Bob Berwyn Posts

New research suggests human-caused emissions will lead to bigger impacts on heat and extreme weather, and sooner than the IPCC warned just three years ago.

The South Platte River is running big this year, and the mud in the fields around Sterling is boot-deep. Water is everywhere, overflowing levees near the pastures, corn and hayfields north of town. The swales along roadsides and railroad tracks are swamped, and backyards are squishy, so the ranchers are in the coffee shops, waiting it out.

FRISCO, Colo. — As the Grand Canyon’s new lone wolf howls at the silvery moon from the Kaibab Plateau this winter, biologists hope to learn more about how the West’s great predators may someday recolonize their ancestral hunting grounds — including Colorado.
The last time a wolf peered over the edge of the canyon was nearly a lifetime ago — 70 years, biologists say. But in early October, a solitary wolf from the northern Rockies turned up in northern Arizona after wandering at least 450 miles. The long-distance journey — along with similar treks by

FRISCO, Colo.  — A 15 year battle over fossil fuel drilling on northwest Colorado’s remote and rugged Roan Plateau ended last week with the type of compromise that’s rare in energy showdowns.
Under the court-approved deal, the Bureau of Land Management will develop a new plan for the Roan that would protect the most important natural areas atop the 34,000 acre plateau while enabling some drilling in other areas, especially around the base of the plateau.
Energy companies agreed to avoid building roads and drill pads in the plateau’s most sensitive

Man's coexistence with nature is a delicate balance, and global warming only heightens the tightrope. Now, in Colorado, increased desert dust is weighing down the mountain snow, increasing the risk of avalanches. Are we already in a New Dust Bowl?

A series of checks and balances meant to prevent uranium contaminating the groundwater in case of flooding stood up to a big test at Colorado's defunct Cotter Mill. But residents aren't convinced and say cleanup efforts have been slow and far from transparent.

A court ruling issued in Colorado on Friday could nudge government agencies toward making more honest assessments of the climate impacts tied to the projects they approve for federal lands.

Rocky Mountain lynx, or bobcat, populations have dwindled while the US Fish and Wildlife Service has twiddled its thumbs on a recovery plan. Well, twelve years is plenty of time, a judge ruled recently, giving the department 30 days to present a final plan.

Wildfires are blanketing Colorado and only growing worse. There is no better analogue for climate change's deleterious and immediate effects – the world is burning around us, and only those with their heads buried deep in the sand refuse to admit it.

Colorado's ozone levels are skyrocketing, with more and more localities tipping over the EPA's regulated standards. Left to the state for compliance, drivers are getting hit with higher emissions standards, but the industries that most influence the rise in ozone-depleting gases are getting a pass.

In flood-ravaged Colorado, ski-area operators and water managers have been known to do a few rain dances and — privately at least — pray to their own God when drought strikes. But in the age of technology and hubris, when nearly every challenge is met with engineering, they aren’t just waiting for Mother Nature to put her cards on the table. Instead, there’s a growing interest in seeding clouds with silver iodide to coax every possible bit of moisture from passing storms.