Heads Up!

Hey journalism students! This sounds like a great way to make your work make you some extra cash:

WIN $500 in Student Writing Contest!
This contest is open to CU Students only and is free to enter. You have nothing to lose! The best part? You may have already written something to submit! We accept papers and projects from classes! $500 prizes for first place in each category. Entries are due by 5 pm on Monday, March 19. Get the complete rules and more information here.

And, if you're up for some nitty gritty environmental justice/climate change talk:

2/23 @ 3:30-4:30pm "Making the Case for Climate Justice" (Gugg. 205)
Maxine Burkett, University of Colorado, School of Law
For almost two decades, the environmental justice movement has been committed to the pressing issues facing low-income and/or communities of color that suffer a disproportionate share of environmental risks. The effects of climate change, which are also predicted to unevenly impact communities of color both in the U.S. and internationally, will compound these conditions. In "Making the Case for Climate Justice" Professor Burkett considers the theoretical and practical implications of climate change, climate policy and litigation on poor and of-color communities in the U.S. and argues for a new environmental justice effort wholly concerned with fashioning preventive and adaptive measures for these communities.

ABC Producer Wonbo Woo talks Ethics

Wonbo Woo, a producer with ABC's World News with Charles Gibson, spoke in my Media Ethics class this morning. Woo is visiting the J-school as part of the Hearst Professional-in-Residence program.

"Good news is subjective," Woo said. He strives for balance, fairness and accuracy in his daily work. But, he said, it's difficult to know what makes for a balanced story.

He wondered, for example, if a soundbite from a pro-choice advocate should be included in a story about a mother and daughter who spoke out against abortion for religious reasons. From his perspective, the focus of the piece would switch from the lives of these two women to the abortion debate if he included the opposing viewpoint.

When he has just 2 minutes to tell the story, he must be extremely selective about what makes it into the final piece. Pitting someone shouting "Yea" against someone shouting "Nay" may be an effective way of catching the audience's attention, but Woo said it isn't an appropriate way to accomplish his goal.

"Part of my mandate is to help people understand each other better," he said. He especially enjoys working on tight focus pieces that are about characters. He said that they humanize people.

In a time when ratings are as important for news shows as they are for sitcoms, Woo said that some level of idealism is necessary in the business. He hopes that novice journalists hold on to that idealism so they can fight for the stories that may not increase ratings or please advertisers, but are important to tell.

One disturbing trend he's seen is entertainment that resembles news such as ABC's made-for-TV movie "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America" and the controversial docudrama "Path to 9/11". He worries that the average viewer doesn't make much distinction between news and entertainment.

This sounds oddly reminiscent of the Halloween 1938 "The War of the Worlds" broadcast.

--Felicia Russell

In a Flap Over Bird Flu

By Felicia Russell

“I can say with near certainty that there will be a flu epidemic next year,” Dr. Sam Bozzette, an infectious disease researcher, declared at the Conference on World Affairs.

Bozzette is a senior researcher at the RAND Corporation, and a medical professor at the University of California San Diego. His current research focuses on HIV/AIDS, but he spoke to an audience of about 50 people in the University Memorial Center at a Thursday afternoon lecture called “Duck!!! It’s the Bird Flu!”

Somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 people will die in next year’s flu epidemic, said Bozzette. But, this is normal. Every year there is a seasonal flu epidemic, an outbreak that affects a large number of people at the same time. In 2005, 313 people in Denver died from influenza and pneumonia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The avian flu is different. This family of viruses is found widely in birds and is very deadly to humans, but hasn’t “learned” how to easily attach itself to the human respiratory tract, said Bozzette.

Worldwide, there have been only 194 confirmed cases of the bird flu in humans, but more than half of the people infected have died from the virus, according to the World Health Organization.

Most of the people who became ill caught the virus from an infected bird or its excrement, said Bozzette. Currently, the virus does not readily spread from one person to another.

However, if the human flu virus and avian flu virus infect the same animal and exchange genetic information, the bird flu may learn how to infect people, he said. Then the bird flu could easily pass from one person to the next.

Scientists and doctors are concerned that the avian flu will become pandemic, infecting people worldwide and jumping easily from person to person.

Will Styler, a CU junior, came to the lecture to learn how he can protect himself if there is a pandemic. Styler lives on-campus in Baker Hall and says that he’s seen how quickly other sicknesses have moved through the student body. He particularly remembers two years ago when a nasty stomach virus kept students hovering over toilets for days.

“I literally watched it walk down the hall,” Styler said.

During the question and answer period, Styler asked Bozzette how students living in the dorms could protect themselves.

Bozzette said that people in communal living settings should avoid any unnecessary social contact such as visiting other dorms. And, everyone, regardless of their living situation, should wash their hands often, he said.

“Sooner or later there is going to be a pandemic,” Bozzette said. “There is going to be another flu pandemic.”

When there is a pandemic it will likely last for four or five months like the 1918 flu pandemic, he said.

“There’s no question that relatively early in a serious outbreak, the healthcare system will be overwhelmed,” Bozzette said.

He recommended that people stock up on household goods in the event of a pandemic so that they can avoid frequent exposure to possible carriers of the avian flu.

“You will encounter people who look perfectly well who are shedding the flu virus,” Bozzette said. Therefore, it’s best to avoid contact with other people as much as possible.

Scientists aren’t sure exactly how the flu virus is spread. Studies indicate that the flu may be passed by touch, virus-carrying droplets from a cough or sneeze, or small particles in the air capable of traveling long distances, Bozzette said.

Bozzette said that more funding and research is needed to help scientists understand how the flu is passed from person to person. This type of knowledge will help communities stockpile the right types of supplies to combat an outbreak.

For example, if the virus is passed in droplets, then a standard medical face mask will be sufficient. However, if the virus moves on small particles through the air a more sophisticated mask will be necessary.

Unfortunately, some things like hospital beds, flu vaccine and face masks may be in short supply.

“We don’t have a lot of things you’d want to have if there were a pandemic,” Bozzette said. “It seems that immunization and cutting down contact on a voluntary basis is about all we can do.”

"Science for Dummies": Science writers share tips on the craft

By Scott Gates

When it comes to helping the public understand science, sometimes less is more, according to a panel of science writers. The three writers discussed how to communicate science effectively to general audiences during an April 11 session at the 58th Conference on World Affairs in Boulder.

Joe Romig, who teaches astronomy at the University of Colorado where the conference was held, served as moderator for the session titled "Science for Dummies." He stressed that what most readers want is not a highly-technical explanation when it comes to science.

Romig quoted his wife, who may have summed it up best in complaining to him: "I don't want to know how the clock works – I just want to know the time."

Each panelist spoke briefly about his or her experiences in conveying science to the general public before opening the session up to questions and discussion from the audience.

Sidney Perkowitz, who left a research career at Emory University to pursue writing, said he writes for science groupies, or those who like the ideas behind science but don't necessarily want to get bogged down in details. The key to capturing such an audience's attention, said Perkowitz, lies in personalizing the topic while keeping jargon and details to a minimum.

"A significant key to science writing is deciding how much to say, but more importantly how much to leave out," Perkowitz said. "I'm willing to leave out a lot of the detail so the main point makes sense."

Susan Zolla-Pazner followed Perkowitz with a quick breakdown of science basics often misunderstood by the public. The New York-based immunologist often works with students, and applied a classroom technique in asking the crowd to repeat in unison one tricky word: nuclear.

The often-mispronounced word "drives me crazy," said Zolla-Pazner, and is a good example of an otherwise simple term being misinterpreted.

She defined three other basic terms that may not always be clear to those outside the field: hypothesis, scientific theory and scientific law. The basic concept behind a hypothesis – a testable idea – is even misunderstood by some of the professionals who use it every day, she said.

"If it's just an idea and you can't test it, it has no business being in the world of science," said Zolla-Pazner, stressing that before any hypothesis is tested it must be assumed to be untrue. "It's a very different way of thinking, and I have to tell you most scientists forget about that."

The third panelist, Michael Chorost, has written for Wired, The Week and Sky, and recently released a memoir focused on experiences with his hearing, lost and regained with a cochlear implant. Chorost had hearing in only one ear since childhood, and on a business trip lost all hearing in the good ear.

