the 9th Circuit Court nature “has the right to integral respect faced a test when a lawyer sued the for its existence and for the mainte- president and secretary of defense on nance and regeneration of its life cycles, “In the desert there is everything and there is behalf of marine mammals, without a structure, functions and evolutionary nothing. Stay curious. Know where you are — your co-plaintiff — essentially the approach processes,” they are paying homage to biological address. Get to know your neighbors that Douglas had promoted. In Ceta- Douglas’ vision and implementing it cean Community v. Bush (2004), the in governing structures where law and — plants, creatures, who lives there, who died court emphatically rejected the species’ morality may intersect. there, who is blessed, cursed, what is absent or in legal standing, finding no evidence that “The idea that what many take to be Congress intended whales or dolphins to inanimate objects (such as trees),” Nelson danger or in need of your help. Pay attention to the have it. The court found nothing prevent- says, “or abstract ideas and the places weather, to what breaks your heart, to what lifts ing the legislative branch from deciding we apply them to (such as wilderness) or your heart. Write it down.” to grant animals statutory standing, even a ‘symbol’ (such as a river) can be however. Still, the prospect of today’s wronged in some way, and therefore can —Ellen Meloy Congress acting along those lines seems be represented or spoken on behalf of, is Ellen Meloy wrote about dry places with a strong, distinctive lyricism unlikely on ideological, political and brave and thoughtful. And the idea that and a refreshing sense of humor. She saw the irony in the pea-green practical grounds, and it’s equally unclear those who know most about something lawns that dotted the arid landscape she loved but chose laughter that others — judges or policymakers and care most for it should be the spokes- over outrage. The Pulitzer Prize finalist was in the middle of her — would agree that the notion passes person seems wise and helpful as we fourth book when she died suddenly at her Utah home in 2004. constitutional muster. think about the future and what kind of Suggested by Amy Maestas And so it seems unlikely, at least for people we need to be or create (a society) now, that Douglas’ vision of nature as an that can and should speak about tough entity with the right to sue will manifest natural resource issues in the uncertain in our courts. But does that matter? It future we all face.” depends on your criteria. The aftermath Toward the end of his dissent, Doug- of the Supreme Court’s decision in Sierra las noted that well-meaning advocates and bear, the lemmings as well as the Club v. Morton helped establish standing often flock to the environmental issue trout in the streams. Those inarticulate for environmental organizations, thus du jour, an understandable tendency but members of the ecological group cannot facilitating environmental litigation. The one that cannot sustain environmental speak. But those people who have so fre- court’s opinion did not extend that right protection over the long run. “That is why quented the place as to know its values to natural objects, but Douglas’ dissent these environmental issues should be and wonders will be able to speak for the nudged the courts toward recognizing tendered by the inanimate object itself,” entire ecological community.” nature’s rights. This perspective pointed he wrote. “Then there will be assurances Douglas’ day may still come. In the the way, according to legal scholar that all of the forms of life which it rep- meantime, though, we humans, or at Christopher Stone, toward a new “level of resents will stand before the court — the least our organizations, will have to serve consciousness” for the courts. pileated woodpecker as well as the coyote as acceptable stand-ins. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 7 dEFinEd object oriented ontology A philosophical school that rejects privileging human existence over the existence of nonhuman objects.

known unknowns”: There are things I don’t know about the future, and I don’t Hyperobjects even know how much I don’t know about it. But it’s coming. Plutonium is a problem. Humans A new way to think about global warming made it, so we’re pretty much responsible by tiMothy MortoN for it. Beyond that, I can understand what plutonium is — which seems like a pretty good reason for assuming respon- sibility for something. Suppose I see ’m an environmental philosopher. In they out-scale me in the here and now. someone about to be hit by an oncoming i 2008, I invented a word to describe all Let’s think of another example. Not just car. I can understand that she’s about kinds of things that you can study and this one speck of plutonium, but all the to be killed, so I’m obliged to step in and think about and compute, but that are plutonium we’ve made, ever. That plu- save her. Hyperobjects are like that — not so easy to see directly: hyperobjects. tonium decays for 24,100 years before like the Dust Bowl, for instance, or the Things like: not just a Styrofoam cup it’s totally safe. That’s an unimaginable colossal drought in California. We are i can’t see it. or two, but all the Styrofoam on Earth, time. I can just about wrap my head obliged to do something about them, i can’t touch ever. All that Styrofoam is going to last around 500 years when I think about because we can think them. an awfully long time: 500 years, maybe. Styrofoam. But 24,100 years? Yet I’m That’s good news if you care about it. but i know It’s going to outlive me by a great extent. obliged to act with a view to the people, mitigating the effects of global warm- it exists, and i Will my family’s descendants even be whoever they are, who are alive at that ing. (I refuse to call it climate change. related to me in any kind of meaning- point. Who knows whether I would even The globe is literally warming because of know i’m part ful way by 2514? There is so much more recognize them as human? Maybe by greenhouse gases.) Thinking ecologically of it. i should Styrofoam on Earth right now than there then we will have merged with a whole about global warming requires a kind of is Timothy Morton. host of extraterrestrials. I don’t know. mental upgrade, to cope with something care about it. So hyperobjects outlast me, and I’m like Donald Rumsfeld and his “un- that is so big and so powerful that until

WEb EXtrA To see more of Chris Jordan’s art from his series “Running the Numbers,” visit www.hcn.org.

8 High Country News January 19, 2015 QUotEd

www.hcn.org High Country News 9 dEFinEd Anthropocene A proposed term for the epoch that began when humans started significantly impacting Earth’s ecosystems.

conservation will ultimately destroy Earth’s coevolved Eden. This divide has existed for many decades — at least since the days when Gifford Pinchot, the nation’s first forestry chief, promoted sustainable use while preservationist John Muir cham- pioned national parks. But it emerged with renewed intensity in 2011, with the publication of Emma Marris’ book Rambunctious Garden. Marris, a journalist, points out an awkward truth about modern conservation: Maintaining the “wildness” of a pre-European ideal takes a heck of a lot of artificial management. She notes, for example, that the National Park Service employs 16 exotic species management teams spread across hundreds of parks. And this kind of conservation will require even more heavy- handedness as the climate changes. Do we help species migrate to new locations, or do we let them sort it out themselves? Marris’ solutions are more utilitarian than reverent. Novel, human-influenced ecosystems involving non-native species can be valuable, she believes, providing benefits such as habitat for endangered species, protection for soil and shade for Keeping the faith(s) vulnerable seedlings. Instead of fighting the constantly changing natural world, she urges conservationists to embrace it How belief plays into the new conservation debate and find ways to make it work. Rambunctious Garden caused a stir by AMy MAthEWs AMos among traditional conservation biologists, most of whom seek to preserve a wild state of nature rather than prune it. The debate really caught fire in early 2012, n November, 240 scientists figuratively of nature, from intrinsic to instrumental, when Peter Kareiva, the chief scientist ijoined hands to sign an opinion piece and welcomes all philosophies justifying of The Nature Conservancy, published a in the journal Nature, hoping to move nature protection and restoration, from provocative essay for the Breakthrough beyond internal dissent about the best ethical to economic, and from aesthetic to Institute with his colleague, Robert way to protect wild things — an age-old utilitarian.” Lalasz, and University of California-San- conservation debate that has resurfaced On the surface, this might seem obvi- ta Clara environmental science professor with renewed intensity in recent years. ous. Certainly for some of the signato- Michelle Marvier. Current approaches The commentary was co-authored by ries, it was an affirmation of a higher to conservation have failed to stem the Heather Tallis, lead scientist at The Na- truth: People value biodiversity and loss of biodiversity, they charged, despite ture Conservancy, and Jane Lubchenco, wild places for many different reasons. a tenfold increase in the number of pro- a renowned Oregon State University But after more than 25 years as an tected areas worldwide since 1950. marine ecologist. In it, they accused analyst for the federal government and Like Marris, they argued that pre- their colleagues of promoting a false conservation groups and consultant to serving nature while the planet adds dichotomy: that we must conserve biodi- private foundations, I suspect that the billions of people will require greater versity either for its own sake or largely fundamental conflict remains, especially conservation focus on working landscapes to benefit people. Instead, they argued, for those who consider wild, naturally –– the farms, timber lots and urban areas conservation science should embrace “a functioning ecosystems sacred. Nature that are currently gobbling up space. But unified and diverse conservation ethic; commentary or no, they believe that put- they bumped up the rhetoric, criticizing one that recognizes and accepts all values ting humans at the center of biodiversity protected areas for displacing indigenous

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“One of the great dreams of man must be to find some place between the extremes people, scolding icons like Henry David protected areas to enhance natural values of nature and civilization where it is possible Thoreau for being hypocrites and chal- on the working landscapes in between. lenging the notion that nature is fragile. By including conservation projects that to live without regret.” (They noted, for example, that Bikini provide tangible benefits to people, they —Barry Lopez Atoll, the site of atomic bomb testing in argue, conservation can cast a wider net 1954, supports more coral species now of support. One of the nation’s leading contemporary nature writers, barry lopez than it did before the bombing.) Kareiva and Soulé added their names examines the relationship between human culture and the physical The conservation movement has pit- to the Nature piece soon after its publica- landscape. His award-winning nonfiction books include Arctic Dreams ted people against nature, they claimed, tion. “I don’t think anybody has just one and Of Wolves and Men. Suggested by Meg Hards and in the process, alienated would-be set of values as a motivation in conserva- supporters. Environmentalists need tion,” Kareiva told me. “I think (the issue to move beyond their focus on protect- is) painted as people who love the intrin- ing biodiversity to providing ecosystem sic value of nature versus people who services, working with corporations to love people. But I don’t think anybody integrate the value of nature into their who is motivated by the intrinsic value of practices, and enhancing natural systems nature would want to harm people in the “We must define a story which encourages us to that benefit people to promote economic process.” make use of the place we live without killing it, and development for all. Doing otherwise, they But Soulé remains unconvinced that stated, is unethical, given the billions liv- the conflict can be easily resolved. In the we must understand that the living world cannot ing in poverty. David and Goliath struggle between na- be replicated. There will never be another setup Traditional conservation biologists, ture and people, he believes, people will who seek to preserve biodiversity, found always win. He signed the Nature paper, like the one in which we have thrived. Ruin it and these ideas heretical. Michael Soulé, he said, because he agrees that it would we will have lost ourselves, and that is craziness.” professor emeritus at the University of be nice if we could all get along. But he —William Kittredge California-Santa Cruz, shot back in the fears that a human-centric world will pages of Conservation Biology, a journal lead to a “homogocene” in which the same he helped found, calling Kareiva’s ap- few hardy species prevail in degraded William Kittredge stopped working on his family’s eastern Oregon ranch and became a writer at the age of 35. He’s since explored such proach “a radical departure from conser- habitats around the world, limited only themes as the legacy of agriculture in the West and the impact of vation.” Soulé denounced the move away by the gross parameters of climate, while ownership and dominion on the land and its people. Along with writ- from protecting nature for its own sake ecosystems that persisted for eons perish. ing numerous essays, fiction and a memoir, he co-produced the Oscar- and replacing wild places and national I share his angst. Those of us raised winning film based on Norman Maclean’s story, A River Runs Through parks with domesticated landscapes. In a in the conservation fold of the 20th It. Suggested by Ryan Dorgan flurry of follow-up papers, he and others century bowed to the greats: John Muir, argued that the “self-centered dogma” Edward Abbey, Aldo Leopold. Their lofty of a human-centric approach and the (and sometimes rebellious) prose reso- false idol of limitless economic growth nated with the deepest parts of our souls, would fail to protect natural ecosystems validated our heartfelt beliefs, and in- in a world with finite resources. Their spired us to dedicate our lives to protect- arguments were partly scientific but also ing Mother Earth. To many of us, there is “On the edge of the rushes stood the black-crowned reflected a fundamental disagreement something deeply spiritual and immea- over core values. surably sacred about preserving intact night heron. Perfectly still. ... It will be this Current research, according to Soulé, natural ecosystems created and shaped stalwartness in the face of terror that offers supports the connection between biodiver- by forces we don’t understand fully. It’s wetlands their only hopes. ... She was showing us sity and ecosystem stability and produc- an article of faith that goes beyond logic. tivity. Even if a damaged ecosystem can But I know from heated family argu- the implacable focus of those who dwell there.” recover, extinction is permanent. But the ments at holiday tables and long cam- —Terry Tempest Williams arguments also reflect deep convictions paigns on Capitol Hill that not everyone about the intrinsic value of nature and shares my values. Surveys conducted on Activist and naturalist terry tempest Williams explores issues rang- the moral imperative to protect all spe- behalf of TNC confirm my observations. ing from women’s health and free speech to environmental justice cies, regardless of their benefit to human- They suggest that, at least in the U.S., and the connections between identity, memory and place. Her writing ity. “I value, really value, things that have emphasizing intrinsic values is preaching is deeply rooted in the sprawling landscapes of her native Utah, with been evolving in a place for hundreds of to the choir — Democrats who already its distinctive Mormon culture. Suggested by Marcia Hanscom thousands of years, are well adapted, that support conservation efforts — while em- have mutualisms and complex relation- phasizing ecosystem benefits can appeal ships with other species,” Soulé told me a more to the right. few months after his editorial appeared. In practice, too, conservation has al- “It’s emotional. I’m one of the few scien- ways reflected different goals and values. how the fates of nature and of people are tists who will admit that.” Theodore Roosevelt designated the first deeply intertwined –– and then offer new For the most part, the fire and wildlife refuges to protect birds from the strategies for promoting the health and brimstone has since died down. Kareiva hat trade even as he was creating nation- prosperity of both.” and other “new conservationists” deny al forests to produce timber for industry. Surely, there are many paths to envi- that they ever called for the abandon- So I’m embracing the more universal no- ronmental salvation. Perhaps if every- ment of protected areas as a conservation tucked amid the otherwise polarizing body on Earth chose one of them, any one tion strategy. Rather, they were simply words of the 2012 Breakthrough essay, of them, we could begin to reclaim our proposing to expand the toolbox beyond that “conservation must demonstrate diminishing Eden. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 11 dEFinEd tragedy of the commons A dilemma of cooperation, wherein self-interest diminishes resources used by the masses. Poisoning the well Thinking of pollution as a trespass

