When friends visit, they always comment on the attractiveness of downtown Bozeman. It’s really a gem. Downtown property owners and the City of Bozeman are trying to raise awareness to an increase in “petty” crimes. Perhaps they can motivate people in the same manner that the Gallatin Valley Human Rights Task Force did when a […]
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Many concerned and informed people feel guilty over their carbon footprint. Buying carbon offsets lets them assuage this guilt, but this is a misguided perspective. Instead, I suggest we promote climate stewardship with policies that steadily encourage energy conservation and low CO2 production, e.g., carbon taxes. Individuals atone for their “excessive” carbon consumption, i.e., twenty […]
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Montana’s Public Service Commission has unanimously rejected an Australian firm’s offer to buy NorthWestern Energy. In a recent column, I explored the historical context for Montana’s wariness to deals involving outsiders. Several readers whom I respect confused my explanation with opposition. I don’t know why the PSC denied the deal, but they are too sophisticated […]
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I recently came across a flyer in the Maui paper on Hawaii’s “Solar Awareness Program.” However meritorious and well founded our concern about global warming, we should be alert to the potential for gaming the system. While I invest personal resources in solar and wind power, I worry when taxpayer funds are promised as inducements. […]
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In accepting an Oscar for “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore said, “People all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It’s not a political issue. It’s a moral issue.” Gore is not the only one defining climate change and other environmental issues in moral terms, and, as more and more environmentalists focus […]
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Once upon a time, in a country way, way down under, the government dismantled its system of agricultural subsidies and supports. Initially, cries of outrage and disbelief were heard from farmers all across the land. For more than 20 years, farm assistance had steadily increased, peaking at 33 percent of total farm output (about double […]
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Executives from the Australian firm of Babcock and Brown Infrastructure (BBI) are wondering why their offer to buy Northwestern Energy is generating such resistance. The explanation is simple: Montanans believe they’ve seen this movie before and they don’t like the ending. Here’s why. The company, based in the Sydney down under, raises ghosts from our […]
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Climate change is a huge problem on multiple dimensions. It is also a problem shrouded in uncertainty. What causes global warming? What proportion is anthropogenic? With what speed, and to what degree will the effects be felt? Will the worldwide benefits to agriculture be greater or less than the losses? Can anything be done to […]
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In 1966, on a rainy summer day in the French Alps, Yvon Chouinard tested over a dozen ice axes to see if he could improve on the traditional design. He did, and with this innovation and dozens of others he transformed the outdoor recreation industry. If you own a pile coat, thank Yvon: he brought […]
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Here’s another observation from my recent visit to Nicaragua: poverty is the worst polluter. In a country where one half of the population lives in poverty and 25 percent of its 5.5 million people struggle to survive on less than one dollar per day, environmental protection is not a high priority. I wonder how Roger, […]
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