"On the plane ride back home I thought: you know, I might be able to get a book out of this," Chorost said. "I was crushed and thrilled at the same time."

He has gained experience since writing his memoir as a science writer, and stressed the importance of analogy in explaining complex ideas. And following Perkowitz's train of thought, Chorost agreed that on occasion some detail must be sacrificed.

"The best science writers, I think, are the ones that can make mystery enjoyable even if it's not fully explainable," said Chorost.

During the question period, Amy Gahran, a Boulder freelance writer, asked how the public might get more involved in the scientific dialogue.

The panel members agreed that there is already a good deal of interaction between scientists and those outside the field, given that many scientists teach. Chorost pointed out that science writers themselves offer a good deal of feedback, and serve as a valuable bridge between the public and the scientific community.

Perkowitz supported his point, adding that even great thinkers like Einstein can't always write for the public mind. "There's a real difference between a world class scientist and a world class science writer," he said.

Adieu to glacier skiing in the Alps?Seth Masia remembers the Haute Route

By Seth Masia

In 1461, the scapegrace Francois Villon wrote a hauntingly wistful short poem about the fate of beautiful, beloved women, and it ended with the wonderful line, Ou sont les neiges d'antan? Where are the bygone snows?

For me, they're melting from the glaciers of the Alps. I want to get back soon, with my 16-year-old daughter. By the time she has children of her own old enough to ski those glaciers, they may be neiges d'antan.

Before global climate change began to discernibly diminish Europe's remaining glaciers, in the spring of 1983 I set out to ski the Haute Route, the classic tour from Chamonix, in France, across the top of the Alps to Zermatt and Saas-Fee, in Switzerland.

Glacier skiing on the Haute Route between Chamonix and Zermatt (Photo/wikipedia.org)

Mountain guides often say they can haul any strong recreational skier along the 60-mile Haute Route, but it is serious mountaineering terrain. One day requires 6,000 feet of climbing, and there are several nasty steep couloirs to negotiate. Avalanche is a persistent danger. But most of the mileage follows glaciers, vast and small, and the chief danger is that one may disappear forever into a crevasse.

I invited my buddy Stan Tener along, then (and now) a professional ski patroller at Snowmass, a member of their avalanche control team, and a good climber. Stan had never been to Europe, so he didn't know what he was getting into. We hooked up with photographer Del Mulkey. Del, 20 years our senior, was a former University of Montana ski racer who lived in the South of France and knew a lot more about travel in the Alps than we did. He had already skied the Haute Route a couple of times, and had also skied high into the Himalaya.

At Chamonix, the forecast called for clear weather for at least the next two days. Late in the afternoon we dragged our 35-pound packs onto the Argentière tram and rode up 9,000 vertical feet, high into a clear Alpine evening. We skied 2,200 vertical feet of moguls down to the first of our many glaciers, and skinned up for the short ascent to the fortress-like Argentière refuge.

Well before dawn on April 26, we traversed over to the foot of Chardonnet Glacier. There, we put on our new crampons, tied the skis to the packs, and began the steep 2,500-foot climb to the top of the world. Del climbed like a camel, plodding steadily upward without stopping for rest or water. He ate breakfast on the march, consuming a big chunk of the raw bacon the French call lard. At sunrise we reached the 10,900 foot Col de Choidon and gazed across the top of Europe, the early morning light picking out hundreds of snowy peaks arrayed to the horizons.

Over the next four days we climbed and descended steep couloirs, crossed cols, traversed steep icy avalanche-carrying sideslopes -- and followed glaciers. The glaciers made highways in the sky, long gradual langlauf ascents where we could climb at two miles an hour, and easy cruising descents when we could cover five or six miles in 40 minutes, finishing up with a cold beer in a village inn. We stayed each night in a snug refuge built on some aerie at the head of a glacier, and usually overlooking two or three more. As we ate our high-calorie dinners – goulaschsuppe, fried eggs with beans and potatoes, and fruit cocktail in kirsch – I loved to watch the sun set and see the brilliant white of the glacier surface turn deep blue and then black, while the overhanging rock faces shone with golden alpenglow. And I loved to be out on the trail in the early morning dark, to greet the dawn from the ridgeline and watch the light change again, in reverse.

Mont Blanc's icy massif dominates the French side of the Haute Route (Photo/wikipedia.org)

We covered about 60 miles across Swiss glaciers, closely paralleling the Italian border, and had no close calls with crevasses – though Stan often screamed at me to stay out from under avalanche chutes. We met climbers and skiers from Austria, France, Switzerland and Holland. We argued in good spirits about our choice of route and equipment – Del used fat randonée skis, Stan and I were on skinny "norpine" skis with leather telemark boots.

On the fifth day the weather turned nasty. Unable to see the crevasses in the white-out blizzard, we bailed out to the resort town of Arolla, ten miles short of Zermatt.

The adventure changed our lives. Stunned by the immensity of the Alps, Stan went back to Chamonix a year later as an exchange patroller. He worked through the winter at the Grands Montets, and came home speaking fluent locker-room French. He still patrols, and knocks down avalanches, at Snowmass. And I abandoned the dark canyons of New York. I moved to Truckee and hired on to teach skiing at Squaw Valley, where I could find reliable backcountry skiing into July.

Del died in Paris in December of 2003, full of age and wisdom, red wine and lard.

The Swiss government now reports that their average glacier is retreating at about 50 meters per year. Thanks to global warming, this rate is accelerating, and few glaciers, anywhere in the world, are expected to survive this century. Some of the smaller, steeper glaciers – the Arolla glacier contains only about a third of a cubic kilometer of ice – won't outlive me. One annual report by the Swiss Academy of Sciences says that by 2025, alpine glaciers will retreat to about 45 percent of their 1885 extent. Small icefields make up 25 percent of the total glacial volume – and these will all be gone. The Italian resort of Val Senales had to close its summer operation this August because its glacier simply vanished.

I want to ski what's left, with my kid, while we still can.

Copyright 2005 by Seth Masia
2269 Mariposa Ave
Boulder CO 80302
303.594.1657
975 words/FNAS rights

Conservative think tanks shape public opinion about climate change

By Wendy Worrall Redal

In the Winter 2006 edition of CEJ News/Views we ran a story on a new interdisciplinary course at the University of Colorado called Environment, Media and Culture, offered during the 2006 spring semester to students in journalism, media studies and environmental studies. The class explored the social and cultural factors that shape the way environmental issues are covered by the media and understood by the public.

As a final project, students submitted a research paper investigating an angle or case study of how environmental discourse is socially constructed. The students' research brought interesting observations to bear on the relationship between forces of influence in the public sphere and media coverage of environmental issues. An exemplary project was Scott Heiser's study of the role of conservative think tanks on public opinion about climate change.

He began with this dilemma:

"A broad scientific consensus has existed for many years about the existence of a warming planet due to carbon dioxide emissions and that this is such a grave problem that it demands a policy response from government. Despite this consensus and despite this urgency, nothing resembling a comprehensive and appropriate public policy has been implemented. Why?"

His research offers an answer:

"In a significant way, institutions marked by their allegiance to the American conservative political movement have forestalled any realization of an adequate public policy addressing climate change…What is evident after some study is that a well-funded, well-organized 'movement' has been successful in preventing U.S. action on global warming."

A central part of that effort has been the use of rhetorical techniques and issue-framing that has prevented meaningful action on the issue. Heiser's paper identifies the key role of such communication strategies in the concerted political battle over climate change.

The Center for Environmental Journalism recognizes the value of such scholarship in unpacking the complex matrix of influences that affect how environmental stories are told. If journalists can benefit from the light media scholars can shed on their practices, they can pursue and report stories more self-consciously. Likewise, news audiences, attuned to the myriad efforts to shape the content they ultimately get, can be more cautious and critical information consumers.

Toward that end, we are pleased to present Heiser's work. While an academic term paper is outside this newsletter's regular format, it nonetheless makes for a riveting read. For the full text of Heiser's study, see Fear and Loathing on Planet Earth: Partisan War in an Age of Environmental Crisis. Heiser will be a senior media studies major in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at CU next year.