by bENjAMiN hAlE

n 2013, Colorado Gov. John Hicken- i looper sat before a Senate commit- tee and testified to drinking a glass of fracking fluid, in an attempt to illustrate just how safe hydraulic fracturing can be. He hoped, presumably, to allay growing concerns in what has become one of the West’s most contentious energy issues. But in doing so, the former geologist employed a basic assumption about wrongdoing that has long underlain the environmental debate. In my view, this assumption has done far more harm than good to the environmental movement. Maybe you’d care to join Hick in his swashbuckling imbibition. I certainly wouldn’t. Either way, it is easy to see how quickly this kind of discussion can spiral into a futile tug-of-war between two sides: One side insists that the practice is safe, and the other side insists that it’s not. Almost all discussions of pollution — oil spills, gas leaks, nuclear contamination, water pollution — end up lost in the same eternal back-and-forth. Many environmentalists will tell you that we should care about pollution because it threatens to degrade our environment and harm us in some palpable and important way. These statements reflect a much wider tendency within the environmental community to confuse wrongs with harms. The so-called “harms view” associates environmental damage with environmental wrongdoing, meaning that the moral complications of pollution can be captured by describing its harmful effects. According to this way of thinking, it is enough to say that it is wrong to harm people by adding toxic substances to their drinking water. But this view, in fact, is not the only way to understand fracking, or any kind

12 High Country News January 19, 2015 QUotEd of pollution. As far as I’m concerned, it’s when it comes from the fracking compa- “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth not even the best way to do so. There is nies, it has the feel of “buying indulgenc- find reserves of strength that will endure as long a related but less common position that es”: doing good works in order to offset as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing considers the moral complications of one’s sins. pollution not in terms of doing harm, but The reason that pink drill bits seem in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance in terms of trespassing. And trespassing, ridiculous is that offsetting harms or that dawn comes after night, and spring after particularly in the West, is something we costs with benefits doesn’t actually offset w i n t e r.” can all understand. the moral burden of pollution. The tres- According to the “trespass view,” what pass still exists. So the pollution debate —Rachel Carson is wrong with fracking — or any kind of is about more than safety. It is also about pollution — isn’t simply that it causes, what kinds of substances we are willing Best known for her 1962 book Silent Spring, scientist and writer ra- or risks causing, harm to me and my to allow into our bodies, our communities chel carson brought environmental concerns into the consciousness family. It is that certain kinds of pollu- and our environment, and about how we of mainstream America. By spotlighting the ecological consequences tion harm me without my authorization, decide who we’ll trust to handle those of pesticide use, her work challenged the practices of agricultural sci- without clear justification. One might substances. entists and the government and ultimately led to the creation of the take this even further: It’s not necessar- Objections to pollution are as often Environmental Protection Agency. Suggested by Joanne Morris Gores ily the harm done that does the moral about preventing outsiders from pollut- work of distinguishing pollutants from ing our water or our air, as they are about non-pollutants. It is instead whether the who gets to make these decisions. What introduction of a substance, or the altera- makes it okay for Hick to pour himself tion of a situation, impacts my life in a a glass of fracking fluid is that he is the way that I can and will countenance. one who has authorized such drinking. Most of us would agree that it is If instead I had poured him a glass of “For a long time I realized I had only paid wrong to harm people or degrade value, fracking fluid and forced him to drink it attention to the predators, the scavengers, and the but I believe that understanding pollu- against his will, or brewed him a cup of tion as trespass is a more useful way to tea with fracking fluid and told him after- birds that were good to eat and the birds that had think of many environmental debates — wards what I had done — “Gotcha!” — I to do with hunting. … This looking and not seeing and it might also help us understand why am fairly certain he would feel differently things was a great sin, I thought, and one that so many people are so viscerally upset about it. I might even end up in jail. This about, say, fracking. would be true, I believe, even if the frack- was easy to fall into. It was always the beginning Just because there are some dangers ing fluid turned out to be perfectly safe of something bad and I thought that we did not associated with fracking does not mean and magnificently delicious. Pollution, by we need to stop it entirely. There are its nature, engenders a kind of trespass: deserve to live in the world if we did not see it.” dangers associated with a lot of things we It violates the moral space of people with- —Ernest Hemingway do. And sometimes we agree that it is OK out their authorization or good reason. to inflict harm on a person — as when a Clearly, there are middle-ground op- Although he’s rarely thought of as an environmental writer, Ernest surgeon operates to remove a kidney that tions that permit some level of industry hemingway anchored much of his work in the natural world. His in- someone is voluntarily donating to a sick activity and energy development in terests went beyond big-game hunting and bullfighting to celebrate person. Likewise, we sometimes willingly some environments, but also restrict it outdoor life in the American West, where he was an avid fly fisher- degrade value, as when we cut down in others. man. In his acclaimed short story, Big Two-Hearted River, Hemingway trees near our homes to protect ourselves What makes the introduction of some perceives nature as an antidote to the trauma of war. Suggested by Jeff Foster against possible forest fires. The differ- “pollutants” permissible depends in large ence is that these harms are deemed per- part on whether the public can and does missible by the people who are enduring accept those substances. Many people them. These harms are not a trespass. simply do not want anyone putting mys- Consider the serious downsides of re- terious chemicals in their water supply. that fracking holds little risk, they miss lying on the “harms view.” It is predicated Equally so, many industry actors do not the point. It’s not simply that there are on the idea that one can determine the want the general public telling them how dangers to health, safety and environ- moral valence of an act by establishing to do their business. Ensuring that the af- ment, but that somebody somewhere else whether its benefits outweigh the costs. fected parties — both industry and private is making these decisions and altering Now imagine a scenario in which a frack- citizens — have space to voice their con- the environment in ways that affect a lot ing company decides to add fructose as cerns can help us find some middle ground of people, and the people who are most one of the many secret ingredients in its and develop mutually acceptable policies. affected can do nothing about it. fracking fluid. The benefits, after all, are The safety discussion is necessary, for Don’t get me wrong. I’m not naive; I obvious to anyone with a sweet tooth. sure, and certainly may go a long way in understand the practical difficulties of How odd would it be to read that alleviating any unfounded concerns about bridging this divide and bringing mul- Gov. Hickenlooper had not only poured some of the substances that enter our tiple voices to the table. Nevertheless, if himself a tumbler of the fluid, but also environment. But it cannot go all the way. we really want to overcome the current recommended it to his family? “Mmm. It cannot address the question of who stalemate, we need to drill deep into the Delicious!” is authorized to put which substances presuppositions that guide our think- The trespass view doesn’t acknowl- where. In a democracy, we have to hash ing. Once we understand pollution as edge this kind of complication. For ex- these questions out through a legitimate, trespass, and see that it is as important ample, the oil and gas industry recently public, transparent decision-making pro- to tackling the fracking debate as the launched a campaign to raise money for cess, determining together what we can concept of harm, we may finally be able breast cancer by painting its drill bits countenance. to raise our glasses — chin, chin! — and pink. In principle, supporting breast When Hickenlooper and industry drink together. Even if most of us pass on cancer research is a noble thing to do, but advocates seek to reassure the public the fracking fluid. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 13 dEFinEd instrumental value A state of affairs that creates another value, opposed to intrinsic value, which is valuable for its own sake.

Beyond greenbacks Should we put a price on nature?

by bEN GoldFArb

“When we’re he west coast of Vancouver Island disagree on the level of restriction that NatCap wasn’t the first group to talking about tboasts the kind of wild shoreline that should be imposed to achieve different address the problem. In 1997, a team of could swallow a kayaker for weeks. Cren- goals.” Anyone who’s taken part in a researchers pinned nature’s economic what the future ellated with fjords and stippled with is- natural resource dispute will recognize value at $33 trillion worldwide — nearly will look like, most lands, it’s a place where old-growth stands the problem. How do you resolve all these twice the global gross domestic product, of the estimates of Doug-fir yield to rocky beaches, where conflicts? or GDP. That immense value flows from black bears stalk the tidelines, and where, In 2010, Day got help from the ecosystem services, the natural benefits that interest each March, some 20,000 gray whales Natural Capital Project, a Stanford- provided by everything from water- decision-makers cruise by en route to the Bering Sea. based cadre of economists, biologists and filtering shellfish to soil-forming microbes have nothing to Yet even in this natural outpost, human software engineers whose work meets at to storm-buffering reefs. The solution to enterprises clash: Cargo freighters and the increasingly crowded intersection of ecological woes, many policymakers have do with dollar commercial fishermen spar over shipping ecology, technology and finance. NatCap concluded, lies in incorporating nature’s values.” lanes and fishing grounds; salmon farm- was founded in 2005 in order to tackle dollar value into decisions. Put a price —Spencer Wood, ers and kayak guides struggle for control the very quandary faced by West Coast on ecosystem services, the wisdom goes, marine ecologist of coastal waters; logging, mining and Aquatic — how to juggle clashing human and watch the polluters, over-fishers and resort-building threaten seagrass beds. and natural values. To clear up such developers fall into line. “No one wants to go out there and dilemmas, NatCap’s scientists use their Humans’ material reliance on the wreck stuff,” Andrew Day, managing diverse talents to consider a question planet is undeniable, but shoehorning director of West Coast Aquatic, a local that seems simple but is actually baf- nature into modern capitalism makes for management board, told me. “But they flingly complex: What is nature worth? an uneasy fit: Our economy’s rapacity is arguably the reason we live in a time of environmental crisis in the first place. The challenge for ecosystem services, then, is to demonstrate our relationship with the natural world without letting its parts be bought and sold like scrap. To that end, as groups like NatCap are figuring out, sometimes the best way to calculate nature’s value doesn’t involve dollars after all.

tHE sCiEntiFiC litErAtUrE is strewn with ecosystem appraisals. Bats provide up to $50 billion annually by eating insects; insects offer $57 billion by disposing of waste, pollinating crops and feeding fish and game. Beavers in Utah’s Escalante River watershed have the potential to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in flood control and other services. The humble street trees of Corvallis put $4 million in Oregonians’ pockets. The Colorado River Basin is worth up to $500 billion every year. But do these astronomical figures help? In theory, sticker shock can influence hearts and minds — “a gee-whiz way to get people’s attention,” as Mary

Starfish near a dock at low tide, Vancouver Island, Canada. JURGEN FREUND/AURORA PHOTOS

