By Dr. Robert Thorson Who’s to blame for California’s deadly Esperanza wildfire? Was it the arsonist who allegedly set the blaze? Or was it a land-hungry public so desperate for housing lots that they built directly in harm’s way? It was the latter. If building on steep slopes invites landslide damage, and if building on […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson I’m thankful for the selectivity of extinction. Those dinosaurs big enough to eat us are gone. Those we eat on Thanksgiving are still around. In case you haven’t heard, a Big Bird nicknamed Friggin made the New England news last week. It was an emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) a fast, flightless, feathered […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson A good atmosphere is easy to take for granted. This was my first thought when I read the joyous NASA press announcement that Mars “once had conditions suited for ancient life.” Mars lost its opportunity for life because its atmosphere changed too much. But what about planet Earth? Though we’re not […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson What would you do if an American cultural relic was being endangered? Would you look the other way as someone rough-handled the U.S. Constitution? Would you leave George Washington’s portrait to be burned by the British? Would you toss Dorothy’s ruby-red shoes into a musty closet? No! You would place them […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Last week, the world got a case of sticker shock. For the first time in recorded history, the price of our energy-rich lifestyle hit the magic number of 400 parts-per-million carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. There’s no politics involved in this number. No propaganda. No conspiracy. It’s a fact as plain […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson The blizzard of snow making new news in Colorado this week is burying old news about Mount Hood in Oregon, where two climbers were last heard from on Dec. 10. This old story — now muffled by a veil of deep snow — made me wonder why all climbing parties on […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson What lies beneath? That’s what worries Cheshire resident Mary Vosburgh. A good-sized chunk of her backyard is being swallowed up by something that has already gobbled up truckloads of fill, dozens of old tires, a few old automobiles and even a children’s swing set. In 1978, it took a bite out […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Henry David Thoreau went to Walden to live deeply and to find out if life was mean or sublime. He found it to be sublime. But what is sublime in the grand scheme of things can be mean at the local level. In a recent case involving protected species vs. private […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Boulder, Colorado. Both of these names derive from torrential river flows. So why the media hysteria about the floods there last month? The city of Boulder was named for Boulder Creek, which was named for the abundance of large boulders. How did they get there? By torrential stream flows giving rise […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Spring is the time for the musical ensemble of singing birds, chattering chipmunks and peeping frogs. As we progress toward summer, however, I expect to hear fewer of these wildlife sounds due to predation by bored housecats, who hunt them for sport. According to the American Bird Conservancy, “There are more […]