Cell Phone Recycler Talks Trash

By Felicia Russell

Tall and slim, wearing a dark, double-breasted suit, Peter Schindler casually fingered his black Motorola Moto Razr V3 cell phone—which PCMag.com calls "the ultimate see-and-be-seen phone for style mavens who don't care about price."

"For me, I'm very simplistic about phones; I'd like not to own one," said Schindler, 31.

Not one to pass on an opportunity, however, Schindler saw a chance to capitalize on the popularity and perceived disposability of cell phones, and at the same time, do something positive for the environment and community.

CEO and founder of The Wireless Alliance Peter Schindler (Photo/TWA)

Four years ago, Schindler founded The Wireless Alliance (TWA), which has recently partnered with the University of Colorado at Boulder to collect used cell phones. The phones will be sold for parts or refurbishing, and a portion of the money earned will be donated to charities and student groups.

Although he employs just three other men, Schindler says he has big dreams for the future. "I would like to have our 'recycle your wireless phone' logo on the back of every phone with our 1-866 number on there," Schindler says.

The Wireless Alliance's "Recycle your wireless phone" logo (Image/TWA)

He has yet to splash his logo across the back of cell phones everywhere, but it is popping up on the CU campus.

The campus cell phone recycling effort, which is being led by the university's recycling director, Jack DeBell, began in late February with a 3-foot-tall plastic box. This box, bearing TWA's logo, has been placed in the University Memorial Center to encourage students to collect their old phones and donate them to the charity or student group of the month.

Profits from the first round of recycled cell phones will go to the Emergency Family Assistance Association, a Boulder-based group that provides emergency assistance for people struggling to pay housing, utilities and other necessary expenses. DeBell says he hopes that the association's high profile will stimulate interest among other non-profits in the community.

While DeBell says he doesn't really know Schindler, he is optimistic about the program.

"The one time that I visited Peter's Boulder location, I was impressed with the flurry of activity. It reminded me of our offices here. There was a sense of urgency, of excitement, and of potential," DeBell said.

Indeed, Schindler seems to be a font of energy and enthusiasm.

"I first went door to door literally asking my neighbors for their old phones. On my old street—Kohler Drive—I got about 1.8 phones per household. If you multiply this by the number of households using wireless phones, you get between 700 million to 1 billion out-of-use handsets in the United States alone," he said.

Schindler officially started TWA in January 2002. His first client was Midwest Wireless, a cell phone provider that serves people in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

TWA placed drop boxes in Midwest Wireless stores where customers could recycle their old phones.

"We're quite pleased with his performance and use him as our sole source of liquidation and recycling," said Tim Johnson, the Product Distribution Supervisor for Midwest Wireless.

Although he couldn't put a number on it, Johnson estimated that the recycling program has raised "hundreds of thousands of dollars," which the company then donates to non-profits like United Way and the American Cancer Society.

Johnson said that TWA is an extension of Schindler's personal values, and that it "stands for what he stands for."

"Peter is, among other things, extremely helpful. He is the type of person who will go out of his way to make things happen for you," says Johnson. "He is a generous person with his time and resources."

TWA has also developed a postage-paid mail-back program to encourage people to recycle cell phones they've stashed in drawers and closets. Midwest Wireless and KALW radio in Schindler's hometown of San Francisco are both using the mailing program.

Schindler says he comes from a long line of inventors including his mother, Anita, who developed Brainwash, which he says is the first café-laundromat in San Francisco, and his father, Robert, who retired from the University of California at San Francisco after a career spent advancing cochlear implant technology, which can help some deaf people hear.

Schindler recalls having always had a passion for art and music. He studied art history as a student at CU. After graduating in 1996, Schindler spent a brief time in his home state of California before returning to Colorado to work in the music industry. He worked for a Boulder company that managed the Greyboy Allstars, a band out of San Diego whose music can be heard in the film Zero Effect.

"Then after a while the music industry didn't pay for what it required. So, I got into cell phones. Once I realized the value of used phones and the good I could do by collecting them for donation—environmental reasons, etcetera—I went with that," Schindler said.

According to Schindler, his "stab at the American Dream" has been successful. Although he refused to say what his profits were in 2005, Schindler says that the money generated from selling the collected cell phones to be melted down or refurbished totaled as much as $4.2 million one year. The average inflow, he says, is about $3 million per year.

TWA pays part of that money back to its partners, who can earn 5 cents to more than $75 a phone, but tend to average $2 per phone, says Schindler. He declined to say what percentage of TWA's income is paid back to charities, but says his clients are happy.

"Generally, we like to give back 20 percent of the collection total at the end as a bonus. It is a strategy that has separated me from my competitors when dealing with non-profits," Schindler said. "They love it."

While he wouldn't say if TWA is out of the red and making a profit, records from his 2005 divorce suggest that the company is still in debt. Both he and his ex-wife were responsible for paying up to $100,000 towards the company's debt.

Nestled beside the Avery Brewery in a small warehouse in East Boulder, operating with only four sets of hands, TWA is earning enough to pay Schindler what he calls a "modest" income. According to his divorce records, that totaled $100,776 in 2005.

If trends in the wireless industry continue as they have in recent years, TWA faces a bright financial future.

Over the last 20 years, the number of wireless subscribers in the United States has risen from about 203,600 people to nearly 195 million people, according to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.

Cell phones have become a valuable tool in American society. However, wireless companies in the United States commonly mark down new cell phones and include the cost in their wireless plan, which makes them appear cheaper than they really are. This also makes them seem more disposable in the eyes of consumers.

In fact, most phones are only used for 18 months before being replaced with newer models, according to a study by Inform Inc., called "Waste in the Wireless World." The high turnover of phones in the United States is generating an estimated 130 million cell phones or 65,000 tons of waste per year.

Many of these phones wind up in landfills where they can become an environmental hazard. Like other electronic equipment, or e-waste, cell phones contain a number of heavy metals that could leach out and contaminate ground water.

A 2004 EPA-sponsored study found that nearly three-quarters of the 38 cell phones tested released enough lead to be considered toxic waste by the government when exposed to landfill-like conditions. Timothy G. Townsend, an associate professor in environmental engineering at the University of Florida, led the study.

"They (the public) should not be concerned about any grave threat to the environment by disposal of (cell phones) in modern lined landfills," Townsend wrote in an e-mail. "But, it is certainly understandable to in general be concerned where wastes that contain toxic chemicals are disposed and whether we should be finding alternatives to toxic chemicals in our products and whether we should do more to recycle them."

At TWA, the two men who do the grunt work of recycling have the task of disassembling cell phones. They check to see that the phone works, erase the memory, take out the batteries, and grind up the sim card, which contains personal information like calendars and friends' phone numbers.

Phones that can be resold are carefully catalogued and sorted into storage bins. Those phones that have become obsolete are tossed into a cavernous box containing thousands of other rejected phones.

Schindler's recycling box of 1990s behemoths will be sent to Reldan Metals Inc., where the phones will be shredded and processed to collect metals like gold, platinum, lead, silver and palladium.

According to Schindler, one ton of ancient cell phones might yield $4,000 to $5,000 in precious metals including gold, platinum, silver and palladium, as well as copper and lead. The metals extracted from cell phones might be used to make CDs, underwire bras, drills, tire irons, sandals, remote control cars, even singing bass trophies, says Schindler.

He estimates that 40 percent of the more than 20,000 phones that TWA collected in February went straight to the recycle box. The newer models in Schindler's warehouse are sold each month to companies that refurbish the phones and resell them to customers using a prepaid wireless service.

Schindler doesn't see the market slowing any time in the near future.

"I hope that I can continue this business of recycling and keep it changing like a chameleon with the technology," Schindler said. "I hope to educate as many people as possible about the right thing to do with their phones."

Forest Service plan would sell prime recreational land near Boulder

By Karen Romer

Looking west from Wendy Redal's backyard, the snow-covered slopes of Eldora Ski Area come into view. The pine and fir covered face of Mount Pisgah lies to the southwest and the brown slopes of Sugarloaf Mountain to the north.

The beautiful, unobstructed views from her home in the Sugar Loaf community are what first attracted Redal and her husband to this area. But the views may not be unobstructed for long under a federal plan to sell public land.

"You just don't expect that the public land around you might be sold," Redal said.