14 High Country News January 19, 2015 QUotEd

“We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring Ruckelshaus, one of NatCap’s directors, what’s best for the watershed. “We don’t ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the put it. Huge numbers are meant to con- have happier, healthier streams because vince folks who lack innate tree-hugging we have markets for them,” Lave said. geography of hope.” tendencies that beavers are more valu- “Mitigation banking has allowed the —Wallace Stegner able as aquatic engineers than as, say, fur status quo to continue.” hats. In practice, however, such valuation Often called the “Dean of Western Writers,” Wallace stegner is best has fostered more acrimony than consen- HoW, tHEn, MiGHt WE bEttEr UsE ecosys- known for his biographies of John Wesley Powell and Bernard De- sus. To those environmentalists who keep tem services for conservation? NatCap’s Voto, and for his acclaimed novel Angle of Repose. His conservationist John Muir on their nightstand, simply work with West Coast Aquatic on Van- manifesto, Wilderness Letters, helped lead to the passage of the land- being a beaver — or a warbler, skink or couver Island could represent one path: mark National Wilderness Preservation System in 1964. Suggested by pikeminnow — justifies protection. a deployment of the concept that doesn’t Matthew R. Durrant “In many ways, those early dollar revolve around money. values did a disservice to the concept,” Picture Vancouver’s Lemmens Inlet, a Ruckelshaus said. “They caused a back- branching, limpid bay dotted with house- lash: ‘How can you put a dollar value boats that empty their toilets directly on nature? It’s priceless, it’s sacred.’ I into the ocean. That’s a problem, because understand that.” the inlet’s other inhabitants — kayakers, Despite such reservations, ecosystem oyster farmers and native gatherers of services have graduated from a rhetorical wild clams — don’t exactly welcome the “Places matter. Their rules, their scale, their design device into a conservation tool. Denver untreated sewage. So NatCap modeled Water and the U.S. Forest Service, for ex- how ecosystem services would change include or exclude civil society, pedestrianism, ample, cut a $33 million deal to manage under two different management plans: equality, diversity (economic and otherwise), the forest that supplies the city’s water; One, a “development scenario,” in which understanding of where water comes from and the utility paid for restoration activi- houseboats and oyster farms increased; ties like dead tree removal and beetle and the other, a “conservation scenario,” garbage goes, consumption or conservation. mitigation by levying fees on customers. in which the inlet was zoned as a marine They map our lives.” Bellingham, Washington, charges rate- park. Under the conservation scenario, —Rebecca Solnit payers to buy land around Lake Whatcom kayaking access would increase by more to protect their own water; Medford, Or- than 50 percent, and water quality by San Francisco-based writer and activist rebecca solnit is the author egon, pays farmers to plant riparian trees over 30 percent; under increased devel- of 15 books, ranging from meditations on landscape and community that keep streams cool for salmon. The opment, oyster harvest would rise but to art, politics and the power of stories. Underlying all her work is a arrangements keep getting more creative: water quality would decline. Importantly, love of wandering, a delight in the many ways in which a person can, Ducks Unlimited recently sold 40,000 while NatCap’s models did affix a dollar and should, get lost — both in the natural world and inside the self. Suggested by Derek Young tons of carbon credits to Chevrolet, which value to shellfish harvest, benefits like will pay farmers not to till grasslands clean water and kayaking opportunities that store carbon and harbor waterfowl. were expressed using other metrics — Not every market-driven conservation namely, the concentration of bacteria and project is a winner, though. Take stream the extent of paddling routes. Cap’s models for wildlife — as long as the mitigation banking, in which restoration Ecosystem services loom large in folks calling the shots value its survival. companies earn credits by repairing de- the theatre of ideas — savior to some, Whether we rely on traditional or new graded streams, then sell those credits to bogeyman to others. As practiced by forms of conservation, our ability to coex- anyone — logging companies, hotel build- NatCap, however, they’re just another ist with fellow creatures is fundamen- ers, transportation departments — who factor in West Coast Aquatic’s planning tally a matter of human will. There’s no expects to damage nearby habitat. The process. And though ecosystem services way around it. “Just like access to clam idea is that the free market will improve has become synonymous with money in beaches was important to them, so was restoration’s efficiency. But according to the popular imagination, NatCap’s clients having whales and eelgrass beds,” Wood Indiana University geographer Rebecca usually aren’t interested in currency. said. “To me, there’s no conflict there.” Lave, private enterprise and rivers don’t Many Native Vancouver Islanders, for Last year, NatCap withdrew from always mix. “For the market in stream instance, regard shellfish gathering as Vancouver Island, leaving behind its mod- credits to work, there has to be a defined a cultural amenity, not a pecuniary one. els and maps for West Coast Aquatic’s commodity,” Lave told me. But unlike Slapping a price tag on it would be beside use. Andrew Day and his constituents are gold or wheat, streams are inherently dy- the point. “When we’re talking about still figuring out how they want to use all namic — they shift channels, rearrange what the future will look like, most of the that science; inevitably, they’ve adopted boulders, build islands and wash them estimates that interest decision-makers some pieces and dropped others. Among away. That protean nature frustrates have nothing to do with dollar values,” the abandoned models are the black-and- evaluation. “If a stream is changing, said Spencer Wood, a marine ecologist white scenarios labeled “conservation” regulators have no way to certify whether who helped lead the project. and “development.” “We want to build it’s OK or not,” she said. Ecosystem services may never be per- relationships, rather than push sectors The result is that stream mitigation fectly equipped to save biodiversity. Not into artificial camps,” Day said. “You can projects tend to promote stable chan- every species is a crucial rivet holding fall into a polarization trap: ‘Do we take nels — good news if you’re a government aloft the machine of civilization: After all, an action out of a belief in the intrinsic accreditor trying to create a salable unit, forests can filter water and store carbon value of nature, or for totally mercantile not so good if you hope to restore the life without any help from wolverines. But as self-serving reasons?’ Well, why not use of a river. What’s best for the market isn’t Wood will tell you, there’s room in Nat- whatever motivation you can find?” n

www.hcn.org High Country News 15 thE hcN coMMuNity

RESEARCH FUND nEW ArCHitECtUrE on indiGEnoUs lAnds, Joy Monice Malnar & Frank Vodvarka University of Minnesota Press, 2013 272 pages with 20 black-and-white illustrations, 20 black-and-white plates and 155 color Thank you, Research plates. $39.95 softcover, $120 hardcover. In 1996, government housing policies on tribal lands became more flexible, inspiring Fund contributors, for the creation of a new kind of modern architecture. No longer bound by federal rules of housing and design, Native communities were able to complete buildings and spaces that were more reflective of their own cultures. InNew Architecture on Indigenous Lands, Joy Monice Malnar and Frank Vodvarka have assembled a cogent collection of those designs helping us build and the principles behind them. Malnar, a professor of architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Vodvarka, a fine arts professor at Loyola University Chicago, go beyond the subject of design to consider the culture and tradition behind it. It’s a small antidote to the lament of Black Elk, a Lakota holy man: “The Wasichus have Since 1971, reader contributions to the Re- Marianne & dave Finrow | Chehalis, WA put us in these square boxes. 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Macleod | Burlingame, CA beverly Flynn | Gualala, CA tom & teri Mader | Moab, UT high country News | P.o. box 1090 | Paonia, co 81428 | 800-905-1155 | hcn.org Merle Gates | Manteca, CA Warren Marr | Tujunga, CA brian Gentner | Newport Beach, CA 16 High Country News January 19, 2015 DEAR FRIENDS Farewell to Theo Colborn Storytelling Room oculus at the theo Colborn, an influential CorrECtions Senator John Pinto environmental scientist, died In our Dec. 22 issue, the cover Library at Diné Dec. 14 at age 87, in Paonia, story, “The Dust Detectives,” College, right. The Colorado. After spending years left off a portion of the name central structure as a pharmacist and sheep of the institution employing at the Southern Ute Cultural farmer in western Colorado, atmospheric chemist Kimberly Center and she decided to study watershed Prather: The Scripps Institu- Museum, below, science, earning her doctorate at tion of Oceanography at the was designed to 58. Her Great Lakes doctoral re- University of California, San evoke elements of search found manmade chemi- Diego in La Jolla. The article a wickiup. cals harming fish and wildlife; “Descent through time” mis- FRANK VODVARK, RIGHT; the findings helped introduce takenly identified Georgia Tech SCOTT SMITH, BELOW scientists and policymakers to paleontologist Jenny McGuire the consequences of endocrine as Jess Miller-Campe. On disruption. the Letters page, the Stevens Theo worked as a congres- cartoon wasn’t quite as funny sional research fellow and then as it should have been, since a scientist for the World Wildlife the words dropped off when we Fund in Washington, D.C., and placed the final art. See the full helped organize the first gather- cartoon below. ing of researchers studying Alert reader John Karon of endocrine-disrupting chemicals Albuquerque, New Mexico, sent in 1991. us a note about our obituary Her 1996 book, Our Stolen for activist Martin Litton: “I am Future, coauthored with J. Pete likely the 1000th person to send Myers and Dianne Dumanoski, in the correction that Martin explained how chronic exposure was NOT the oldest man to raft to chemical compounds in flame the Colorado through Grand retardants, pharmaceuticals Canyon, but the oldest to row and fragrances is stunting hu- his own dory through the Can- Warren Mcdonald | Twain Harte, CA h.j. & beverly schoennagel | Pennington, NJ man development and increas- yon.” Thanks, John. susan M. McKelvy | Buffalo Creek, CO Ann schwab | Denver, CO ing the incidence of cognitive The restoration project map Gary Mcvicker | Golden, CO Mark seaton | Mosca, CO and behavioral disorders, infer- in our Dec. 8, 2014, cover story joseph s. Meyer | Golden, CO ray seidler | Ashland, OR tility, thyroid problems and can- “The Great Salmon Compro- donald & Ann Michel | Amarillo, TX ben sellers | Basalt, CO cers. In 2003, Theo founded The mise” had a typo and a mis- joel Milton | East Marion, Ny sally sherman | Boise, ID Endocrine Disruption Exchange placed label. The Pend Oreille bill & Martha Mitchem | Rangely, CO john A. shower | Greenville, CA (TEDX), a research clearing- River comes out of Lake Pend barbara Morrissey | Palo Cedro, CA sarah shurtleff | Longmont, CO house. She received many Oreille in Idaho, but it enters robert Murphy | Littleton, CO stan siefer | Denver, CO awards for her work, including the lake as the Clark Fork. david & Molly Niven | Golden, CO daniel silver | Los Angeles, CA the TIME Global Environmental In our Nov. 24 story on Pete Nixon | Oakley, UT cynthia h. simer | Lander, Wy Heroes award, in 2007, and the trains carrying crude oil, “a joel & Marthanne Norgren | Corvallis, OR larry simon | Pleasant Hill, CA Jonathan Foreman award from sunny weekend afternoon in Nick & Ann Novich | Sheridan, MT beverly r. skinner | Marion, MT the American Academy of Envi- July” became one in September, jan & Peter Perlman | Monte Rio, CA janet small | Bellingham, WA ronmental Medicine, in 2014. due to an editorial mixup. HCN William Petersen | New Orleans, LA benjamin & Kathleen smith | Aiken, SC “She was a visionary,” says regrets the errors; we all got carolyn Poissant | Bozeman, MT dan & denise snow | Divide, CO Carol Kwiatkowski, executive nice big lumps of coal in our director of TEDX, “(with a) com- stockings. Antoinette Pollack | Littleton, CO Margie sohl | Salida, CO mitment to uncovering the truth —Joshua Zaffos and horatio & Elizabeth Potter, clementine ranch | donald speakman | Grasonville, MD and sharing that information.” Jodi Peterson for the staff Wilsall, MT linda M. stanger | Idaho Falls, ID robert Pung | Santa Ana, CA Nancy steele | Altadena, CA don rea | Albany, OR Karl stoszek | Moscow, ID brian & carole reid | Tucson, AZ john straw | Montrose, CO Michael riggs | La Verne, CA cassidy tawse-Garcia | Crested Butte, CO clint rogel | Spokane, WA jason tennessen | Bloomington, IN Andrew j. Quintana | Pueblo, CO joel E. thacker | Lake Elsinore, CA Gerald radden | Casper, Wy Paula trater | Oakley, UT Francis M. raley | Grand Junction, CO d. trent | La Crescenta, CA Paul rana | Bigfork, MT jeffrey c. tufts | Medford, OR tom & carla ratcliff | Emmett, ID Nancy & cutler umbach | McCall, ID chris reimer, Eco Planta inc. | Cascade, CO vern vanderbilt & lynne brown | San Jose, CA david reinke & roxanne bradshaw | Keith virostko | Jackson, Wy Canon City, CO Fred Walls | Lafayette, CO daniel robinett & linda Kennedy | Elgin, AZ sally Waterhouse & dennis radabaugh | don rogers | Ridgway, CO Nathrop, CO donald & sally romig | Santa Fe, NM liz Webb & barbara Newman | Eugene, OR robert rose | Carson City, NV donald Weinstein | Sonoita, AZ barbara rothkrug | Corte Madera, CA teri Winchester | Magdalena, NM david ruggles | Novato, CA Kent Winterholler | Park City, UT tom rule | Ketchum, ID hal Wulff | Colorado Springs, CO john & cherry sand | Oro Valley, AZ Melissa Wyers, breakthrough strategies | COM / WWW.CARTOONBANK. COLLECTION STEVENS / THE NEW yORKER Max & Gene schloemer | Reno, NV Washington, DC ray schoch | Minneapolis, MN robert Zimmerer | Beaverton, OR www.hcn.org High Country News 17 DEFINED Deontology An ethical view whereby principles and duty guide actions; includes justice-based approaches.

