Pacific Standard Debut Cover

Native Environmentalism and the Alberta Oil Boom

October 27, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Syncrude Oil Sands Extraction Plant

In May, with a runaway well belching thousands of barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico, congressional leaders received a delegation from the opposite side of the country eager to exploit the contrast between the BP disaster and fossil fuels sourced from Canada. Crude extracted from Canada's oil sands, Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice assured U.S. consumers, is "a safe, stable, secure supply of energy." And, he noted, it was being developed "to the highest possible environmental standards." That's not how it looks to many Cree, Chipewyan and Metis people living downstream ... Read More

Global Warming: the Archaeological Frontier

October 19, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Dart Shaft Artifacts from Yukon

In the small laboratory next to his office at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology in Albuquerque, N.M., Jim Dixon unlocks a large steel cabinet, slides open a drawer and gingerly lifts out a thin piece of gray, brittle-looking wood. "This fragment is actually a spear shaft," he says and then shows me a dart shaped to fit into the socket of an ancient spear-thrower called an atlatl. "This is the stone point with sinew lashing. This is very fragile. This is about 2,800 years old." Opening one drawer after another, Dixon displays dozens of other artifacts — arrows, some decorated with red ... Read More

When Facebook Is Your Medical Record

October 14, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

Not long before some teenagers who'd been bullied on MySpace and Facebook started committing suicide in 2006, a doctor of adolescent medicine named Megan Moreno began hearing from her patients that social networking sites were making them sick. One girl started getting stomachaches after peers posted photos of her on MySpace. Another worried that the sexual references on her boyfriend's profile meant she'd have to do things she didn't feel ready for. Moreno was troubled but intrigued: If MySpace, and more recently, Facebook, could so powerfully influence a teen's health for the worse, might ... Read More

Ranking States’ Citizen Embarrassment Levels

August 18, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

Ideological hijinks, bipartisan incompetence and outright corruption have infected state capitals — and mortified citizens — across the U.S. Is there a cure? We’re supplying a dose of satire; if you have a more effective therapy let us know. If we've snubbed your state or left out a well-qualified candidate for our collection, please give us your nomination and your reasoning by leaving a comment below or by e-mailing theeditor@miller-mccune.com. Until then, we'll just focus on our not-so-magnificent seven: Virginia, Illinois, California, New York, Tennessee, Arizona and ... Read More

Bamboo Houses to the Rescue

July 6, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

Over time, poor countries don't experience more natural disasters than rich countries, but poor people — even those living in rich countries — suffer more in a catastrophe. Since the dawn of civilization, infrastructure has played a crucial role in deciding who and what survives a flood, earthquake, tropical cyclone or other natural disaster. And the wealthy really are different from you and me; they have more infrastructure. Beyond increasing per capita income — the goal of many, if not all, development projects — what can be done to provide better infrastructure and reduce the ... Read More