The public’s ability to weigh in on vital matters impacting human health, safety, and our ecological footprint is under grave threat. As part of its aggressive campaign of deregulation, the Trump Administration has been eliminating the opportunity for public comment on rules made by federal agencies.
In the early months of 2025, the Trump Administration issued a series of Executive Orders that declared economic growth a priority.
The Trump Administration, in its dedication to self- and industry enrichment, is hoping to sell a sacred cow: public lands. And while many such efforts have been defeated in the past, the current no-holds-barred growth regime elevates their chances of success.
Federal lands are set aside in all 50 U.S. states for the benefit of all Americans. Primarily in the American West, these lands span 640 million acres of natural resources,
Let’s forget about the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its questionably qualified quant for a moment. Regardless of their recklessness, getting to a sustainable budget is long overdue. Deficit spending adds to the public debt, a threat to the solvency of the United States. That’s why steady staters have long advocated for balanced budgets.
Furthermore, more spending requires a heavier ecological footprint.
We are in a brave new world, with an authoritarian as American president, a Senate ruled by his party, and a Supreme Court sidled up to them. This is a crushing defeat for the Democratic Party, immigrants, environmentalists, and women knocking on the glass ceiling. And it is truly bad for anyone concerned about their kids and grandkids, whether they know it or not.
The problem is not so much that our political leadership is Republican,
Has Elon Musk finally lost his mind? Seeing him cavorting on stage with Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, pouring tens of millions of dollars into the convicted felon’s presidential campaign and declaring that the upcoming election could be the last one ever, one might think so. But Musk’s political drift rightwards has long had an air of inevitability about it. And there is much more behind his new support for MAGA politics than meets the eye.
El Paso County is in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains in a region known as the “Front Range,” the mountains first encountered by settlers traveling westward from the Great Plains. The Front Range includes such wonders as Mount Blue Sky and Pikes Peak. But it also refers to a chain of cities and the urban spatial expansion between them that has propagated within and along the foothills.
Is it just our filter bubbles? Or is an understanding of the environmental impact of artificial intelligence (AI) slowly making its way into the mainstream? Recently, a spate of news stories have highlighted the hefty environmental footprint of AI. Take for instance this recent article by the Washington Post on the hidden water footprint of using AI chatbots. Or this article by The Guardian on how the greenhouse gas emissions of data centers may be almost eight times higher than large technology companies like Google or Microsoft will acknowledge.
“Harris wiped the floor with Trump.” At least that’s how today’s Washington Post kicked off a discussion among in-house columnists. But for voters who prioritize Planet Earth for present and future generations, the 2024 presidential election is a classic example of seeking the lesser of two evils. Neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump is a student—much less a champion—of sustainability. They probably think “limits to growth” pertains to poll results or crowd size.
Perhaps you’ve heard: Autocracy is on the march. Not just in the obvious places like Russia, China, and North Korea. Democracy has been declining throughout the world for decades, sometimes gradually, sometimes suddenly, but invariably replaced by autocratic tendencies, politicians, and states.
What’s going on in places as far-flung as Hungary, Myanmar, and Nicaragua? Why, after the lessons of world wars, the Cold War,