Occupythe Book cliffs They’re burning mad about climate change. Are you?

tarting last May, a small group of tor and impede construction of what could radical climate activists, mostly become the first tar sands mine in the U.S. from Salt Lake City, spent five They have stood in front of and locked months camped on the East Tava- themselves to heavy machinery. Once, Sputs Plateau, a jumble of conifer-choked they dressed up as chipmunks and chased Essay By canyons and broad sandstone and shale road graders around a construction site. Cally ridges in eastern Utah commonly known At least one woman trespassed regularly as the Book Cliffs. In the beginning, they into the mine’s test pit, to see if there was CarswEll adhered closely to Bureau of Land Man- anything worrisome worth documenting. wind calm and temperature pleasantly agement rules: They moved camp every The September weekend that I climbing, I joined the “morning circle” 14 days, packing up tents, sleeping bags dropped in, the activists were hosting a –– around 15 people, sitting in camp and camp chairs; the makeshift toilet, special campout to encourage locals to chairs or on five-gallon buckets or in nicknamed “dirty Herbert” after Utah’s “connect with the land.” After a long drive the dirt around smoldering coals. Each governor; and a hanging sweater rack on winding backroads, I found the camp person introduced themself, and gave repurposed into a lending library, which on the shoulder of a sweeping ridge, hid- their preferred gender pronoun — he, she included literature by Toni Morrison and den among a stand of pine and fir. Tents or they — which everyone was asked to Louise Erdrich along with nonfiction on pincushioned the forest floor on either respect. Vigil stalwart Raphael Cordray, oil, imperialism and anti-coal activism. side of a slim spur crammed with cars and who once owned a gift shop for radicals Flies found them quickly at many new pickups and ending in a tight turnaround in Salt Lake, volunteered to lead a tour of spots, and they’d spend a couple of insuf- — a cul-de-sac in the woods. The days I the test pit. Chad Hamblin, a high school ferable days swatting thin air. Then, the was there, activists wore jeans, T-shirts, science teacher, offered to lead a nature bugs seemed to dissipate, perhaps thanks fleece, clogs and hiking boots. People read hike. Kathy Albury, a member of the to bats. books around the fire-pit, and lounged in environmental ministry at Salt Lake’s As the months wore on, their diligence the kitchen, an elaborately tarped affair Unitarian Church, wanted to march on about relocating exactly on time faltered with a spice rack and serving buffet. They Sunday, the same day demonstrators slightly. But in theory, it was important slept in, brewed endless pots of coffee, and would clog Manhattan for the People’s to do so, and generally to keep everything told camp tales: of encounters with bears, Climate March. Rachel Carter, also from about camp aboveboard, because the hikes gone awry, epic meals prepared and the Salt Lake area, agreed: “These sourc- things they did outside of camp weren’t eaten (one involved cashew cream sauce). es of extraction are where people should always, and they didn’t need additional It felt pretty laid-back for a hotbed of be marching,” she said, and suggested a scrutiny. radicals intent on revolution. Then again, hashtag: #comeherenextyear. The activists called their camp a “per- it was the weekend. Then it was on to explaining “camp manent protest vigil,” its purpose to moni- On Saturday morning, with the norms,” which were scrawled in colored

18 High Country News January 19, 2015 marker on a cardboard sign hanging from to stop construction for the day. Though greater crime of more carbon pollution, Protesters disrupt the food trailer: Don’t talk to the cops; sheriff’s deputies were camped out there, he said –– and refused a plea bargain. construction of the no racism, sexism, transphobia or other a few activists slipped in and locked But there was something disquieting road to the tar sands forms of bigotry; no violence of any kind. themselves to the equipment. Around about his story and the images of his project in the Utah Also, “no pants at the fire pit” –– code for 20 others linked arms and stood or sat comrades storming the Interior Depart- Book Cliffs in July 2013. no cell phones, which could be tapped by outside the fence, blocking the road. By ment in Washington and getting arrested; PeacefuluPrising.org police, the FBI, or other Big Brothers. the end of the day, deputies had carted weeping outside the Salt Lake court- Welcome to the resistance. 21 people off to the Uintah County jail. house after his sentencing, sitting in the Reading about it brought me back to street, refusing to move, getting arrested. I FIrSt hEarD oF thE vIgIl in July 2014, a crowded theater in Paonia, Colorado, Climate change stirred something in him after reading a newspaper story about where in 2013 I watched the documen- –– in them –– that it had yet to stir in one of its rowdier moments. It came tary Bidder 70. It tells the story of Tim me. Anger, maybe? Passion? I wasn’t sure. after a weeklong campout, when 80 or so DeChristopher, a University of Utah But it was an emotion I didn’t recognize people came to the Book Cliffs to learn student who, in 2008, made bids at a in myself, or in most of my friends. about community organizing, nonviolent BLM oil and gas lease sale, driving up Which left me feeling conflicted. I’m direct action and “climate justice” –– the prices and winning 14 parcels he did not an environmental journalist, well in- idea that climate change solutions must plan to drill, worth $1.8 million he could formed on climate change. I write stories alleviate the social and environmental not pay. DeChristopher spent 21 months about the science, which keeps getting burdens our energy economy dispropor- in federal prison, becoming a minor folk worse, and the policy, which keeps tionately imposes on the world’s poorest, hero in the process. standing still. I write about irrevocable usually non-white, people. I remember being impressed by changes to the mountains and deserts Before dawn on July 21, a group of ac- DeChristopher’s eloquence and unbend- I love, and about how drought and heat tivists had made their way to a fenced lot ing adherence to his principles. He could render some of them uninhabit- where U.S. Oil Sands, the mine’s develop- deliberately broke the law to keep the oil able. I know the climate crisis is big and er, kept its heavy machinery. Their goal: and gas in the ground –– to prevent the bad. And yet I don’t get angry about it,

www.hcn.org High Country News 19 tion around 7,000, some 90 miles away. Soon, we climbed back in the van, and Hamblin, the science teacher, also from bumped down the road to see the scar of a the Roosevelt area, was up for his third failed 1980s mine. I asked why they called campout and brought his dad. He was the camp a “vigil.” Lionel Trepanier, co- excited to meet like-minded neighbors; founder with Cordray of Utah Tar Sands environmentalists are few in the Uinta Resistance, one group behind the protest, Basin, home to Utah’s top oil and gas explained that “vigils” were considered by producing counties. Still fewer are those courts to be constitutionally protected free willing to speak out against energy devel- speech. “Although there are tents and a opment. “It feels like the Lone Ranger out kitchen, this isn’t camping,” he said. “The there sometimes,” he lamented. vigil is the presence.” U.S. Oil Sands, a Canadian company, “So is it like being a witness?” Hamb- had secured permits and leases on state lin asked. Yes, several people replied. trust land, leaving environmentalists “If we’re here and witnessing what’s without legal leverage to stop it. Now, the going on, then we’ll know other ways company was clearing a building site for to respond,” Corday said, adding that a processing facility, aiming to begin com- their presence draws attention to the mercial production in 2015. CEO Camer- little-known mine. “And it creates a place on Todd told me the company respects the people can come and learn about the is- activists’ right to voice their opposition, sues. It’s a safe place if they want to show but that their tactics sometimes crossed their discomfort and not be arrested.” the line and posed safety risks. He said his company is willing to engage anyone thE NumbEr oF pEoplE willing — even interested in figuring out better ways to eager — to risk arrest trying to stop fossil do things, but added, “There’s not much of fuel developments is still small. But it a dialogue (you can have) with people who seemed notable to me that they existed just don’t want things to happen.” at all. The construction activity was at the The same month Tim DeChristopher building site, but there were actual tar went to prison, in 2011, 1,200 were ar- sands to see at the test pit. A future mine rested in Washington, D.C., protesting the was easier to imagine here. On the south- proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which facing slope below the pit, thick, jet-black would carry Canadian tar sands to Gulf goo oozed from rocks, forming drip pat- Coast refineries. Keystone helped gal- terns like coagulating blood, with the dry, vanize the national climate movement, oppressive smell of fresh asphalt. thanks to organized opposition from the As others scrambled downslope to tribes, ranchers and farmers whose land check out erosion and fossils, Hamblin it would cross, and from prominent activ- and I lingered on the rim. A tall, solid ists like former NASA scientist James man with a full beard and lively eyes, Hansen. Protests small and large, in Hamblin had an encyclopedic knowledge Washington and elsewhere, have followed New York City street not really angry. Neither do most of my of plants and animals. Zeal for nature the 2011 demonstration. Getting at tar art featuring Tim well-informed and idealistic friends. But burst from his lips like light from a spar- sands and making the oil takes a massive DeChristopher, who shouldn’t we? kler. He snapped photos, calling out that amount of energy, making the fuel hugely became famous for Reading about the U.S. Oil Sands he had casting equipment if anyone found carbon intensive. “If Canada proceeds, bidding on parcels lock-in, and remembering DeChristo- at a BLM oil and gas animal tracks. and we do nothing,” Hansen wrote in The pher’s story, made me curious about what lease auction that he The night before, he’d sported a New York Times in 2012, “it will be game was brewing in the Book Cliffs. Did these never intended to “Bidder 70” baseball cap –– a nod to the over for the climate.” people know something I didn’t? More to drill. Wally gobetz, DeChristopher film. Like some others, But there are mini-Keystones all over the point, did they feel something I didn’t? cc via flickr DeChristopher was part of the reason — smaller pieces of less politically and he was here. In 2011, he spent a week- environmentally significant infrastruc- aFtEr SaturDay’S morNINg cIrclE, I end camping around Dinosaur National ture that are the foundation for a rush on piled into a big white van with seven Monument, where he ran into an acquain- fossil fuels right here at home, including others to tour the mine’s test pit, a few tance who said that his camping spot tar sands. Grassroots activists have taken minutes down Seep Ridge Road, which was would have become a “big oil well” if not notice, loudly opposing developments of in the process of being widened and paved for DeChristopher. That inspired him to all sizes and consequence. for future industrial traffic. At the pit, veg- later drive two-and-a-half hours to Salt In Massachusetts, a coalition aims etation had been cleared, a berm cut into Lake to see the movie, which is where to stop all new fossil fuel infrastructure, the ridge, and a hole dug, exposing brown, he met some of the activists and learned including three gas-fired power plants gray and ebony rock layers. Rainwater had about the tar sands development. and one pipeline expansion. Massachu- created a pond the color of dark tea, where Hamblin bemoaned what he saw as setts activists were among those who Raphael Cordray said she had seen cows the loss of public-land access to energy blockaded the Federal Energy Regulatory drinking. She suspected it was toxic. development. He recalled a university lec- Commission’s offices for a week in the fall. The tour was for outsiders (mainly ture about permafrost thawing: “I was the More than 100 were arrested in D.C. and me) and visitors from the nearby Uinta only member of the public who came,” he related protests, according to organizers. Basin who opposed the mine but came said. “It was like, ‘Wow, she’s saying a lot A Michigan man was recently given a sus- up only occasionally. There was Stagg, of what’s going on is not reversible.’ I like pended two-month jail sentence and one who goes by one name only, along with to cross-country ski, and climate change year of probation after being convicted David Bell and Lori Savage. They all is making it so there’s less snow and more of a felony for skateboarding inside an lived around Roosevelt, Utah, popula- rain. I’m concerned on a lot of levels.” unfinished pipeline and refusing to leave.