Hundreds of acres of public land could be sold near Sugarloaf Mountain (Photo/Wendy Worrall Redal)

Redal's home sits on a long, skinny strip of land sandwiched between two parcels of adjacent Roosevelt National Forest. If the Bush administration's proposal to sell 300,000 acres of U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service land is passed, about 720 acres in the Sugar Loaf community may be on the chopping block, including the open space next to Redal's home.

Each of the Forest Service's nine regional offices were notified by the Washington D.C. office to select parcels of land that are isolated, difficult and expensive to manage, said John Bustos Jr., public affairs officer for the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Regional Office.

Bustos cited another item on the list of criteria – parcels that are surrounded by private land. Public and private lands are often intermixed in national forests, which makes them more difficult to manage and gives rise to access issues, Bustos said. This criterion fits the Sugar Loaf community's layout.

Residents, recreational groups, land planning organizations and Boulder County Commissioners strongly oppose the Forest Service's proposal. At question is why certain lands in Boulder County, which have obvious recreational and scenic value and are important wildlife and access areas, have been singled out and what will happen to these lands if the proposal goes through.

The Bush administration hopes to raise $800 million by selling isolated parcels of national forest land, which will be used to fund rural schools and county road projects nationwide. Set to expire Sept. 30, 2006, President Bush's proposed 2007 budget would extend the Secure Rural and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 for another five years.

The Rural Schools Act offsets some of the financial burdens that rural counties face due to decreased federal timber sales. Historically these counties received a cut of timber sale profits and have come to rely on federal subsidies to fund rural school and road projects.

In Colorado, more than 23,000 acres in 11 national forests are being considered. Of the 137,000 acres in Roosevelt and Arapaho National Forests in Boulder County, 2,300 acres or 1.7 percent would be sold, according to Mike Johnson, lands and mineral specialist with the Boulder Ranger District.

About 600 residents live in the Sugar Loaf community, which is located in the foothills several miles west of Boulder and covers 19 square miles of forested land that is sprinkled with homes.

"There are a couple of mountain subdivisions, but most people in this area live on several acres of land," Redal said.

Land in the Sugar Loaf community is more fragmented than any other area managed by the Boulder Ranger District, according to the Forest Service's land and resource management website.

"So what they're saying, that it is really fragments of public land, is true," said Redal, noting that this may be one reason why so many acres in the Sugar Loaf area have been singled out.

Redal and her husband own three acres, a long, thin stretch of land about 150 feet wide that is a former mining claim. Many of her neighbors' homes are similarly situated.

The Redal family's home sits amid fragmented parcels of public and private land (Photo/Wendy Worrall Redal)

"It's an old land-use layout in terms of the mixture of private and public lands," Redal said.

"It's true that there's a focus on former mining claims or strips," said Pat Shanks, chairman of PLAN-Boulder County, a nonprofit political action group in Boulder. Perhaps these strips have a little less value to the Forest Service in terms of pristine open space, Shanks said.

Thousands of former mining claims dot the mountains west of Boulder. Under the Mining Act of 1872, prospectors who discovered gold and other valuable surface minerals could stake claims for these deposits and buy the land for $2.50 or $5.00 an acre. Many small mining towns, including Ward, Magnolia and Sugar Loaf, sprung up in Colorado as a result. Many of these former mining claims are now privately owned.

Bob Ruston, a long-time resident of the Sugar Loaf community, calls these former mining claims "picnic spots." These strips of land, which range in shape from rectangular to long, skinny stretches, and are a good place to get out of your car, spread a blanket and have a picnic on a beautiful summer day, Ruston said.

In 1968 Ruston bought three acres from a friend and built his first home here. Several years after moving to the Sugar Loaf area Ruston discovered Dream Canyon.

"It just knocked my socks off," said Ruston, recalling seeing Dream Canyon for the first time. "It's so vast and crennelated."

Dream Canyon, a popular rock-climbing area above Boulder Falls, is slated to be sold by the Forest Service (Photo/Rockclimbing.com)

Dream Canyon is one of the parcels currently proposed for sale by the Forest Service.

The Dream Canyon trailhead is a 5-minute walk from Redal's home and a short distance from Ruston's place. Ruston owns three plots of land, two of which lie several hundred feet uphill from North Boulder Creek, which winds through the steep canyon walls of Dream Canyon before cascading down Boulder Falls where it meets Middle Boulder Creek.

Tucked just off Boulder Canyon, Dream Canyon has numerous bolted routes and steep granite buttresses that make it a popular climbing area. Ruston has talked to climbers ranging from adventurous youths to spry retirees who come to Dream Canyon from as far away as Europe and Asia.
"Often on the 4th of July there are about 200 people (at Dream Canyon), Ruston said.

The Access Fund, a Boulder-based organization committed to maintaining and preserving public rock climbing sites, has identified Dream Canyon and Bell Buttress, a towering wall located just beyond Boulder Falls, on Forest Service maps. In their letter to the Forest Service, the Access Fund requested that any parcels used for climbing, biking, hiking and other recreational purposes be taken off the list. The organization cited the Forest Service's proposal as a short-term fix that would take thousands of acres of recreational lands and natural areas out of the public's hands.

Like Dream Canyon, several of the identified parcels are located within 'high-use recreation areas,' according to the Forest Service's website. These include Eldora Ski Area and Boulder Creek, Caribou and Sugar Loaf geographic areas.

Two 240-acre parcels in the Sugar Loaf community are located in the Boulder Falls vicinity, which is designated as a critical wildlife corridor and an environmental conservation area under Boulder County's Comprehensive Plan.

Just one and one-half miles past Boulder Falls along the cliffs of Boulder Canyon is golden eagle territory. Golden eagles nest in the upper cliffs of several popular rock climbing areas, including Eagle Rock, Security Risk and Blob Rock.

Other areas in Boulder County are also targeted. Four parcels are located in the Magnolia Road area south of Boulder Creek, a popular mountain biking trail and an important migration corridor for elk that winter in the area. Another parcel is located in Eldora near one of the entrances to the Indian Peaks Wilderness. And several parcels abut land crossed by the Peak-to-Peak Highway and Caribou Ranch Open Space.

Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., introduced a bill in May 2005, H.R. 2110, to protect the 'open space characteristics' of lands in and adjacent to Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests along Colorado's Front Range. The bill is now undergoing hearings and testimony in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In the bill Rep. Udall outlines several key reasons why land along Colorado's Front Range needs to be protected. First, lands in and adjacent to Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests provide important wildlife habitat and numerous recreational opportunities. In addition, these open spaces are vital to Colorado's communities, not only for their scenic beauty, but also for their economic impact. As the population continues to grow along the Front Range and more land is lost to development, open space in Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests will be increasingly used for recreational purposes.

Determining which parcels are on the Forest Service's proposed list is challenging.

"They (Boulder Ranger District) weren't being uncooperative, but they weren't going out of their way to tell us where those parcels were," Shanks said.

So PLAN-Boulder County made their own maps based on data they downloaded from the Forest Service's website. These maps, which are posted on PLAN-Boulder County's website, list the location, size and significance of the public lands in Boulder County.

"In terms of actual boundaries, it's been hard to figure out," said Redal, explaining that she had trouble using the mapping program on the Forest Service's website and difficulty locating the parcels within the Sugar Loaf community.

The act of selling public lands to fund a federal program has been sharply criticized by citizens in Boulder County and politicians at local, state and national levels.

Sens. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Ken Salazar, D-Colo., both oppose the Bush administration's plan to sell public lands to fund a federal program.

"I continue to be very concerned about the Administration's proposal to sell off pieces of America's permanent heritage of public lands as part of a short-term budget issue," said Sen. Salazar in a press release issued Mar. 29, 2006.

Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., coauthors of the Secure Rural and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, introduced legislation to reinstate the program at its current funding level without resorting to land sales.

Boulder County Commissioners Ben Pearlman, Tom Mayer and Will Toor cited the proposal as being fiscally irresponsible in their letter to Dale Bosworth, forest service chief. 'The federal government has an obligation to live within its means, not sell off a permanent public asset to pay current operating costs of government.'

There is also widespread disapproval among citizens, politicians and local organizations about the Forest Service's process for selecting which public lands would be sold.

The regional offices received quick directions and very little input about how to go about the process, said Jim Maxwell, media relations officer for the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Regional Office.

