SPECIAL ISSUE High Country ForN people whoews care about the West September 18, 2017 | $5 | Vol. 49 No. 16 | www.hcn.org 16 49 No. | $5 Vol. 2017 18, September NO How the West is confronting HOAX the reality of climate change Left: A pinhead-sized pteropod, its shell corroded by ocean acidification, seen through a scanning electron microscope. Pteropods form the basis of a marine food web that includes everything from seabirds to Pacific salmon. Center: A child from the Iñupiaq village of Selawik walks near the shore in northwest Alaska. The community faces coastal erosion from climate change. Right: Farmer Jenni Medley checks on seedlings beneath a grow light in Homer, Alaska. Along with climate change and concerns about food security, new technology is expanding the possibilities of what can be grown in the Far North. 12 COURE T SY NATASHA R. CHRISTMAN/ WAShingtON OCEAN ACIDificatiON CENTER ALASKA REGION U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE NO HOAX How the West is confronting the reality of climate change Editor’s note This summer, we met our new reality Climate change is no longer a fighting more than 40 active wildfires in Montana alone. hypothetical threat from some distant Well over 600,000 acres have already burned there, with no future. This summer, it showed up in end in sight. force. Hurricanes and wildfires are real threats to life and In Texas, Hurricane Harvey property. They cost lives and money, and while they cannot pummeled the Gulf Coast and be prevented, they can be prepared for. But doing so inundated Houston, dumping many requires acknowledging that these extreme weather events trillions of gallons of water in rain and causing so much are bound to get worse, and that is something our current damage it will take years for the state to recover. There is policymakers can’t seem to do. The president insists that no definitive science saying that climate change causes climate change is a “hoax” and won’t allow government specific hurricanes. But what we do know is that global agencies to even mention it. warming has raised sea levels, which strengthens hurricane In this issue, we’re asking a seemingly obvious question: storm surges. It also increases precipitation, the real What if — just what if — climate change is not a hoax? destructor in Texas. That’s because warmer air holds more What if there is no global conspiracy of scientists (or the water, which falls as rain — in the case of Harvey, record- Chinese) manipulating data to trick people into reducing breaking rain that has caused perhaps $180 billion in the use of fossil fuel? Who in the American West accepts Complete access damage. the reality of climate change and is working to lessen its to subscriber-only Montana, meanwhile, has a different problem. In the impact? We sent writers across the region, from the Pacific content past century, the state has warmed by about 2 degrees Coast to Alaska, Arizona to Wyoming, to see where and HCN’s website hcn.org Fahrenheit. Heat waves are more common than they once how climate change is affecting the West, its people and Digital edition were, and drought has killed trees, dried soil and increased its politics. What we learned is that though the West is hcne.ws/digi-4916 the risk of wildfires. The Environmental Protection Agency extremely vulnerable to a changing climate, it is also full of estimated in 2016 that the number of above-100-degree people who are determined to address it. If only that were Follow us days that Montana experiences each year is likely to true of our national leaders, flying over flood-stricken Texas double. This summer, drought and dry weather have created or fire-ravaged Montana and wondering why in the heck a terrible fire season. At the time of this writing, 4,000 things seem so out of control. @highcountrynews firefighters, 125 aircraft and 350 National Guard troops are —Brian Calvert, editor-in-chief 2 High Country News September 18, 2017 Contributors Maya L. Kapoor is an associate editor with HCN. She writes about science and the environment in the urbanizing West. KAPOOR Sarah Amandolare is a freelance journalist published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Scientific American Mind and elsewhere. AMANDOLARE Paige 6 24 Blankenbuehler ALASKA REGION U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE KRISTA LangLOIS is an assistant editor at HCN. @PaigeBlank NO HOAX How the West is confronting the reality of climate change BLANKENBUEHLER Lyndsey Gilpin writes on climate CONTENTS FEATURES and environmental justice and is the 12 Buying Time How the Pacific Northwest is confronting editor of Southerly, the threat of ocean acidification By Maya L. Kapoor a newsletter for the American South. INSIDE @lyndseygilpin GILPIN 6 Tribes commit to uphold Paris climate agreement Western nations take action on climate change — and push for self-governance By Lyndsey Gilpin HCN correspondent 8 Going home again A young climate change researcher fights invasive plants Krista Langlois on her ancestral lands By Paige Blankenbuehler lives in Durango, 9 As cleaner fuels overtake the electricity market, Colorado, and Wyoming’s coal conundrum frequently covers By Joshua Zaffos can coal remain a linchpin of Wyoming’s economy? Alaska. 