20 High Country News January 19, 2015 co-founded by DeChristopher after the Participants in the BLM auction and has continued working 2014 permanent locally, though he moved out of state to at- protest vigil at tend Harvard Divinity School. Carter wore the tar sands pit, a shaggy pixie cut and army-green pants. top, where some Her black T-shirt with its cut-off sleeves concealed their identities as they proclaimed: “I Am The Carbon Tax.” trespassed onto Though Carter didn’t spend all season the mine property. here, she frequently delivered food that At left, one of the Salt Lake supporters donated and foraged campsites for the from suburban grocery dumpsters, and months-long protest. joined for special campouts. I asked her Camps were packed why she joined Peaceful Uprising and up and moved about was surprised to learn she was relatively every two weeks, new to environmentalism and radical in accordance with activism, if not unfamiliar with it. Her BLM regulations. courtesy tar sands Mormon parents were members of the resistance and ultra-conservative John Birch Society, Melanie Martin which fought communism and the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s. In upstate New York, locals have blocked “NaturE walk DEpartINg!” crowed a few She joined at 15 and was raised believ- the entrance to a gas storage facility since not-just-saints in unison, standing by the ing Joseph McCarthy was a hero. But as October, protesting a FERC-approved campfire, lit despite Saturday evening’s she grew older, she became uncomfort- expansion. At press time, 170 had been lingering warmth. Hamblin led a group able with her family’s politics. She moved arrested. down a trail and into a stand of Doug-fir, to Seattle and “was liberalized but not My question was not whether the piñon and juniper, carrying a shepherd’s activated,” as she struggled to sort out her activists in Utah or these other inci- crook in one hand, a camera carabineered feelings on Mormonism. “My approach for dents were right, wrong or somewhere to his shirt. He wondered aloud if finding a long time was just no involvement with in between, or whether in each case threatened or endangered plants might anything,” she said. their tactics were justified or strategic. help stop the mine. In 2008, she moved back to Utah, I wanted to know what motivated them. We lingered on a southerly slope, un- right after Proposition 8, which sought to Civil disobedience involves some level of der a haggard old piñon, its roots snaking ban same-sex marriage, passed in Califor- personal risk, and people wouldn’t engage out from the tan soil as though coming nia with hefty support from the Mormon in it, I assumed, without feeling a power- up for air. Among them, we discovered an Church. Carter, who had left the church, ful emotional involvement; the kind of antlion, an insect whose predatory larvae was incensed that it had entered politics intellectual response many of us have to bury themselves in sand, awaiting prey. “in a way that fucked a lot of people over.” the climate crisis is simply not enough. We poked its pit with a twig, which it at- A rare protest was held outside the Salt “Be as frank as possible,” an editor tacked, provoking oohs! and more pokes. Lake Mormon Temple just before she at High Country News advised before I I wandered back uphill to camp with moved home. Then DeChristopher went began reporting. “They’re not like regular Rachel Carter, a dedicated member of to the BLM auction. “There was a lot hap- people. They’re not just saints. They have Peaceful Uprising, a Salt Lake climate pening, and it was exciting,” she told me. a certain personality.” justice group sponsoring the vigil. It was “There’s something about being an under-

www.hcn.org High Country News 21 “Every successful social movement in our history has been Mychaylo PrystuPa, vancouver observer vancouver PrystuPa, Mychaylo Plains sands courtesy resistance great tar unrealistic. dog that engages me. Democrats being Fruhwirth, a member of Peaceful Upris- less people.” He joined the camp. Even people an underdog in Utah, I was interested in ing and vigil keeper, who was among the Occupy Salt Lake lasted a little more who were trying to help change that.” 26 in court this month. In early 2011, than a month before the city police dis- She volunteered with LGBT advocacy he was a reporter for City Weekly, Salt mantled it. Both Fruhwirth and Carter anti-slavery groups and worked with the Utah Demo- Lake’s alternative paper, covering crimi- were arrested during the eviction. Some cratic Party. In 2010, she got involved nal justice, homelessness, DeChristo- activists returned to their day jobs, thought with people in Peaceful Uprising after pher’s trial, and a 2011 effort by the Utah Fruhwirth said, “but some of us joined DeChristopher posted an ad on Craigslist Legislature to gut open-records laws. It the revolution and never looked back.” abolitionists seeking a “courageous congressperson” was the first time his editors allowed him He found Peaceful Uprising one of the were for Utah’s 2nd District. He and his cohort to “throw objectivity to the wind and be few refuges for the newly radicalized in were fed up with conservative Utah blatantly biased toward open access,” he Salt Lake. Climate change was not his completely Democrat Jim Matheson, who had voted told me in a phone interview. “I felt like top priority, but neither did these seem against health-care reform and cap-and- in real life I was a polarizing firebrand, like typical environmentalists. “I’d heard nuts.” trade. So they decided to “hire” his re- but that journalism snuffed that out. Not Tim DeChristopher question capitalism,” —tim dechristopher, placement. “Must have solid moral values everyone has that, and I feel like it’s the he told me. “Hearing an environmental- activist who went to and a resistance to selling out to corpo- best thing I’ve got.” ist talk about capitalism was not quite federal prison after rate interests,” the ad said. Job respon- By the spring of 2011, though, Fruh- as awesome as seeing a homeless person bidding on blM oil sibilities included “stopping catastrophic wirth was feeling burnt out, and thought running the welcome booth at Occupy, and gas leases climate change” and “ending imperialistic his body was showing signs of stress. but it was one of those moments.” wars of aggression.” Once, when someone hugged him, he Peaceful Uprising members told me At a local library, Carter watched said, it broke a rib. He quit and bought their goal at present is to stop “extreme while select “applicants” answered a vegan hot dog stand in downtown Salt energy extraction” on the Colorado questions. That night, a candidate was Lake. But though he’d gotten a taste for Plateau. Grassroots activists across the chosen. “There wasn’t a ton of overhead polemics, he wasn’t sure how to satisfy country are converging on a similar aim: and bullshit and bureaucracy,” she said. it. He thought a lot of activism lacked a No new infrastructure for the extraction, “And it was just a lot of fun.” She worked winning strategy. When a friend dropped transportation or burning of fossil fuels. on the campaign (it failed after forcing by the hot dog stand to tell him about “Not here, not in Fort McMurray, not in Matheson into a runoff), and about six planning meetings for Occupy Salt Lake, Mobile, Alabama,” Lauren Wood, an early months later, helped prepare for DeChris- late in the summer of 2011, he remem- Peaceful Uprising member who just left topher’s trial. bers mentally rolling his eyes. But once the group, told me. “Not fracking, not “The climate end of it was not one the Occupy encampment was established, oil, none of it.” It’s a tall order; stopping of my main reasons for getting involved in early October, he stopped by. He was even one Utah mine will be tough unless with Peaceful Uprising,” she said, as we surprised to see a homeless woman he tumbling oil prices change things for the stood on the edge of camp. “It was more knew from his reporter days running company. Yet the activists’ ultimate goal about the culture of the group and what the welcome booth. “It didn’t match my is even more ambitious: to end growth- they were creating. It was a really cre- stereotype of what an activist was,” he at-all-costs capitalism and oppression in ative, energetic group of people.” said. “I was very inspired to see homeless all forms — to fundamentally restructure I heard a similar story from Jesse people acting politically with non-home- the entire economic and social order.

22 High Country News January 19, 2015 blockade.org oat Peter boWden, courtesyPeter boWden, lobsterb

“Of course it’s too big,” DeChristopher out party for a new breed of environmen- learned about the climate activists and Canadian told me, when I reached him by phone talism — one that’s louder and rowdier about myself. scientist and and inquired about the grassroots move- than the old-school greens.” I was surprised by how little they re- environmentalist ment’s ambitions. “If we’re going to create The Utah activists hoped the New sembled the environmentalists I usually David Suzuki, far any kind of change, it’s going to have York march would accomplish something interviewed. There was little talk of the left, fired up after to come from a mass movement. And to but were disappointed with its tame finer points of renewable energy policy, his grandson, Tamo Campos effectively mobilize people you need a big approach. It was planned in cooperation little time spent lamenting the death of (behind) was vision,” he said. “Every successful social with the police and did not confront any trees, or the troubles of pikas and polar arrested at a protest movement in our history has been unre- specific threats. They were more jazzed bears. But immigration reform came against energy alistic. Even people who were anti-slav- about Flood Wall Street, a more aggres- up. The legacy of colonization for Native company Kinder ery thought abolitionists were completely sive, unpermitted sit-in planned for the peoples came up. Capitalism and its sins Morgan’s pipeline nuts. There had literally always been following day. Its slogan: “Stop capitalism. came up –– a lot. expansion at slavery until it was banned. Why not aim End the climate crisis.” Radicals, more than one person told Burnaby Mountain, for something we actually want? Why not Here, though, things were pretty me, try to attack the roots of problems. a Vancouver, aim for the kind of world we want to see?” tame, too. When the marchers arrived at The word “radical,” they said, means Canada, suburb. Alec Johnson, On Saturday night back in the Book the test pit, about half of them scrambled “going to the origin.” And the members of center, strapped to Cliffs, I crawled into my tent and opened through an opening in the fence, past “no Peaceful Uprising have come to believe an earth mover in The Monkey Wrench Gang. I’d brought it trespassing” signs, some with bandanas that the root cause of climate change protest of the KXL with me, guessing that Abbey’s environ- or scarves pulled up like bandit masks. and other massive problems, like income pipeline. Above, mental call-to-arms had helped inspired They stood beside the pit’s brown pond inequality, is the profit-hungry capitalist Bristol County, the activists. If so, it never came up. and posed for pictures. The clown climbed system we’re all part of, and especially Massachusetts, atop a pile of excavated rock and thrust the people at the top of it. District Attorney Sam Sutter waves a latE SuNDay morNINg, under a pocket a “No Tar Sands” sign in the air. Oth- “This isn’t just about CO2 in the at- of blue sky, some 30 people climbed out ers stayed on the legal side of the fence, mosphere and parts per million,” Carter Rolling Stone article of vehicles onto Seep Ridge Road. One either not interested in breaking the law, told me. “The various oppressions that by Bill McKibben as he speaks outside man wore a colorful clown mask; another or seeing little value in it in this instance. have led up to this have been going on for a courtroom after played “This Land is Our Land” on a The cops never appeared; I was the only centuries. All of these things are feeding announcing a deal to saxophone. A brown-and-white teacup of reporter. There was scarcely anyone out the same system of overlapping and self- drop charges against a dog scampered about, its fur ruffled by here to witness it. Nevertheless, the pro- reinforcing problems.” To Carter and her two environmental a whiplashing wind. testers were here to say “no” to the mine comrades, climate change represents the activists who had A couple of people unfurled a banner because, as a white-haired woman from last, worst example of the unjust relation- blocked a coal — “Together and Everywhere We Rise Moab named Dorothy put it: “These days, ship between rich and poor, white and shipment. Up for Climate Justice” — and the group if you’re not saying ‘no,’ you’re saying black, colonist and Native. “The refugee marched toward the test pit. The banner ‘yes.’ ” crisis we’re going to be seeing will affect was a nod to the People’s Climate March, the most marginalized. Wars –– that is now underway in New York, where hun- I DrovE homE aFtEr thE march, where real.” dreds of thousands jammed the streets in on and off for the next couple months, I got some of what they were saying an event Politico described as “a coming- I tried to figure out exactly what I had Please see Occupy page 54 www.hcn.org High Country News 23 EDUCATION MARKETPLACE

COLLEGE OF NATURAL RESOURCES & SCIENCES

24 High Country News January 19, 2015 philosophyNew push ined. an old field By ALEx CARR JOhNsON n response to escalating environmental crises such as climate Can environmental philosophy and ethics programs spur young- I change and forest decline, many colleges and universities across er generations to build a sustainable society? Students, faculty and the West are developing a variety of on-the-ground action-oriented universities seem to think so. Colorado State University is just one degrees. Students who seek to shape future landscapes, cities and of dozens in the West now offering degrees and certificates in en- infrastructure can take advantage of an array of programs that vironmental philosophy at the undergraduate and graduate levels. range from land management to environmental policy, sustainable Many more colleges and universities offer at least some environ- What deep- business to wildlife biology. Yet a growing number of environmental- mental ethics coursework within their philosophy or environmental seated values in ly minded students are gravitating toward one of academia’s oldest studies departments. our society fields: philosophy. Environmental ethics courses are filling up more quickly than ever discourage the Courses in environmental philosophy and ethics push college before, and not just with philosophy geeks. Students from a variety of acknowledgment students to ask the broadest and most basic questions about the fields, including biology and geoscience, are enrolling in increasing underlying social causes of current crises. What deep-seated values in numbers. “Students are realizing that to only understand hydrological of ecological our society discourage the acknowledgment of ecological limits? What processes is useless without also understanding the broader social limits? ethical frameworks might lead us toward a more sustainable future? and ethical issues that have produced them,” says Lisa Floyd-Hanna, “Among young people, there is a real hunger for dealing with professor of environmental studies at Prescott College. these kinds of questions,” says Philip Cafaro, professor of philosophy The following list highlights some of the West’s most robust at Colorado State University. “The baby boomers were about having environmental philosophy programs. Though far from comprehensive, everything. They were looking for win-win solutions. They found lots it reveals the wide array of philosophical offerings now available to of successes, of course, but an ecologically sustainable society has not students regardless of major. Perhaps we’ll all sleep a little better at been one of them.” night knowing a more ethically minded workforce is on its way.

