I knew my chances were slim. Only a handful of salmon make it into the Idaho mountains this close to the Montana border. The fact any do at all is remarkable. I was standing six hundred and twenty-four river miles from the Pacific, upstream from eight major dams, three and a half thousand feet above …
Wizards, Prophets, and Profits…. (on the Way to Clean Energy)
While everyone has been preoccupied with Covid-19, clean energy technology's rapid advance has continued. A thirty-year contract for a giant solar plant planned in Abu Dhabi got a record low bid of $0.0135 per kWh in April this year. This latest benchmark continues a shocking decline in renewable energy prices over the last decade. The …
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Crucible or Nightmare
Albert Borgmann returns for another guest post on The Plastocene. He investigates whether the temporary reductions in carbon emissions due to coronavirus lockdowns can be made to last. Covid-19 could be a crucible for American culture, and it could be a nightmare. If a crucible, it will refine the gold of our lives from the …
How to Keep Returning Wildlife Wild
For the latest post on the Plastocene, I'm linking to a piece I published yesterday in The Atlantic on the complicated question of how to keep wildlife wild on a crowded planet. We go to restoration sites in Italy and the UK, before bringing the lessons back to Montana. Saving nature clearly ain't what it used to …
Springtime in a Pandemic
Everyone is hoping for their feet to touch bottom. The coronavirus has washed over our lives in a tsunami of uncertainty. The prospect of serious illness, hospitalization, or death is tangible. ‘Social distancing’ and ‘shelter in place’ orders in many jurisdictions clarify that this time it’s for real. Empty supermarket shelves add to the unsettling …
Wolf Seekers
“I’m just a nobody.” I won’t say this man’s name but if you have stood on the side of the road in Yellowstone during the winter searching through a spotting scope for distant wolves, you have probably met him. He claims to be “just a nobody” because he does not have “advanced degrees” or a …
Christmas Trees and a Better World
(This is a lightly edited re-post of something I wrote this time last year. I'm posting it again because it still feels relevant. I have added a few comments at the end) "The days of childhood are short, but last forever" Jonathan Tulloch Although it happened nearly three decades ago, I still remember the smugness …
The Silent Swoop
A single moment can make everything so vivid. The huge parking lot at the cross-country ski area south of Anaconda, Montana was plowed for about fifty cars. When we pulled in on Christmas Eve morning, we were the only ones there. Most people were sitting cozily at home with family, getting into the festive mood. …
Walking a Cod Across a Mountain
I can’t get out of my mind the image of two men in wool sweaters, each with a giant cod slung over their shoulder, walking across a snowy Norwegian mountainside in a late winter storm. The image was placed there by my friend Erik’s kindly mother. She had just served lunch to us in her …
The Nurse Log
Mason Voehl is a climber, a writer, a philosopher, and an outdoor educator. He recently completed a graduate degree in environmental philosophy at the University of Montana and lives now in the Black hills of South Dakota. Here he writes about an experience as an instructor on a Wild Rockies Field Institute course when the forest floor suddenly …