"Our lands people at the regional office sat down with maps and determined where isolated and scattered parcels are located in relation to forest service lands," Maxwell said. "Our people were only given a few days to do that."

Maxwell agrees that there's been a lot of controversy over the proposed bill.

"It's facing a very uncertain future," he said.

Agricultural Undersecretary Rey contends that the Rural Schools Act was never meant to be permanent. Legislation was passed to help rural counties transition from relying on federal timber sales to finding other economic sources to generate revenues. Rey estimates that the Forest Service will only have to sell about 175,000 acres out of the proposed 300,000 acres to meet its goal of $800 million.

The first cut of national forest lands proposed for sale was included in the President's Feb. 2006 budget proposal and published in the Federal Registry on Feb. 25, 2006. A public comment period, originally set from Feb. 28 to Mar. 30, was recently extended until May 1 to give the public an additional month to comment on the controversial proposal.

"So far we have received around 4,000 comments," said Undersecretary Rey during a telenews conference with the press on Mar. 29, 2006.

Though Rey didn't know the exact breakdown of the letters, he estimated that at least three-fourths of the letters are against the proposal.

"Lots of people we're hoping will comment on specific parcels," said Maxwell so the Forest Service can revisit the list and make necessary changes.

After the comment period ends, the Forest Service will take the comments they receive into consideration while forming their final list. If Congress approves the proposal, they will get very specific about how many parcels will be sold and the method in which they will be sold, Maxwell explained.

The Boulder Ranger District will not speculate on how the Forest Service would implement the proposal until it is given that authority by Congress. Based on the proposal submitted to Congress, the Forest Service would complete an environmental analysis, Johnson said. An environmental analysis is used to learn about important issues and concerns, find alternatives for completing the project and determine the environmental impacts of those alternatives.

It's uncertain exactly how the land would be sold, though the Forest Service says that the parcels would be sold at fair market value as required by law. Fair market value is determined through an appraisal process based on the value of similar properties.

Historically the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have conveyed lands that are difficult or uneconomical to manage through land exchanges rather than sales, according to the Colorado Bureau of Land Management's website.

Under the Bush administration's proposal, this policy would change. Not only would it be more difficult for Boulder County to acquire open space through land swaps, selling national forest lands would result in fragmented ownership patterns – something Boulder Parks and Open Space has worked for years to correct.

Based on a Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement completed in 1986, Boulder County Commissioners decided it was in the county's best interest to acquire all lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. As Boulder County's population continues to grow and push outwards toward the foothills, the county must deal with increased residential development, right-of-way issues and pending Recreation and Public Purposes Act applications.

The Recreation and Public Purposes Act, administered by the Bureau of Land Management, authorizes state and local governments to purchase land at low costs for recreational and public purposes. Under the act, government entities can purchase up to 640 acres per year for recreational uses, such as parks and campgrounds, and another 640 acres for public purposes, such as municipal facilities and schools.

The Bureau of Land Management has agreed to several land exchanges with Boulder County, which involves small tracts of land, namely old mining claims, being exchanged for lands that benefit the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Land exchanges and private conservation easements have created more cohesive patterns of ownership and improved Boulder County's ability to effectively manage its open space program.

During the first exchange, which took place in March 2003, Boulder County acquired 705 acres of public land and the federal government received two parcels, a 165-acre parcel in Boulder County and a 484-acre parcel in Teller County.

In the Forest Service's Feb. 28, 2006 posting on the Federal Register, the Forest Service admits that it hasn't surveyed many of the selected parcels for 'natural or cultural resources specific to this proposal.' This raises the question of who would be responsible for surveying and assessing the land if it's sold.

Ruston estimates it would cost around $100,000 to $200,000 just to survey the land around his place. The Forest Service could send out their own surveying team to each identified parcel, but that process could take years, Ruston said. Instead Ruston surmises the Forest Service will probably leave the surveying process up to the prospective property owner.

"If they do a slipshod job and just draw lines on the map, they'll leave it up to the person who buys it," Ruston said.

This could be an expensive task. While Boulder County Commissioners paid for the surveying and appraisal costs under its land exchange agreement with the Bureau of Land Management, it would be far too expensive for the county to purchase isolated parcels of Forest Service lands at fair market value, especially if appraisal costs are heaped on.

The Boulder County Commissioners stated in their letter to Forest Service Chief Bosworth that working with the federal government to preserve open space through land swaps is an inefficient process. 'The costs of closing on federal land, including survey and appraisal costs, will significantly reduce any return to the Federal treasury,' the Boulder County Commissioners stated in their letter.

Since the passage of the Rural Schools Act in 1999, $1.9 billion of federal funds have been allocated to eligible counties. By 2013, the only guaranteed payments that these counties would receive would be 25 percent of timber sales from forest revenues. The payments will be capped, gradually adjusted downwards over the next five years and phased out by 2013, according to information on the Forest Service's website.

During 2000 to 2006 allocated funds were distributed to counties where Forest Service lands are located. If the Rural Schools Act is extended, these payments would instead go to counties that have been most affected by reduced timber sales.

Though Forest Service lands in Colorado would account for 7.2 percent of the proposed 300,000 acres, only 1.67 percent of the allocated funds would reach the state. And Boulder County wouldn't receive any of these funds.

If the public land next to Redal's home were sold, the property value of her home would decrease. But Redal isn't bothered so much about this aspect. Her main concern is that she'd lose the open space surrounding her home and the beautiful views she loves.

"So this is what President Bush wants to sell – negligible pieces of land with no scenic value," said Redal, with irony in her voice while gazing upward at the steep, creviced walls of Dream Canyon.

CU Offers New 'Environment, Media & Culture' Class

New for Spring 2006, CU-Boulder students have the opportunity to look critically at media coverage of environmental issues in an interdisciplinary course that examines the intersection of communication and culture with the environment. In an era when environmental policy debates are among the most significant global discussions engaging nations, and in which much of the public gets its knowledge and ideas about environmental issues through media channels, the class explores the key role media institutions play in that arena.

The university has long had a strong reputation for its programs in environmental studies and environmental journalism. Through the former, students study environmental science and policy, while the School of Journalism and Mass Communication offers a master's level specialty in environmental reporting. The new "Environment, Media and Culture" special-topics course (JOUR 4871/ENVS 4100/5100) provides the first media-studies focus on the environment.

Designed and taught by Dr. Wendy Redal, former program coordinator for CU's Center for Environmental Journalism, the course emphasizes the social construction of environmental issues and ideas. "While on one level the environment is a natural, material reality," Redal says, "the way it is understood, interpreted and acted upon is a product of how people think and talk about it, often through media channels."

Students in the class use theories about culture and rhetoric to investigate how environmental stories are told, paying special attention to journalism as well as other forms of popular media such as television and film. Case studies are used to focus inquiry, ranging from old-growth logging in the Pacific Northwest to genetically modified crops to climate change. The course highlights political dimensions of environmental issues, looking at how issues are "framed" by various interests, including industry, activists and government, in order to communicate with strategic effect.

While the course is intended to be of value for any student interested in communication and environmental studies, it is also designed to benefit journalism students by providing an analytical understanding of the media's role in covering the environment. Knowing more from within a theoretical context about the forces and pressures on communicators and audiences alike, journalists can be better prepared to cover environment issues more effectively, Redal says.

She is excited by her students' range of interests, which are evident in the subjects they have chosen for their final research-paper assignment. Asked to investigate a topic that brings together the course emphasis on environment, media and culture, projects include an analysis of the discourse used to market organic, fair-trade coffee; a survey of how the term "junk science" is fought over by competing voices on the global warming issue; rhetorical battles over how wolf reintroduction is framed in Idaho news stories; and scrutiny of way nature is employed and depicted in SUV ads.

For a detailed look at the content of the new course, see the syllabus for Environment, Media and Culture.

Climate Change Could Push Colorado Skiing Downhill

Crawford wrote this story for Tom Yulsman's Science Writing course (JOUR 5812) and it ran in Freeskier Magazine.

By Patrick Crawford

Every spring, when winter loosens its grip on the base of Arapahoe Basin ski area, the parking lot of North America's highest ski area turns into what locals call "the beach." Skiers and boarders still arrive at the ski area early, only instead of jockeying for first chair, they fight for a front-row parking spot at the beach.