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28 High Country News | Special Advertising Insert January 19, 2015 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE ARIZONA With an academic culture deeply rooted in both inter- CAlIfORNIA in order to prepare future scientists to conduct research disciplinary and environmental studies, Prescott College Though Santa Clara University does not offer a degree and inform policy in an ethical manner, Arizona State (prescott.edu) offers fertile ground for would-be environ- in environmental philosophy, it does provide a wealth of University’s New College of interdisciplinary Arts and Sci- mental philosophers. Courses include “religious Ethics resources for its undergraduate students through the Mark- ences (newcollege.asu.edu/mns/degrees/naturalsci) has and Environmental Activism” and “The idea of Nature.” kula Center for Applied Ethics (www.scu.edu/ethics/). The designed a BS in environmental sciences which requires Students can enroll in the more traditional full-residency Center offers an environmental ethics fellowship to fund all students to enroll in environmental ethics and policy environmental studies program at the undergraduate level student projects that address the ethical implications of courses. The program prioritizes the “connectedness of or can instead earn their self-directed undergraduate or particular environmental challenges. Past projects have disciplines” while encouraging students to take advantage graduate degrees through the school’s unique limited-resi- questioned the philosophical underpinnings of sustain- of top-tier research facilities. Another perk? With the help dency program. Why contemplate the future of nature and ability, solar power accessibility and agriculture, among of the Western Undergraduate Exchange (www.wiche.edu/ humanity in a fluorescent-lit classroom when you could do other issues. The center also publishes articles, blogs and wue), students from most Western states can attend for it while climbing a mountain, paddling a river or actively podcasts that address urgent challenges in applied ethics, reduced tuition. helping communities become more sustainable? including a 12-part short course on environmental ethics available for free online. Students enrolled in The Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California Santa Barbara can earn an interdisciplinary doctorate or master’s in environmental science and management (MESM). Students interested in ethics benefit from the program’s affiliation with the campus-based Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, religion, and Public Life, which organizes internships and lectures. other resources include the UC Center for the Environmental implications of Nanotechnology and the Center for Energy and Environ- mental Economics.

The 2011 Prescott College winter wilderness orientation in the Grand Canyon. CoUrTESY PrESCoTT CoLLEgE ArCHivE

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30 High Country News January 19, 2015 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE COlORAdO IdAhO Colorado State University’s Department of Philosophy Scholars at the University of (philosophy.colostate.edu) offers one of the West’s oldest Idaho can earn a master’s in and most robust environmental philosophy programs. Un- environmental philosophy through dergraduate and graduate students can select from cours- the Philosophy Department es including bioethics and society, ethics of sustainability, (uidaho.edu/class/philosophy). and philosophy of natural sciences. Despite the abundance Since 2013, the program has been of offerings, student interest outpaces available seating: “i home to a student-published ethics am dealing with emails from a dozen students right now journal titled The Hemlock Papers. who are trying to get into a course that is already full,” Students can also present their says environmental philosophy professor Philip Cafaro. research at the annual inland With its campus located in Fort Collins within sight of Northwest Philosophy Conference, rocky Mountain National Park, students are encouraged organized this year by Boise State to engage with the land as well as the academic commu- University and Washington State nity. After reveling in the high country, they can “contex- University. tualize their euphoria” with full-time faculty member Katie McShane, whose past research includes finding the most effective ways to articulate a sense of wonder within larger environmental policy discussions. Also at the base of the rocky Mountains, the Univer- sity of Colorado Boulder offers multiple opportunities for students interested in environmental philosophy. The Philosophy Department, a leader in the field of applied ethics, offers a graduate certificate in environment, policy and society. Meanwhile, the Environmental Studies Department (colorado.edu/envs) provides students with master’s or doctorate programs with an ethics-heavy “theory and values” concentration. No matter which program they choose, students stand to benefit from the close ties between CSU philosophy professor the departments. The university also hosts the Center for Philip Cafaro takes graduate values and Social Policy (colorado.edu/philosophy/center), students on a hike in the Red Feather Lakes area of the which supports research, organizes conferences and spon- Roosevelt National Forest. sors lectures on the relevant applications of ethics. CoUrTESY PHiLiP CAFAro

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32 High Country News January 19, 2015 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE MONtANA features historically marginalized ethical perspectives Nature and the Written Word. it doesn’t take long at the University of Montana to including deep ecology, ecofeminism and indigenous one of the only universities in the nation to offer a abandon the stereotype of philosophy students hiding out philosophy. The program also manages the environmental bachelor’s in environmental ethics and policy, the Uni- in the library. Missoula prides itself in being the closest leadership program, which places its students in local versity of Portland (college.up.edu/envscience) uses urban center to any wilderness area in the United States nonprofits, businesses and governmental agencies. a Catholic theological framework that emphasizes social — only a short drive to the largest contiguous wilderness Oregon State University’s Department of Philoso- justice to address the underlying ethics of its academic area in the Lower 48. Don’t want to take that much time phy offers a master’s in applied ethics with an emphasis in offerings. Located in the famously progressive city of away from your studies? Mountain bike trails leave directly environmental philosophy. The program requires students Portland, the university offers access to a wide variety of from campus. The Philosophy Department (cas.umt.edu/ to actively analyze and engage with ethical issues in the environmental nonprofit organizations. Steven Kolmes, phil) offers a master’s in environmental philosophy along field, providing opportunities to do so through the Phrone- chair of the Environmental Studies Department, says that with coursework for undergraduates. The program requires sis Lab for ethics research. For students with a more literary students flock to environmental ethics courses, including students to carry out a three-credit internship with a local bent, the university also hosts the Spring Creek Project for next semester’s “Ethics in Sustainable Food.” nonprofit. (Fortunately, Missoula boasts one of the highest per capita rates of nonprofits in the country.) The Envi- ronmental Studies Department (cas.umt.edu/evst) also offers a number of ethically oriented courses, including “Ethical issues of Ecological restoration” and “greening of religion.”

ORegON The University of Oregon prides itself on one of the strongest interdisciplinary environmental studies programs in the nation, with over 100 faculty members across a wide number of departments, so it is not surprising that it also possesses one of the strongest environmental philosophy programs as well. Doctoral candidates in the environmental sciences, studies and policy program (envs.uoregon. edu/graduate/doctoral) can choose philosophy as their focal department. The two departments also collaborate Students do research on grazed land as part of a class University of Oregon students gather stories to on “Ethical Issues in Restoration Monitoring” at the promote stewardship of the McKenzie River, Eugene’s to produce the journal Environmental Philosophy, one of University of Montana. only water source. the premier peer-reviewed journals in the field. Coursework CoUrTESY DANiEL SPENCEr CoUrTESY AYLiE BAKEr

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36 High Country News January 19, 2015 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE UtAh WyOMINg Students seeking a master’s of arts or science or a doctor- in order to serve undergraduates who are not majoring in ate in philosophy and applied ethics can find plenty of op- philosophy but still want a strong foundation in environ- portunities at the University of Utah (philosophy.utah. mental ethics, the University of Wyoming has created edu/graduate). The program works closely with the Col- an environmental values minor. Faculty in the Philosophy lege of Business, College of Law and School of Medicine to Department (uwyo.edu/philosophy) see it as a way to allow its students to pursue multiple degrees concurrently. provide “a vital link” between the humanities and the it also offers a joint program with the institute of Human natural and social sciences. Coursework explores the “aes- genetics, located on campus. With 19 full-time faculty thetics, culture, ethics, and policy” associated with current (not all of them specializing in environmental ethics), the environmentalism. The school’s location in Laramie, pop- department boasts small class sizes and close interaction ulation 30,000, allows students plenty of extracurricular with instructors. opportunity to contemplate the aesthetics of the nearby Laramie Mountains.

Philosophy students from the University of Wyoming gather at Table in the Wilderness camp near Centennial, Wyoming, to study stoicism for the annual Stoic Camp. While the camp is not a lesson in environmental ethics, students get the opportunity to explore the outdoors while considering the relationship between themselves and nature. CoUrTESY DEPArTMENT oF PHiLoSoPHY, UNivErSiTY oF WYoMiNg

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38 High Country News January 19, 2015 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE BeyONd the WeSt a master’s or doctorate in philosophy with a concentration philosophers alike. Three times a year, the center poses a At the University of Victoria’s School of Environmental in environmental ethics. new “Question for a resilient Future,” in order to spark con- Studies (uvic.ca/socialsciences/environmental), located in The International Society for environmental structive public dialogue. recent questions include: How beautiful victoria, British Columbia, students seeking their ethics (enviroethics.org) also provides online resources for far should we go to bring back lost species? Does hunting bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate can choose from three students, faculty and the general public. Since 1990, the make us human? And what does the Earth ask from us? interdisciplinary research areas: ethnoecology, ecological organization has facilitated discussions between environ- restoration or political ecology. Undergraduates can also mental philosophers around the world. it also manages an minor in the human dimensions of climate change or online bibliography with over 16,000 entries. conduct research through the intergovernmental Pacific ready to tackle the big questions yourself? the There are many other environmental philosophy pro- institute for Climate Solutions, which is hosted by the Center for humans and Nature (humansandnature. grams out there — too many to list. if you know of one university. org) has created an online forum for scholars and armchair that merits attention, tweet it to us @highcountrynews. The University of Alaska Anchorage’s Philosophy Department (uaa.alaska.edu/philosophy) has created a certificate in applied ethics for undergraduates interested in entering any number of professional career tracks while seeking working knowledge in ethics. Though the certifi- John Nolt, from the University of Tennessee, and cate program is not devoted solely to environmental con- Umberto Sconfienza, from Tilburg University, below, listen to a talk at the annual International Society for cerns, in the course of their studies students can enroll in Environmental Ethics meeting. On a hike during the upper-level environmental ethics courses for engineering, meeting, left, philosophers experience the wind and business and law. With the long winter nights and sub-zero the earth like low-laying alpine plants. CoUrTESY iNTErNATioNAL SoCiETY For ENviroNMENTAL ETHiCS temperatures — and a campus shared by dozens of moose — students might be glad to spend hours contemplating the big questions inside the comforts of the gorgeous UAA/APU Consortium Library. Even though the University of North texas is located a few degrees east of the 100th meridian, its environmental philosophy offerings deserve a place in this list. The Department of Philosophy and religion is home to the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Ethics as well as to the Center for Environmental Philosophy (cep.unt.edu), a nonprofit that provides a number of online resources for anyone interested in the field. graduate students can earn

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The World’s Largest Interfaith Event Salt Lake, Utah. Oct. 15 - 19 Climate Change Wealth Gap War & Violence

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www.hcn.org High Country News 43 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE The New, New West

44 High Country News January 19, 2015 By NAThANIEL KENNON PERKINs, 2014 BELL PRIzE WINNER

landscape reflects the decaying décor of the dusty rooms in the as climate change and that the much-sought-after and heavily now-empty cities. It is a sun-blasted hell. exploited natural resources were still abundant. By the time Not that there is no water at all: There is a little, but it they realized that it was simpler, not to mention cheaper, to is hoarded; the land is not allowed to use any of it. The few simply take what they wanted by force, even from their fellow remaining springs and parched aquifers and the pathetic trickle citizens, the collapse had been underway for generations. of piss that was once the mighty Colorado River have long since No, the post-apocalyptic era has come and gone: 2215 is in been privatized. In 2215, there is only water enough for the the middle of the Age of Endurance. And there are those who en- water company employees themselves, with just enough left dure. Not in the Southwest, where such a feat would be impossi- over to sell at an ultra-high premium to the fracking technicians ble without a private army and a bankroll the size of Shiprock, who pull hazard pay just for venturing into the desert during but farther north, where some rain still falls. Every day there hot daylight hours. The crews who film them for reality TV are more who dare to believe that the experiences of life should shows must import their own water, as must the heavily armed be richer than mere survival. Their goal remains distant, but private security firms that watch over and guard the billion-dol- they are working toward it with steadfast determination: by lar water and energy operations. showing gratitude for the land that gives them life, by growing You could describe this scene as “post-apocalyptic,” but the sustainable organic crops, by taking care not to overharvest the term has become embarrassingly outdated. By 2215, historians mushrooms and berries they forage from the forest, by abandon- WeB eXtRA The Bell Prize is HCN’s annual agree that the so-called apocalypse began hundreds of years ear- ing cattle with their stinky beef and eating only the meat that essay contest for lier, sometime in the 20th century. This was back when corpo- comes from the deer and elk that they respectfully hunt or from young writers. read rations and politicians were still pouring money into convincing the few salmon that they fish. They are healing by helping the the runner-up essay at some of the more gullible citizens that there was no such thing Earth to heal. In 2215, things are finally starting to change. www.hcn.org

