Originally published in Sierra. WHEN I WAS A KID, someone gave me a copy of Find the Constellations, the classic kids’ stargazing book by H.A. Rey. I read it with great intensity but little understanding. The night sky seen from my Metro Detroit backyard looked nothing like the illustrations in the book. The only constellations… Continue reading In Search of the Night Sky
Author: hr
Salmon Rebellion
Originally published in Sierra. Last year on August 24, Ernest Alfred, an elementary-school teacher and hereditary chief from the ‘Namgis, Lawit’sis, and Mamalilikala First Nations, boated out to Swanson Island, British Columbia, and began to set up tents with a small group of other First Nations activists. A few days earlier, Alfred had been sitting… Continue reading Salmon Rebellion
Where Have All the Salmon Gone?
Originally published in Sierra. To get to the largest surviving population of wild spring Chinook salmon on the Klamath River, I drive farther north than I’ve ever been in California, then turn right. Gradually, the highways disappear, and the roads narrow. Commerce becomes more improvisational. Grocery stores and restaurants disappear and in their place there… Continue reading Where Have All the Salmon Gone?
Could climate-change warnings on gasoline pumps actually work?
Originally published at Grist. Later this year, someone stopping to fuel up in North Vancouver will be the first customer to see the controversial warning labels. They’ll be wrapped around the gas pump handles. The exact wording isn’t settled yet, but here’s the gist of it: Every time you pump gas, you’re contributing to air pollution and… Continue reading Could climate-change warnings on gasoline pumps actually work?
The Messy Tale of the Dog Poop Lamp
Originally published at Grist. Matthew Mazzotta was in Vermont, visiting his friend Guy Roberts. At some point, as you do, he and the friend got onto the subject of what the hell his friend was doing in Vermont. “I’m working on a scalable methane digester with parts that clip together and scale up depending on… Continue reading The Messy Tale of the Dog Poop Lamp
The Story Behind One Solar Robot
I am peering through the glass window of a refrigerator-sized machine. The machine is named Endurance, if you go by the printing on its side, or Lucy, if you go by what Leila Madrone calls it. I’m watching some plastic get tortured. It’s going through the equivalent of 100 years of life in a harsh… Continue reading The Story Behind One Solar Robot
Meet the YIMBYS
Originally published at Grist. The first time I heard of Sonja Trauss, she was mobilizing San Franciscans to support new apartment construction. This was not a campaign that went over well in the Mission District, a formerly working-class neighborhood that was in the middle of a full-on freakout over how many people seemed to want… Continue reading Meet the YIMBYS
How FEMA’s Toxic Katrina Trailers Made it to an Oil Boomtown
As soon as Nick Shapiro turned into the parking lot of the Tumbleweed Inn in Alexander, N.D., he recognized the trailers. They were off-white, boxy, almost cartoonish, and unadorned with any of the frills — racing stripes, awnings, window treatments — that a manufacturer would typically add to set a trailer apart on a display lot.… Continue reading How FEMA’s Toxic Katrina Trailers Made it to an Oil Boomtown
Why Are Other Cultures Better at Eating Bugs Than We Are?
Originally published at Grist. In 1845, John C. Fremont was exploring the state that would later come to be known as California. He met a man who had been traveling with a group of trappers, who told him a story. The trappers had run out of food, and decided that the best way out of… Continue reading Why Are Other Cultures Better at Eating Bugs Than We Are?
I Test-Drive a Futuristic Mini-Car
Originally published at Grist. I hate cars for a multitude of reasons, both logical (I’m afraid of getting hit by one) and illogical (cars are just so boring). But it’s a complicated way to be, hating things. Whenever I decide to just go ahead and full-on loathe, I find myself making exceptions. For example, I… Continue reading I Test-Drive a Futuristic Mini-Car