Too many pandemic lessons have gotten lost as the engine of  “normal” revs back up. COVID awareness around the deep unfairness and unhealthiness baked into our economic and social systems has been swept under the rug of consumption and record profits and business as usual.

Even the lessons about how to prepare for deadly pandemics, wildfires, and storms has been forgotten in the rush to “get back at it.”

But business is not usual. Life is not “normal.” We’re already in a pot of hot water that’s set to boil, and we’re still resistant to change.… Read More

Motions can ask the judge to do an array of things, like changing where the case is heard, telling one party to release evidence or information to another, or agree to decide a case without oral argument. In our lawsuit challenging the approval of the Willow oil and gas project in U.S. District Court, we sought a preliminary injunction to stop ConocoPhillips from permanently and irreparably doing harm in the western Arctic while the court rules on our case.… Read More

I took some time off to see my family in early March. Within a day of returning, it felt like I hadn’t left at all.

Instead, I felt like someone delivered a soggy old cabbage sandwich made up of somewhat good news stuffed with clearly bad news. I’m as hungry for good news as anyone, but this dish tastes bitter.… Read More

By Dawnell Smith The Biden administration released its final decision on the ConocoPhillips Willow project at 5 am Alaska time on Monday, March 13. ConocoPhillips started building an ice road that day—with U.S. Bureau of Land Management permits in hand—and … Read More

In the first piece in our series on mining in Alaska, we talked about how the push for green energy mining could replace one catastrophe with another.

The Ambler road project is the poster child. The project is being promoted by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state agency with little to no legislative oversight, an insulting lack of public transparency, and a rigid agenda impervious to good sense.… Read More

Last week I flew down to Iowa to surprise my sister Julie for her 50th birthday. It really did feel like conspiratorial fun. She had asked if I could come down several months ago, but I told her tickets were … Read More

Marybeth Holleman’s first book of poetry, “tender gravity,” came out this month, and we’re excited to host an in person reading on Sept. 8 so she can share it with you. We hope you can make it. (If you can’t … Read More

Summer officially runs from summer solstice on June 21 to the fall equinox on September 22, but in Alaska it feels more fleeting. Already, it seems half gone.

Maybe it’s because the changes in light feel palpable, and plant and garden growth comes so fast you can hardly keep up.

Salmon runs suddenly get hot and then quickly wane; berries get plump and within weeks picked over by bears and dogs and humans; shorts and t-shirt days feel almost oppressive when coupled with wildfire smoke and no wind, yet will soon give way to the first frost.… Read More

By Dawnell Smith Agencies produce environmental impact statements to analyze and assess the impacts of a project proposal on people and the environment. An EIS is meant to help agencies make good decisions about proposals that impact land, water, animals, … Read More