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46 High Country News January 19, 2015 EDUCATION SPECIAL MARKETPLACE

aye Fissinger collects Don Quixote. 2013, to, most recently and significantly, Where — I met the diminutive 70-year-old at the state of New York, which overlays a K her home in a quiet subdivision of booming shale gas formation. and how Longmont, Colorado. Amid memorabilia Though many bans face long odds from her work in musical theater, black- in court — Longmont’s and others have — can we and-white portraits and an eye-popping already been shot down and are headed snapshot of her body-builder daughter, for appeals — activists and local officials the man of La Mancha stared from prints keep fighting. “We’re in it for the long say ‘yes’ to and paintings, posed in wooden statu- haul,” Fissinger told me emphatically. ettes and porcelain figurines. “Fracking is a toxic, extreme energy oil and gas “Why Quixote?” I asked. extraction method. I don’t think it can be She regarded me over gold-rimmed made safe.” drilling? glasses, a smile quirking her mouth. “Be- The prospect of a drill rig towering cause he tilts at windmills,” she said. over one’s home would terrify just about In a way, so does Fissinger, but hers anyone, me included. But I still felt Essay By are the oil-drilling rigs that have popped conflicted: A near-term transition from oil up lately in her area. She looked comput- and gas is profoundly unlikely. Natural er-tired, clad in a white turtleneck, her gas is slowly supplanting coal as a prima- sarah hair pulled into a ponytail. She led me up- ry electricity-generating fuel. Petroleum stairs to a cluttered home office, cleared a runs our planes, trains and automobiles. Gilman stack of documents from a chair and urged Both make it into a dizzying array of me to sit. When she came here from L.A. plastics and personal care products. in 2006, she explained, she was worried The corporate machine of hydrocar- about the separation of church and state. bon development contains a ghost. And She didn’t yet realize that the plains the ghost in that machine is us. Until further to the northeast were pin-cush- that changes, every fracking ban — Long- ioned with tens of thousands of wells, mont’s, Mora County’s, New York’s — no many of them hydraulically fractured, or matter how heroic and justified, simply fracked — a process that involves firing pushes drilling somewhere else. I wanted water, sand and chemicals thousands of to know: Where are we saying yes to such feet underground at incomprehensible development, and how can we say it in a pressures — or that the boom had inten- way that lessens impacts on landscapes sified in recent years. and people? Then one day in 2011, an automated I had one hunch. To see if it bore out, I phone survey asked her an odd question: rented a red Chevy Cruze, filled the tank, How would she feel if drilling took place and got behind the wheel. “Remaining on Longmont open space? “Radar, radar!” Oil Life: 97%” blinked on the dash. How she exclaimed. A company, it turned out, appropriate, I thought, and drove west, lined ponds: The final resting place for the had proposed drilling around a local toward Energy Country. waste from the drilling operations I had reservoir. The more she learned, the more passed in western Colorado. she worried. She thought of her great- I wasN’t thE oNly loNE DrIvEr headed In their 2003 report, What Every West- grandkids. A lung cancer survivor, she into the mountains on I-70; hundreds of us erner Should Know About Energy, histo- thought of her respiratory health. She sped along in Subarus, Tacomas and other rian Patty Limerick and her colleagues thought about the flat lot near her house sporty rigs — Colorado cockroaches, we observe that there seems to be nowhere that might be a perfect place for a rig. call them — likely bound for the outdoor left to put energy infrastructure without And in 2012, she helped found the meccas around the Continental Divide. a fight. “We have run out,” they wrote, “of nonprofit Our Health, Our Future, Our But once the resort bedroom community unloved and unlovely places.” Clearly they Longmont, which spearheaded a ballot of Glenwood Springs was in my rearview, weren’t talking about this spot, I thought, initiative that made the city the first in traffic thinned. The tiny Cruze wobbled peering across the chain-link fence at the Colorado to ban fracking. The next fall, in the wake of scattered semis ferrying stagnant water and plugging my nose. despite industry’s expensive counter-cam- goods. Compressor stations and natural To the northwest, exploding from the paign, several other Front Range com- gas well pads lined the roadsides. Not far flat expanse of weed-scattered earth, the munities followed suit. Places across the west of the Colorado-Utah line, I pulled Book Cliffs looked like a better example West and the country have also joined in, off at the exit for Danish Flat. There, amid of a lovely, loved place. Beyond their rims from rural Mora County, New Mexico, in eerie silence, was a vast complex of plastic- stretch great swaths of unbroken piñon-

48 High Country News January 19, 2015 Sacrifice Zone

www.hcn.org High Country News 49 derness study area that encloses a stretch Hundreds of young families — many of the river’s west flank. The promontory pregnant or toting infants or both — we stood on was part of Horse Bench, an milled around a circuit of jack-o-lantern unroaded sagebrush mesa sweeping to the dioramas and a giant pallet fire while an northeast, backed by a pastel layer cake of old-time band strummed sweet-sounding buttes. On a primitive road at the field’s harmonies. I felt on edge as I lined up for edge, I found black bear tracks threaded a cheeseburger: Could they tell I hailed along the tire marks of an oilfield services from Boulder, Colorado, an epicenter of pickup. anti-fracking sentiment? I had heard Bill Barrett had legal right to drill in stories of public meetings here where all three places, and had proposed nearly the mere suggestion of limiting drilling 240 wellpads there. But it relinquished incited virtual riots. But a teenage girl in plans for all but a half-dozen of those, a Nirvana T-shirt, with ratted hair and sparing some 65,000 acres of wilderness a face painted like a sugar skull, offered quality land, in exchange for SUWA’s me a shy smile along with my food. agreement not to sue to delay the entire I sat down at a picnic table next to a project, most of which sprawls farther woman named Ellen Mecham, who point- from the canyon to the west. The cluster of ed out her father picking a guitar at the remaining wellpads that Mohsen showed far end of the bandstand. She wore dark me that day were near historic wellpads eye makeup and her hair in stiff black that the company has since reoccupied, spikes and bounced a fussy granddaugh- and their infrastructure was set out of ter in her lap. She grew up in the nearby sight below ground, with seasonal restric- town of Gusher, she told me: “Lots of “if you want a tions on drilling to avoid disturbing boat- time outside, not much TV.” All three of except for one thing: “It would pretty ers. Jarring as the naked scrapes of earth her brothers work in the oil fields; her much just be lonely pumpjacks. All those sacrifice zone, were, they clearly beat the alternative. mother, sitting across from her, also tanks would go away.” Instead of being move it to The deal — the largest of a handful counted a son-in-law. Nearly everyone I stored on individual well pads, oil and of similar compromises SUWA has since spoke to said the same: Multiple mem- other fluids would be pumped through Boulder. let’s made — seemed like a win-win from here. bers, multiple generations. Hydrocarbons bundles of black piping to giant central- have big money It also openly made the judgment implied run deep here: in the ground and in the ized plants where off-gassing chemi- in every fracking ban: Some places are blood of the people. cals are much easier to contain. These fight big money more valuable than others. “Part of the Below our feet stretched the same thousands of individual, widely scattered and see who thinking was to push development back geologic treasure trove that contains tanks are, it turns out, a major source of to stay next to existing development, and West Tavaputs’ gas. The Uinta Basin has air pollution, as are the trucks required comes out the that way limit new roads, new intrusions, tar sands, oil shale, even obsidian-esque to service them. winner.” new infrastructure,” SUWA attorney Da- gilsonite, used in inks and drilling fluids. If all the companies developing here vid Garbett had told me earlier. Because Natural gas and oil have been produced adopted similarly stringent controls, as —Herm Hoops, Jensen, Utah, resident the group’s focus is on wilderness protec- here for decades. The bulk of that devel- they increasingly must under Utah’s tion, from its perspective, “once oil and opment — more than 10,000 active wells and the U.S. Environmental Protection gas is a use in an area, it’s the dominant — is concentrated several miles south- Agency’s tightening air quality rules, use. It’s already a sacrifice zone.” west of Jensen and Vernal in the central then perhaps the basin really can sustain That’s not an unusual sentiment part of the basin, in an area informally the more than 25,000 new wells projected among conservationists working on oil called The Fairway. What’s another 1,000, in the coming decades. I tried to picture and gas issues, particularly in politically even 10,000, wells in a place like that? their sprawl: the perfect place to drill, conservative states: With limited re- That Saturday, Mike Stiewig, who colonized to the max. But the scale was so sources, many opt for triage, focusing on oversees much of the development as mind-bogglingly vast that I couldn’t help protecting superlatively beautiful places BLM’s Vernal Field Office manager, drove but doubt the premise of my trip. or intact islands of important wildlife me through The Fairway’s west side. I The fact that controls like those in habitat — just as the Fissingers of the could see what SUWA’s Garbett meant: Monument Butte even exist in such a world work to protect their communi- A web of connecting roads and dozens rural part of Utah is evidence that devel- ties — while actively or tacitly accepting of densely spaced pumpjacks, tanks and opment is already hitting some very real development in other places. That same wellpads stretched to the horizon across limits. When wintertime inversions seal compass of reasoning suggested I might dun-colored grass, amid plumes of dust oilpatch pollutants into the valley like a find what I had come for in the gray area kicked up by service trucks. Each pump- giant Tupperware lid, ozone levels here between the two, in places already drilled jack’s engine blatted with backfires, accu- spike well beyond federal limits designed enough that more could be tolerated. And mulating into a low frequency thrum like to protect human health. The gas can it pointed due north from West Tavaputs, a swarm of approaching bees. Whatever harm healthy lungs and exacerbate exist- to the massive oil and gas fields at the might have been lost here looked like it ing respiratory problems. Some of the heart of the Uinta Basin. was already long gone. primary chemicals that contribute to its As I pulled down the main drag Stiewig showed me the Monument formation, called volatile organic com- toward my hotel in Vernal, Utah, a sign Butte field, where one company hopes to pounds — including benzene, a potent for a juice bar and camo seat-cover shop drill over 5,000 new wells, more than half carcinogen — also collect in the valley’s popped into view: “I DRILLING.” likely from the wellpads of thousands communities at high-enough concentra- Perhaps, I thought, “tolerated” is the it already operates. It’s basically infill, tions to warrant further scrutiny. But wrong word. like when new homes and businesses are thanks in part to a lack of year-round built within a dense urban core instead of monitoring and comprehensive studies, oN a chIlly NIght the weekend be- leapfrogging across old farmland as far- the health risks they pose remain myste- fore Halloween, I visited the Pumpkin flung suburbs. “The appearance wouldn’t rious. It leaves some residents wondering, Festival in Jensen, southeast of Vernal. really change much,” Stiewig explained, especially given reports of birth defects,

50 High Country News January 19, 2015 increased infant mortality and other subdivisions, and soon enough, the giant and require weird health problems near drilling sites scaffolds of drill rigs came into view, companies to here and elsewhere. towering over car dealerships, strip malls test nearby The day before I left the Uinta Basin, and houses, with the massive pyramidal groundwater I went back to Jensen to visit a curmud- bulk of Long’s Peak looming to the west before and geonly river rat named Herm Hoops. on the Front Range skyline. I looked after drilling. Oar blades engraved with the names of at the dash: “Remaining Oil Life: 74%.” Most notably, last winter it passed Well the rapids that broke them from their Perhaps Hoops was right, I thought. If strict industry air pollution controls that pads dot the shafts decorated his garage; rare books we’re worried about peoples’ health and are the first in the nation that aim to landscape in Utah’s on historic river expeditions shared shelf welfare, and if we truly value the wilder curtail releases of methane, the primary Uinta Basin, above space with volumes by Mary Oliver and parts of the world, then our wealthy and component of natural gas that also hap- left. George Burnett, Ellen Meloy in his living room. Stocky bustling suburbs and cities are exactly pens to be a potent greenhouse gas. owner of Covers & and boisterous with a full beard, Hoops where we should be drilling. Not because “It’s sort of like in forestry,” Pete Mor- Camo in Vernal, regaled me with tales of many trips down anyone deserves the accompanying night- ton, a Boulder-based economist with the holds a sign outside Desolation, including one that involved mares, but because no one does. Conservation Economics Institute who in support of the oil boom that has hiking dozens of miles overland back to Drilling was going strong in the served with The Wilderness Society for made Vernal the civilization after getting stuck in an ice West’s rural oil and gas basins long be- 18 years, told me over breakfast at Hotel nation’s sixth- jam early in the year. fore fractivists like Fissinger began fight- Boulderado. The sound of jazzy music fastest-growing “There are nights when we can’t sleep ing, long before fracking was a household and clinking flatware wafted over the “micropolitan area” with the windows open,” Hoops told me. word. But companies have figured out mostly empty tables as a hard rain fell of 10,000 to 50,000 Hydrogen sulfide gas pools around the how to develop much more of our energy outside. “They used to put in the beauty people. Michael collier, above house, pouring in from an old oil field and domestically, tapping giant, once-mar- strip to hide the clear-cut. What we’ve left; aP Photo/the Salt complex of waste evaporation ponds down ginal reserves and drilling more wells done is cut down the beauty strip on oil lake tribune, franciSco the road. He gave me directions to see at a faster pace to maintain production. and gas. Now we have all these eyes on kjolSeth, above more; there are about 160 such ponds in As drilling has reached more densely industry.” And some companies are clear- the basin, each adding its own chemical populated areas in the West, or rural ly paying attention. When Colorado of- vapors to the hazy air. A bitter cold west areas not far from places like New York ficials rolled out those new air measures, wind kicked up while we spoke; when I City, oil and gas development has at last they did so alongside representatives stepped out the door, the smell of rotten begun grabbing regular national media from three of the state’s major operators, eggs slammed me in the face. I headed coverage. And vastly more people have Noble Energy, Anadarko Petroleum and south, then southwest, descending through been forced to directly confront the costs Encana, which worked collaboratively scrub-topped benches and knobs of painted of something they’ve always used freely. with the pragmatic environmental group earth, all of it dotted with gas wells. In That awareness is already having an Environmental Defense Fund and the the distance beyond, the Green River impact, inspiring reams of new research state to help develop the proposal. carved toward Desolation. From here, the into how development affects air, ground- More significant, though, is what land between looked no less lovely, no less water, health, economies and more. It’s this new awareness may do to galva- worthy of protection. “There’s enough drill- helped spur both federal and state govern- nize action around the root cause of the ing here,” Hoops had told me. “If you want ments to begin reining in an industry problem: our own energy use. As Patty a sacrifice zone, move it to Boulder. Let’s that had long enjoyed a regulatory carte Limerick told me before I embarked on have big money fight big money and see blanche. Colorado, arguably the Western my journey, those same suburbs rail- who comes out the winner.” focus of this clash, is widely regarded as a ing against drilling were enabled by the leader, though its rules are hardly perfect. availability of cheap gasoline. “We live,” aND so It was that my quEst led me Over the past several years, the state has Limerick said, “in the era of improbable back home. As I drove down I-25 toward moved to better protect wildlife, force discomfort made possible by a taken-for- Longmont and Boulder, ranchland and closure of jealously guarded fracking fluid granted but truly astonishing infrastruc- sporadic cornfields gave way to new chemicals, increase setbacks from homes, ture. Now that we have peoples’ atten-

