The lessons learned after spending months embedded with unhoused communities in Oregon.
Public health
Posted inArticles
Disaster disparities in the West
The risk of climate catastrophe is complex, but people of color often face ‘unnatural hazards.’
Posted inMarch 2024: Fertile Ground
The dangers of PFAS — and of downplaying their ubiquity
Even well-meaning officials often provide inadequate or misleading information, putting communities at higher risk.
Posted inArticles
See how bad your community’s air will be in 30 years
New data forecasts the nation’s future air quality, all the way down to individual addresses.
Posted inArticles
New Mexico pushes back on Big Oil
New bills in the legislature could curb industry excesses.
Posted inDecember 1, 2023: December 2023
Take a toxic tour of the Great Salt Lake
Utah grapples with its future of industry around its dying inland sea.
Posted inArticles
Medicaid’s big paperwork problem
After a federal rule expired this spring, millions of people have been disenrolled from Medicaid. Many of them may still be eligible.
Posted inArticles
Western states saw increasing poverty and lower incomes in 2022
From Alaska to Wyoming, cash assistance can pull families out of income hardships.
Posted inOctober 2, 2023: The Dark Side of the Sheepherding Industry
The dangerous consequences of wildland fire dispatcher burnout
An internal Forest Service survey shows a critical link in the wildfire fighting apparatus is struggling.
Posted inArticles
Environmental groups sue Utah over crisis at the Great Salt Lake
Plaintiffs invoke the public trust doctrine to restore the lake to a healthy level.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2023: Food Justice
The twin crises of climate and addiction
Extreme temperatures and natural disasters push harm reduction workers to find new ways to keep communities safe.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2023: Food Justice
The long tail of toxic emissions on the Navajo Nation
Communities contend with ongoing air quality issues tied to gas and oil wells.
Posted inArticles
Washington to adopt rules protecting farmworkers from wildfire smoke
Some labor advocates say they don’t go far enough.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2023: Food Justice
Native mental health providers seek to heal boarding school scars with informed and appropriate treatment
As more visibility is brought to the legacy of U.S. boarding schools, Indigenous mental health providers and social workers feel that therapy must address the unique trauma carried by survivors.
Posted inArticles
Extreme heat hits the rural Southwest
How community members keep one another safe.
Posted inAugust 1, 2023: In the Line of Fire
Finding a fix for ‘forever chemicals’
Tests found PFAS in nearly all the public drinking water in Vancouver, Washington. The city is testing a solution that could take years — and more than $170 million — to build.
Posted inArticles
A quarter of rural water systems likely contain ‘forever chemicals’
USGS research confirms widespread PFAS contamination in drinking water — including in rural communities and private wells that are almost never tested.
Posted inJuly 1, 2023: Waiting for Water
As Newtok, Alaska, crumbles, residents are left in a dangerous limbo
The town is supposed to move, but federal funding and complex logistics mean most residents are stuck.
Posted inArticles
It’s summer. But in the Northwest, spring never showed
As spring gets weirder, warmer and less stable, water supplies, ecosystems and agriculture are getting out of whack.
Posted inArticles
Hey New York, we’ve survived decades of smoke. Here’s how
Tips on staying healthy, keeping sane and getting through being socked in by smoke.