By mid-day, an oddball collection of diehard skiers and boarders, frequently clad in shorts and baring their pale winter chests to the spring sun, are a few drinks deep into a massive tailgate party at 10,780 feet. Late in the season, more of the day is reserved for drinking, grilling burgers and playing Frisbee than for skiing. Depending on the year, the scene at the beach gets rolling sometime in mid-April and lasts through the Fourth of July.

Beaching it at A-Basin (Photo/Unknown)

While "the beach" is one of Colorado's great spring traditions, nothing scares the ski industry more than the thought that global warming could make the beach more typical of President's Day than Memorial Day.

With a business that survives on the few degrees of difference between rain and snow, some scientists estimate that Colorado's $2.5 billion-per-year ski industry may be facing a meltdown by the end of the century. But ski areas won't concede defeat. Instead, the state's resort operators are using their unique position as business leaders who sell a healthy environment to fight climate change on multiple fronts.

"In the ski industry, we see this as a global issue," says Melanie Mills, Executive Vice-President of Public Policy for Colorado Ski Country USA. "What we can do is to educate, advocate and implement. In other words, educate the public about the issue, advocate at the legislative level, and implement changes at our own resorts."

For the public, discussions about a few degrees of warming on a global scale may seem esoteric, but for skiers and a massive state industry that survives on Colorado's legendary "champagne powder," climate change is a life and death issue.

Every year evidence that the Earth is experiencing human-caused warming grows. According to a 2001 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations-sponsored assessment of the state of climate science, the global average temperature has increased about 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit over the last century. The bad news for Colorado's ski industry is that the warming has not been uniform, and the Rocky Mountains have seen a higher-than-average temperature increase.

In September, the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, a regional environmental group concerned with climate change, released a report that analyzed temperature and snowpack records in five major river basins of the western United States. It found that the upper Colorado River basin, which encompasses much of Colorado's high country, has seen an increase of 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit over the long-term average.

Given current trends, most climate scientists say warming is likely to intensify. Human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide have been on the rise for a century, and with industrialized nations struggling to control their emissions while developing nations burn ever-larger amounts of fossil fuels, the levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are likely continue to rise along with temperatures through the end of this century, according to the IPCC.

Now scientists are working to understand what that means to people on a local and regional level. A 2004 study by a team of scientists using a climate model developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., estimates that the Colorado River basin will warm by 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit by 2070. The study's authors called this a "best-case scenario," and other models have produced higher estimates. For example, the Canadian Global Coupled Model pegs the increase in the Rocky Mountain and Great Basin region at 5.9 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050. Models like these are used because they successfully predicted observed historical climate changes when scientists ran tests on past scenarios.

One thing all models agree upon is continued warming in the Western U.S., which would cause a shortened snow season.

"Looking forward about 70 years into the future, the runoff will occur about a month earlier, with more rain at the beginning and the end of the winter," says Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and a lead author for the United Nations' upcoming 2007 IPCC report.

However, scientists insist that long-term climate modeling is complex, and uncertainties increase as models become more localized. Climate models can account for major geographical features like the Rocky Mountains, but not the specific topography of an individual ski area, for example. And, all estimates of future warming work off assumptions about the amount of carbon dioxide humans put into the atmosphere. Tweaking the assumptions about the level of greenhouse gas emissions changes the predictions.

"I think there is less change coming our way than some other people would say," says NCAR researcher Klaus Wolf. "I remain skeptical that the models have a good handle on regional-scale climate change scenarios."

And as far as snowpack is concerned, Wolf says Colorado's elevation works in its favor because the state's high-elevation mountains are so cold. "I'm convinced that we are less vulnerable here at the higher elevations than places that are lower, such as the Pacific Northwest or even the Sierra."

While scientists at climate research centers around the globe continue to improve their ability to make long-term predictions about climate and how weather patterns might change over the next century, the snowsports industry feels that it cannot just wait to see what happens.

Skiing's glamorous image belies the fact that the ski resort operator in some ways has more in common with the Kansas wheat farmer than the New York hotelier. That's because ski areas are massively expensive resort operations fully at the mercy of weather.

"People who own and operate ski resorts do it because they ski," says Molly Cuffe, Director of Communications for Colorado Ski Country USA, the trade organization of Colorado's mountain resorts.

"They love the mountains, they love the mountain environment, and they know that their guests do as well. They know that they're selling the environment, so climate change is something that's very important to the ski industry. "

Keeping Colorado's ski slopes white is integral to the state's winter economy, which climate change may put in jeopardy (Photo/Copper Mountain Ski Resort)

According to Geraldine Link, Director of Public Policy for the National Ski Areas association, the ski industry is somewhat limited in what it can do to adapt to a warmer climate. "There are two things we can do, both of which we're already doing. One is to develop the resorts into year-round destinations by building our summer capabilities. The other is to maximize our snowmaking capabilities."

Unfortunately for Colorado's ski industry, in addition to producing a shorter snow season, warmer temperatures would also make it more difficult for ski areas to compensate for reduced natural snowfall by blowing the manmade kind.

"It's much more economical to make snow when it's cold out," says Auden Schendler, Director of Environmental Affairs at the Aspen Skiing Company. "A degree or so of temperature difference can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs in efficiency,"

Aspen Skiing Company has also added another consideration for the four mountains under its ownership: download lift capacity. In the early and late season, when the snowline is higher on the mountain, many ski areas use their lifts to shuttle skiers up and down from the base area to the snow. If snow stops falling at the base area of resorts, Schendler says, "we may be skiing the tops of the mountains, like we do in early and late season."

But most who make a living off skiing or snowboarding know that downhill lift capacity and snowmaking are just band-aids on a potentially massive problem. Major climate changes could cripple the sport, so many in the business feel that the most important work for the ski industry is to use its sway to affect national and regional environmental policy.

"The ski industry is an interesting, sexy business," Schendler says. "We have a significant amount of lobbying power, and we should be using that."

Colorado's ski industry was a major player in the state's 2004 passage of Amendment 37, which mandates that Colorado public utilities produce a percentage of the state's energy from renewable sources. On the national level, 70 ski areas have put their weight behind the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act, which, if passed, would force the United States to limit industrial greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2010.

Many resorts, especially Schendler's Aspen Skiing Company, have been major innovators in developing environmentally friendly building practices. Aspen aims to have the new base village planned at its Snowmass ski area earn green-building certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. Currently, there are only two buildings in Colorado that meet the strict criteria, one of which is owned by Aspen. Schendler also helped institute a unique system that uses heavy spring runoff to create hydroelectricity.

As global warming raises temperatures in the Rockies, epic powder days like this one may become rare (Photo/Dave Lehl, Vail Resorts)

All of this may signal the beginning of a potentially powerful alliance of what would once have been strange bedfellows: ski areas and environmentalists. That would hardly have seemed possible even a few years ago, when relations between the Colorado resort industry and environmentalists reached a nadir after the radical environmentalist group Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility for burning down Vail's Two Elks Lodge. Many far less extreme environmental groups have battled ski area expansions in Colorado in the courtroom.

Today the ski industry has teamed with the National Resources Defense Council on its "Keep Winter Cool" climate change educational program, and the NRDC has assuaged environmentalists about the ski industry in several instances.

"If you look at difference between the relationship between the ski industry and the environmental community 10 years ago and now, it's a sea change," Schendler says. "Part of that is this climate issue. We've found common ground."

But as much as the snowsports industry is doing to promote its own survival, even ski area employees like Schendler know that in a major climate change scenario, the loss of snowsports recreation would hardly be the worst consequence.

"The discussion that the ski industry is threatened by 2050, it's almost silly," he says. "It's like saying, 'you know, if there's a nuclear war, our milk is going to spoil.' The implications of climate change are so profound for society." Compared to problems for agriculture, potentially more intense hurricanes and other possible impacts from climate change, "the ski industry is one little blip. It's important that people say that societally, we're not going to be worrying about skiing. We're going to have a lot bigger problems to talk about."

Christianity Getting Greener

By Erika Engelhaupt

To some, the phrase "Christian environmentalist" may sound like an oxymoron.