www.hcn.org High Country News 51 tion, maybe this production-consumption carbons in time to avert the worst effects of innovation and invention and creates thing can get thought about.” climate change. No matter how completely opportunities.” In other words, “no” can There are signs that this is beginning we might mitigate drilling’s local impacts, squeeze us toward an acceptable “yes.” to happen on a scale that transcends a few no matter how carefully we protect special And expanding development is giving “They used solar homes and plug-in vehicles, Morton places, near or far, oil and gas develop- us a bigger, more widespread NO than, told me. Liberal Boulder, often dismissed ments ultimate externality, global climate perhaps, we’ve ever heard before — a “no” to put in the as the ultimate Not-In-My-Back-Yard change, still looms. that seems to hint at genuine change. beauty strip community, is trying to become its own It’s a conundrum that demands the With the rise of fractivism, “you have electrical utility in order to reshape its “ideal future” that Yi-Fu Tuan envisioned people who were never involved in these to hide the power supply around renewable sources in Topophilia, his seminal 1974 work on issues before, and they’re moving the goal clear-cut. What balanced by natural gas. As part of that cultural geography. A future wherein we posts 200 yards down the field,” Morton effort, a working group that includes give our deepest loyalties to home — the said as he polished off his eggs benedict. we’ve done is Morton is looking at how the city might place we love beyond all others, Tuan “I think it’s the rebirth of the environ- cut down the use its buying power to influence the way writes, the shelter of memory and family mental movement.” that gas is extracted by adopting environ- — and “at the other end of the scale, to beauty strip mental certification standards not unlike the whole earth.” oN a clEar NovEmbEr saturDay, Vic’s on oil and gas. those developed for the sustainable timber And therein lies the true power of the Coffee in north Boulder buzzed with hip industry. Someday, Boulder might replace hardliners’ “no.” “The reality is that we’re 20- and 30-somethings grabbing late- now we have all natural gas entirely with biogas, gener- not going to flip a switch tomorrow and morning lattes and pastries. Petroleum ated perhaps by excess manure from Gree- everything’s OK,” acknowledged Jeremy geologist Matt Silverman, a fit 61 years these eyes on ley, a former cowtown ironically positioned Nichols of the environmental group old with salt-and-pepper hair and a tidy industry.” in the midst of Colorado’s oil boom. WildEarth Guardians, which hopes to mustache, blended in surprisingly well, —Pete Morton, Boulder- Little of this comforts fractivists like leverage anti-fracking energy to influence lounging on the sunny patio. He led me based economist with the Fissinger, who worry that regulations are a public-land battles over oil and gas in to his SUV, apologized as he moved some Conservation Economics cynical political ploy that will only encour- the absence of higher-level climate policy. yoga equipment, then ushered me into Institute age people to embrace a dangerous and “But I don’t want to say, ‘(development) the front seat. inherently unsustainable status quo. And is OK here.’ Some of it is going to happen A little ways northeast of town, we indeed, whatever you believe about the whether I say yes or not. If no one points pulled off the road at a barbed-wire fence. risks of fracking and horizontal drilling, out the costs or says no, there’s really Beyond it, at the center of a wedge-shaped the techniques have ensured that scarcity not going to be incentive for anyone to plot of rib-high grass with a clear view of won’t be the crisis that weans us off hydro- develop something different. Crisis fuels Boulder’s iconic Flatirons, was an ancient-

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www.hcn.org High Country News 53 Occupy continued from page 23 ashamed. And then I got pissed. story about the fight for $15 an hour, pro- The healthcare law had been carefully filing one of the campaign’s leaders, Ter- about the climate fight being not just designed to win support from private rance Wise, a father of three who worked about the environment, but a web of insurance companies, but it still resulted at both Burger King and Pizza Hut and a lot of “intersecting oppressions.” I understood in crappy options that squeezed scrappy still had trouble paying rent and util- that poor communities of color had long people like us. It was hardly surprising, ity bills. When he asked his manager at things start- shouldered an unfair share of pollution, but it didn’t seem fair. Then it occurred Pizza Hut for a raise, she showed him the and that climate change promised to to me that maybe in that moment, I was pay policy, saying she could boost his pay ed converging punch them hardest again. But was the angry about climate change, too. My basic at most 25 cents after three years, even climate fight really of a piece with the complaints about the healthcare reform though he made less than $8 an hour. “If I in my mind: immigration fight? The struggle against sounded pretty similar to the critique gave you 25 cents,” he recalled being told, Occupy. The police brutality? The connections weren’t the activists I spoke with made about the “that means you’re perfect.” always obvious, and in any case, was it failed 2010 federal climate bill: It tweaked “It makes me angry, and you should fast food possible or practical to take on everything a broken system at its edges, appeasing be angry, that these billion-dollar corpora- that was wrong with the world at once? polluters for political viability rather than tions are robbing from my kids and your workers’ Then, on a December evening, after proposing the kind of changes the crisis kids,” Wise said in the story. “So we’re “Fight for wrestling with writer’s block in my actually demanded. It was a false solu- going to have to stand up and fight back.” Santa Fe office, I tackled what seemed tion, people told me, and many didn’t care It was the same sentiment I’d heard in the $15.” The like a more manageable task: applying that it failed. I thought about their argu- Book Cliffs. People wanted a society with a for health insurance through the new ment about “root causes,” and recognized little more humanity, one whose outcomes outrage and marketplace. I’d left my staff job at High twinges of their anger in myself. are less determined by corporations that Country News about seven months earlier, A lot of things started converging in serve only their shareholders, valuing prof- despair over to see if I could make it independently. my mind: Occupy. The fast food workers’ its above the stability of the atmosphere or the killings My husband, a potter, had also recently “Fight for $15.” The outrage and despair the dignity of their workers. started his own business. I typed in our over the killings by police of Michael When I first arrived at the vigil, I by police unimpressive income, and up popped our Brown, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner. All imagined the activists as agitators on options. The cheapest plan would cost had one thing in common: the sense that the fringe of the environmental move- of Michael around $225 a month. If we had a baby, our society is designed to work for some ment. They saw themselves, instead, as Brown, Tamir a brochure informed me, it would cover and not for others, with the balance tip- one twitchy muscle in a much broader $1,240 of average delivery costs, and we’d ping ever more in favor of those who need and building unrest. I was starting to see rice and Eric pay $6,300. This was insurance, new and the least help. When I applied for health them that way, too. improved? None of it was affordable. None insurance, I felt something similar: The Be as frank as possible. They’re not Garner. ... of it. As I drove home, I cried alone in my deck was stacked, against me. like regular people. That may be true, but car, then a little more in my kitchen. I felt The New York Times recently ran a these are not regular times. n

54 High Country News January 19, 2015 A protester sits atop a pile of rocks dug from the pit at the PR Springs site. courtesy tar sands resistance

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Postcards from Fire

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hearD arounD The WeST | by JonaThan ThomPSon

BoVinE rEtriBution still higher than this time last year) and rents Many things define the West: our vast swaths of in the boomiest of the boomtowns, Williston, public land, our fiercely independent spirit and, North Dakota. According to Craigslist, in early of course, our cows and the zany — sometimes January, Williston rents were holding steady, disturbing — ways we interact with them, i.e., hovering in the stratosphere: Two-bedroom whether living or dead. Consider this Salt Lake apartments are still listed for up to $2,500. In Tribune headline: “Dead cow clogs Utah slot other words, the boom hasn’t busted. Yet. We canyon; rancher’s impromptu barbecue makes checked out the “Bakken Oilfield Fail of the things worse.” You know you want to know what Day” Facebook page, which documents equip- happened. Well, in early December, the cow ment breakdowns and truck crashes, and also in question ambled down Peek-a-Boo canyon serves as a general soundboard for oil-patch in southern Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante workers and residents. There, opinion regarding National Monument, apparently unaware that oil prices is also mixed, with some posters fore- ungulates of its ilk are forbidden. When the casting an imminent crash (“work has definitely cow’s owner found out, he headed out on his slowed down the last two months”), while others ATV (also forbidden) to retrieve the cow. Slot cling, cautiously, to optimism. (“Take a deep canyons are skinny; the cow was not, and it breath. Do not jump ship. This is the patch. It became irretrievably jammed. The frustrated always bounces back.”) And some, though con- rancher then shot and killed the cow. He tried cerned about the impact of low oil prices, see a to extract the carcass, first by butchering it, silver lining, particularly when it comes to what then by burning it. Neither succeeded. As of they regard as justice for local landlords: “What mid-December, monument staff were still trying goes around comes around. I hope their greed to remove the carcass. In the meantime, hikers comes back to bite them in the a--.” caliFornia The sign says it all.carolYn rosnEr are forewarned: That thing that smells like a charred, dead cow really is. arounD thE WEst And in Pocatello, Idaho, a cow escaped the ariZona In Wyoming, a man was shot by his dog when the frying pan in December only to end up in the Rural Westerners are so accustomed to seeing dog jumped on a loaded rifle in the backseat line of fire. An unhappy heifer bolted from a bears roam residential streets that they barely of the car. The man survived; the dog, as far butcher shop’s chopping block, racing out into notice. Except in suburban Mesa, Arizona, as we know, avoided arrest, without having to the town. Local cops gave chase, and the desper- where a single black bear sighting sent every- argue about standing its ground. Twenty-one ate cow rammed an animal-control truck and one into a tizzy. After local television channels elk died in Colorado after falling through the ice two police cars, according to the Idaho State showed aerial footage of the bear “on the loose” on a reservoir south of Pagosa Springs. When a Journal. Police officers, concerned about the (as if bears aren’t supposed to be “on the loose”), moose was buried by an avalanche in Hatcher safety of residents, shot the cow once, without running from wildlife officials through an alfalfa Pass, Alaska, in late December, a group of result, then again, fatally. The former cow was field à la O.J. Simpson in his Ford Bronco, folks passing snowmobilers dug it out. “It didn’t even returned to the meat-processing facility from headed out to watch the show in person. Social fight us,” a rescuer told Alaska Dispatch News. whence it escaped. media was abuzz, and the bear even got his own “It was like, ‘Help me. Help me.’ It was totally Meanwhile, in Salmon, Idaho, cows have Twitter account. Unlike the Pocatello runaway docile and let us touch it. It just (lay) there.” been vanishing at an alarming rate. Modern-day cow, the bear was deemed no threat, and it The moose survived, apparently unharmed. rustlers are believed to be trying to cash in on eluded its tranquilizer-dart-shooting pursuers And officials from Canada’s national parks are high beef prices. It’s a logical explanation. But for several days. Finally, on Christmas Day, it placing red plastic chairs, costing $550 per pair, then again, with cows elsewhere hiding out in was captured and relocated to more bear-appro- at various locations in the parks to help people slot canyons and busting out of butcher shops, priate habitat in nearby mountains. “connect with nature.” you gotta wonder. … Is the Cow Liberation Moo- vement to blame? thE oil Patch WEB EXTRA For more from heard around the West, see If you want to see how plunging petroleum prices www.hcn.org. are affecting oil country, look at applications for tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and drilling permits (down), rig counts (down, but often shared in this column. Write [email protected].