23 The Seri return to their roots Climate change threatens @ traditional ecological knowledge By Sarah Amandolare cestmoiLanglois 24 Farming the Last Frontier As climate change strains food security and LANGLOIS lengthens the growing season, more Alaskans are taking up farming By Krista Langlois On the cover Correspondent A pteropod, or sea 24 By the numbers The economics behind food security in the Frontier State Sarah Tory writes butterfly, collected By Krista Langlois from Paonia, Colorado. She by scientists from 30 Why religious communities are taking on waters off the West Greening the Gospel covers Utah, By Sarah Tory Coast, with a shell climate change environmental corroded by ocean justice and water acidification. Signs issues. include white DEPARTMENTS @tory_sarah lines, white spots TORY and pock marks. 4 LETTERS In extra-acidified Correspondent water, the small 5 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG snails don’t die right Joshua Zaffos away. Instead, they 10 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, Dear Friends writes from crumble, exhausting Fort Collins, their resources 81 EDUCATION MARKETPLACE Colorado. trying to repair @jzaffos their shells. 28 MARKETPLACE NTIA OnaL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC 32 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston ADMINISTRatiON ZAFFOS www.hcn.org High Country News 3 LETTERS Send letters to [email protected] or Editor, HCN, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. High Country News MORE ON distributed less accessible) public EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PUBLISHER GENERATION lands and trails, both Paul Larmer federal and state, are EDITOR-IN-CHIEF I am a member of one of managed for motorized Brian Calvert those California Sierra Club SENIOR EDITOR recreation. There are chapters that Jonathan Jodi Peterson very few refuges in the Thompson mentions in ART DIRECTOR state for those who are Cindy Wehling his excellent feature, “The seeking a quiet, natural, DEPUTY EDITOR, DIGITAL Bid for a Big Grid” (HCN, non-mechanized experi- Kate Schimel 8/21/17). Our concern has ASSOCIATE EDITORS ence free of the imme- Tay Wiles, been more about the fact Maya L. Kapoor diate and/or lingering that up to 25 percent of the ASSISTANT EDITORS impacts and conflicts of Paige Blankenbuehler, power transmitted long motorized recreational Anna V. Smith distances via high-voltage D.C. CORRESPONDENT vehicles like snowmo- power lines is lost dur- Elizabeth Shogren biles and ATVs. We’d be WRITERS ON THE RANGE ing transmission. Several surprised if most HCN EDITOR Betsy Marston California chapters have readers were aware, for ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR long argued for a Sierra Brooke Warren example, that — due to Club policy that promotes COPY EDITOR what we firmly believe distributed generation — Diane Sylvain is a misinterpretation CONTRIBUTING EDITORS local power generation for of a provision in the Tristan Ahtone, Cally local needs. Carswell, Sarah Gilman, Alaska Lands Act — Distributed generation Ruxandra Guidi, recreational snowmobil- Michelle Nijhuis, has the advantage not only Jonathan Thompson ing is generally allowed, of cutting transmission CORRESPONDENTS even in congressionally losses; smaller targets are Krista Langlois, Sarah designated wildernesses, Tory, Joshua Zaffos less appealing to terrorists, including those in na- EDITORIAL FELLOWS and the consequences of Emily Benson, CHRIS WILDT/ARTIZANS tional parks. Especially terrorist attacks on energy Rebecca Worby in winter, don’t count DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR infrastructure would be on a wilderness experi- Laurie Milford much more limited. ence — or even a fully PHILANTHROPY ADVISOR Distributed generation has a long Like the brothers Nunn in Thompson’s Alyssa Pinkerton natural one — on Alaska’s public lands. history and has been well studied. article, perhaps a whole new genera- DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT Motorized recreation in the 21st Christine List In fact, even the U.S. Department of tion of “pinheads” will gain excitement, century certainly has its place — but MARKETING & PROMOTIONS Energy has a report on the subject, pub- get the wheels turning, and keep on not seemingly everywhere. The adverse MANAGER JoAnn Kalenak lished in 2007: The Potential Benefits trucking to something sustainable. The WEB DEVELOPER effects of poorly regulated motorized Eric Strebel of Distributed Generation and Rate- Nevada article delightfully made it DaTABASE/IT ADMINISTRATOR recreation are many. Natural sounds Related Issues That May Impede Their clear that many of these new pinheads Alan Wells and natural quiet are of course de- DIRECTOR OF ENGAGEMENT Expansion. are women. graded, as are clean air and water, soils Gretchen King I would have liked to see the distrib- Kate Niles and vegetation, wildlife, and intangible ACCOUNTANT uted generation option discussed in Jon- Erica Howard Durango, Colorado values like wilderness character.