But Christians are not of one political mind on the environment, and a growing movement called "creation care" is greening Christianity, even in socially conservative evangelical circles. In particular, the climate change debate is exposing ideological divides among Christian groups that traditionally have been lumped together as the "Christian right."

While some evangelical leaders face off in battles over endorsing U.S. action on global warming, others believe the mainstream of conservative Christianity is experiencing an environmental awakening.

"The ice is breaking in the center of the community on this issue," said the Rev. Jim Ball, an evangelical pastor at the forefront of the global warming debate. Ball spoke at a panel discussion on creation care at the 2005 Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Austin.

Ball is an ordained Baptist minister and a leader in a movement he calls "creation care," a faith-based brand of environmentalism that stresses the responsibility of humans to be good stewards of God's creation. Ball founded the Evangelical Environmental Network, a Christian non-profit organization that publishes Creation Care magazine and campaigns for environmental causes, most famously in the "What Would Jesus Drive?" campaign, in which Ball drove a hybrid Toyota Prius across the Bible Belt, spreading the word about clean vehicles from church pulpits and Christian radio stations along the way.

The Rev. Jim Ball, a leading green evangelical, promotes "creation care" among churches (Photo/ Kara Ball, Evangelical Environmental Network).

In February, Ball led a group of conservative Christian leaders to create the Evangelical Climate Initiative, a campaign calling on government to enact legislation to curb carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming.

A statement from the group implored that "Christian moral convictions demand our response to the climate change problem." The statement was signed by 86 evangelical leaders, including 39 college presidents, and first appeared Feb. 9 in a full-page New York Times advertisement. Signatories included Todd Bassett, national commander of The Salvation Army, and Rick Warren, the megachurch pastor who authored the best-selling "The Purpose-Driven Life," as well as several prominent African-American pastors.

The Evangelical Climate Initiative ran this full-page ad in the New York Times (Image/ Evangelical Climate Initiative).

Recognizing that "the consequences of climate change will be significant, and will hit the poor the hardest," the statement urged evangelicals to "engage this issue without any further lingering over the basic reality of the problem or humanity's responsibility to address it."

The statement was part of a tug-of-war between church leaders trying to lay claim to the role of mouthpiece for the evangelical community. Ball worked for months crafting a statement opposing global warming with the large and politically powerful National Association of Evangelicals. The group seemed poised to take a strong stance: in 2004, they had crafted an environmental statement claiming a "sacred responsibility to steward the Earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part."

But the NAE finally abandoned the statement on climate change in January after a small group of influential leaders wrote a letter criticizing the effort, citing disagreements among Christians over the "cause, severity, and solutions to the global warming issue." Among them were Focus on the Family head James Dobson, and Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. In response to the rebuff, Ball organized the Evangelical Climate Initiative.

Climate change is only one environmental concern of Christians among many. Because the poor are often hit hardest by environmental problems like climate change and air pollution, justice issues play heavily into Christian environmental ethics. Evangelical progressives cite a biblical mandate from Jesus to care for the poor and oppressed, and the "What Would Jesus Drive?" campaign against gas-guzzling SUVs made it clear that some Christians think Biblical values can inform consumer decisions that may affect others.

Best-selling Christian author Jim Wallis challenges Christians to examine their social decisions closely in a moral and biblical context. In his book God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It, Wallis argues that the political right has been allowed to hijack faith and moral values, defining moral values narrowly and focusing on hot-button issues like abortion and gay marriage.

Wallis, who describes himself as a "19th-century evangelical" in the tradition of a spiritually based emphasis on social justice, is the founder of the Sojourners Community, an inner-city outreach ministry in Washington, D.C.

"I would say that if our gospel isn't good news to poor people, it isn't an evangelical gospel. That's what I believe. I think that's right in the heart of the true evangelical tradition," Wallis told PBS in 2003 on a program called "The Jesus Factor" which examined the growing political influence of evangelicals in American politics.

Broadly defined, evangelical Christians believe in a personal conversion to a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Bible as the authoritative word of God, and the importance of spreading their faith. That leaves plenty of room for a diversity of opinions on the environment, and even on social issues.

Some evangelicals agree with Wallis' premise of protecting the poor but disagree about the best way to do it. Greenhouse gas-cutting measures that might increase energy prices could hurt the poor disproportionately, argues Calvin Beisner, a professor at Knox Theological Seminary and organizer of an opposition group to the Evangelical Climate Initiative called the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance.

Grassroots action at the local level is the breeding ground for the kind of new Christian movement—or return to traditional Christian values, which Wallis would claim—that evangelicals like Wallis and Ball preach.

Denver-based Eco-Justice Ministries is an ecumenical agency that helps churches in Colorado and across the country get involved in creation care and social justice issues. Its founder, the Rev. Peter Sawtell, an ordained minister in the more liberal United Church of Christ denomination, runs the ministry with a board of directors, teaching clergy how to develop social and environmental ethics in their home congregations.

"We seek the well-being of all humanity on a thriving Earth," Sawtell said.

The group provides educational materials for adults and children and asks partner churches to form leadership teams to coordinate church projects. Materials are available to any church, conservative or liberal.

Last November, Eco-Justice Ministries co-sponsored a conference in Denver with the National Council of Churches where about 70 participants, mostly from Colorado, gathered to learn about regional environmental issues and how to bring environmental concerns into their home churches through preaching, Sunday school lessons and group activities.

At the conference, Sawtell emphasized that "the church is not meant to be a branch of the Sierra Club," but rather that his ministry is concerned with how Christians should live within their faith.

Around Boulder, both progressive and conservative churches are putting creation care into practice. Cornerstone Church pastor Gene Binder who describes his church as "conservative evangelical Christian," says church members are interested in caring for the environment. A more liberal congregation, Community United Church of Christ, has formed an Earth Action Team that helps the church recycle and hopes to eventually get the church powered solely by renewable solar energy.

The Rev. Martie McMane described her hopes for the creation care movement, starting with her congregation at Boulder's First Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ.

"Our church is small and can only do so much for the environment. But think of it like ripples going out; if each person does something, it carries forth," she said.

Green Building: Beginning to make dollars and sense

By Felicia Russell

Boulder's recycling and open space programs have long earned the city national recognition as a leader in the push toward environmental sustainability. These days it's making headlines in the building industry.

The Ted Scripps Fellows and CEJ staff recently took a trip downtown to the historic Citizens National Bank Building on Pearl Street for a backstage look at the green building trend. There they met with Kristi Ennis, sustainable design director for Boulder Associates, an firm that specializes in medical architecture and design.

A room at Boulder Community Foothills Hospital, the first hospital in the U.S. to earn LEED Silver certification (Image/ Boulder Associates).

Ennis told the Fellows about her experience working with the United States Green Building Council's LEED program, which is a point-based system for rating how environmentally-friendly a building is. Her firm designed Boulder Community Foothills Hospital, the first hospital in the nation to earn LEED Silver, which means that the hospital has earned at least half of the green points possible under the program.

To sit in with the Fellows, listen to the CEJ's first podcast.

After Katrina, CU Geographer Gilbert White's Work Commands New Attention

By Erika Engelhaupt

When levees broke in New Orleans and water started gushing in, many Americans were stunned to learn the city—and the country—weren't ready. Outside Louisiana, leaders from the president on down said they couldn't have imagined such chilling devastation. But Gilbert White already had, decades before.

Back in 1942, White, a geographer who would later found an influential natural hazards research center at the University of Colorado, was writing about how floods could wipe out cities, and he started to push for better planning. A pioneer in approaching solutions from a whole-environment perspective, he emphasized the need to look at more than just building a levee here or a floodwall there.

White built a long career traveling the world, helping nations improve how they manage water and plan for floods. It would be decades, though, before his message would be taken seriously at home.

Now 93, White is known as the "father of floodplain management" and received the 2000 National Medal of Science for his leadership in this field. Reflecting on his lifetime of work, White said he hopes it has made a difference. "It's hard to get people to think ahead," he said.

Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography Gilbert F. White (Photo/ Ken Abbott, CU-Boulder)

In 1942, White finished his doctoral dissertation, Human Adjustment to Floods, at the University of Chicago. He was already working for President Franklin Roosevelt's Bureau of the Budget, after spending the Depression years in the New Deal administration's natural resources planning efforts. America was at war that year, and White, a devout Quaker, was a conscientious objector who worked with refugees in France instead of taking up arms.

White recognized that wartime technology came to dominate the American approach to problem solving. American bombers and fighter planes were the first line of defense against Nazi Germany. The war pushed forward development of jet airplanes, radar and penicillin. Most Americans believed that science and engineering, along with American muscle, could solve most problems.

Then, as now, cities faced floods. In the 1940s, city planners and engineers were eager to push forward with technological fixes. American ingenuity seemed to be enough to ensure safety. The Tennessee Valley Authority had built dams across seven states for flood control and hydroelectric power as part of the first massive development plan of its kind in the nation.

Within the president's administration, White started preaching that such a command-and-conquer approach to protection from environmental onslaughts would backfire. Instead of a relentless focus on building new structures, White promoted stewardship of the landscape. Instead of spending large sums to rebuild after a disaster, White suggested planning ahead to reduce future impacts. He said flood-prone areas should adapt to flood hazards, by keeping people and property out of harm's way when possible, and building flood-resistant buildings when needed.

Such thinking flew in the face of traditional military and engineering approaches, and the Army Corps of Engineers resisted White's ideas for many years. But eventually his perspectives took hold even there. Over the years, ecological and interdisciplinary approaches to land and water management became more popular as resource managers learned from the mistakes of dams that failed and drainage projects that destroyed wildlife habitat. In 2001, the Corps established a complete collection of White's work—more than 4,000 publications and work papers spanning more than 50 years—at the Corps' Institute for Water Resources in Alexandria, Va.

The Corps' collection includes a written introduction that reflects a new attitude. It reads in part, "Gilbert White's influence on floodplain management practice in the United States can hardly be overestimated … [His] work demonstrated that flood control structures not only occasionally fail the standards of reliability set by planners but can actually increase the damage done when unsuspecting people risk lives and money to develop the land supposedly protected."

After the war, White established an academic career. As a professor at the University of Chicago, White asked his class one day if anyone knew of a place in the West where he could take his children to work on a ranch, as he had done as a boy in Wyoming. One student said Boulder, Colo., was a nice place with ranches. White listened, and leased 1,000 acres near Boulder for $150 for the summer. He later returned to Boulder permanently, joined the faculty at CU, and founded a center here to study and plan for natural hazards such as flooding.

That center, the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, is a vital presence on the CU campus today.

Boulder was a natural place to study flood risk, as Boulder has the highest flood risk in Colorado, according to White. Thousands of homes and businesses in Boulder are vulnerable to the kind of flooding that happens on average once a century, which Boulder is currently overdue for, while thousands more would wash away in a bigger flood, the kind that happens more rarely but which is bound to devastate Boulder eventually.

The "100-year flood level" is the standard used in federal flood regulations, but given that bigger floods happen every 500 years or so, White thinks the mandatory flood zone level should be expanded to include that risk.

White has worked to prepare Boulder for the next big flood. In 1994, he created the Boulder Creek Flood Notebook, a detailed set of questions that researchers and volunteers will answer to describe what happens during and after the next big flood to hit Boulder.

That day has not yet come, but right now, the entire country is thinking about disasters and flooding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

White said he was surprised the federal government didn't do more to deal with levee safety and educating the public about what to do before a hurricane hits. He criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), now placed under the new Department of Homeland Security. "In the interest of [counteracting] terrorism, they have put more people at risk," said White.

White said New Orleans must now "consider not only the social benefit of protecting people from floods, but also maintaining the natural ecosystem." While he said the people who really know that region need to form the specific plans, White said planners need to consider the whole landscape. "It's not just a question of do we build a levee or not, but how do we make wise use of the floodplain?"

Over the years, White's principles have woven their way thoroughly into the fabric of urban planning. His ideas may influence the way New Orleans is rebuilt, even if White is not directing the process.

The next generation of urban planners in New Orleans is learning from White through his papers. Robert Collins is an assistant professor and department chair of Urban Studies and Public Policy at Dillard University in New Orleans. In his department's courses on land-use planning, White's work on floods and planning is peppered throughout the course. "Any planner would know his name," Collins said.

Sylvia Dane, Emergency Management and Planning Coordinator for CU, has known White for 17 years. "He is the most amazing person I've ever known," she said. "He has such a strong voice because of his modesty; he can bring stakeholders to the table and they will listen."

White now lives in an airy, spacious condominium above the west end of Pearl Street in Boulder. Ironically, he chose to live in one of the most flood-prone parts of Boulder. In the kind of flood that happens on average once every 100 years in Boulder, White said that area will flood up to the rooftops of one-story buildings.

"Someday Boulder will be seriously flooded," White said. "It's just a matter of time."

When that day comes, White will be ready. He had the building built with only a garage and entryway on the first floor. He predicts the brick building will stand, and perhaps White will look out the window and decide whether his town listened.

For more on Gilbert White, the Gustavson Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of Colorado, visit his biography Web site.

CU Biologist's Bug Brigade Victorious in Knapweed War

By Carolyn Barry

In 1997, Boulder County officials challenged Tim Seastedt to find a way to beat back one of the most noxious and pervasive weeds in the West.

Eight years later, the University of Colorado ecologist has declared victory against diffuse knapweed on his 160-acre test plot near Superior—and he believes his method can bring the weed under control throughout the region. His secret weapon? A couple of little weevils.

"We threw out a few hundred bugs against a few million knapweed plants," said Seastedt, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at CU, and research fellow at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. "The odds were not really fair."

But it turns out that the odds were really against the knapweed.

Seastedt said since he introduced his "gorgeous little insects"—the seedhead weevil and the knapweed root weevil – in 1997, they have multiplied from hundreds to billions. At that density, he said, no knapweed could survive their onslaught.

Diffuse knapweed is the most aggressive of the four knapweed species found in Colorado. Not only does it destroy native grassland, it is unpalatable to most grazing animals.

Introduced with alfalfa crops from Eurasia in the early 1900s, this invasive weed found few natural enemies in North America. It now thrives in semi-arid grasslands of the West, where it has colonized more than 3 million acres, including 145,000 acres across Colorado's Front Range.

Generating tens of thousands of seeds per plant, diffuse knapweed rapidly builds its population in a new area. The weed also spreads its seeds great distances as a tumbleweed.

Diffuse knapweed "tumbleweeds" along a Front Range fence (Photo/Tim Seastedt)

Herbicide spraying has been ineffective because knapweed's plentiful reserve of seeds in the soil allows more plants to grow in the place of those that were treated, said Seastedt.

Previous biological controls have also been unsuccessful. By 1996, 10 insect species had been released in Colorado, to little effect.

But Seastedt said his addition of the two new weevil species made the crucial difference. Seedhead weevil larvae attack knapweed's reproductive output by consuming its seeds, while the adults weaken it by devouring the foliage. "The root weevil," said Seastedt, "is the icing on the cake to the bio-control story." Root weevils inhabit the roots, preventing knapweed from flowering until the insects are mature. This delay in the plant's life cycle allows seedhead weevil numbers to increase to a level where they consume vast amounts of seeds.

A Cyphocleonus (lower left) and Larinus weevils on a knapweed plant(Photo/Mark Giebel)

"Once you shut down its seed production to a low level, it does not have the ability to persist in density," said Seastedt.

From 1997 to 2000, Seastedt found that the number of seeds per square meter on his test plot fell from 4500 to fewer than 10. The population of young knapweed plants also decreased from 50 per square meter to less than one. Consistent low numbers since 2000 and a lack of knapweed on his test plot this year makes Seastedt confident that the reserve of seeds has been exhausted and diffuse knapweed has been brought under control.

Another part of the success story is the weevils' ability to migrate throughout Boulder County, negating the need for a widespread controlled release. The weevils have been so successful that Seastedt said they have almost eaten themselves out of house and home. Seastedt said he is currently working with a city council member from Lyons, however, to coordinate the release of the insects there.

Other areas in North America have reported similar results. Scientists in Oregon, Montana and British Columbia have also had success at controlling diffuse knapweed with these little weevils. As for the pesky plant, "We've moved it from the noxious to the obnoxious list," Seastedt said.

Professor Tim Seastedt ruminating in the field (Photo/Tim's Web site)