Jill Hanauer, David Winkler, Lisa Grove, Melissa Chernaik & Andrew Myers collaborated on this piece. Their full bios are provided on the contributor’s page of the website.

Excerpt:

“… People move to the West and stay here because of the unique quality of life the regionsoffers. Indeed, nine in ten Interior West voters say that they “enjoy a unique
quality of life,” a characteristic that is deeply valued across all states surveyed.
Nearly as many (88 percent) say that their fellow Westerners “cherish the
outdoors.” Interestingly, analytical modeling reveals that the latter underpins
the former, in that Westerners’ perception of a unique quality of life is
enhanced by access to the outdoors, which is cherished for the solace and
centering it provides. To these Americans, the outdoors represents a combination
of physical exercise, recreation, family time without the interruptions
of technology, a place of reverence, and a way to get and stay grounded.
While climate change is not voters’ top issue—that hallowed ground is
reserved for more immediate concerns such as job creation, household costs,
and education budget cuts—Westerners’ close connection to the land means
that we see climate change as a threat to our way of life, not only from
a recreational perspective, but from an economic one. Whether voters are
ranchers, farmers, or those whose livelihood is connected to the recreation
industry, climate change has a direct impact on their financial security. As
a result, candidates now run on climate change, rather than running from it:
the new breed of western elected officials is largely willing to confront the
issue, rather than deny it, and voters in the Interior West have embraced
politicians of both parties who offer pragmatic solutions to climate change.”

John Daley is television reporter in Salt Lake City, specializing in political, environmental and investigative coverage.  He also teaches journalism at the University of Utah, and was a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. His essay is based on a train ride with his family from his hometown of Denver to his current home in Salt Lake, entitled Zephyr to Zion—Train of Thoughts in a Warming West.

“….As the train rumbles into the dark canyon shade, the layer-cake walls towering high above now, I wonder: how many of the hundreds of people on this train really understand the changes we’re seeing right out our window and what’s surely responsible for it? If they’re like most Americans, they’re actually increasingly skeptical about the reality of global warming, according to the latest Gallup poll (2009). It found that 41 percent of those polled believe the threat of climate change is exaggerated.

That’s an amazing statistic when you consider this: many of the scientists, the people who’ve been spending years now documenting what must be one of the most thoroughly studied phenomena in history, are more worried than ever. One study released this year by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, predicted dust bowl–like conditions in the Southwest and elsewhere, which would be “largely irreversible” for a thousand years if we continue burning carbon at our current pace. Another, by the British Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, declared that Antarctic ice sheets are melting faster and across a larger area than previously thought. The head of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that the current trajectory of climate change is now much worse than originally projected.

How can it be that public opinion lags so far behind reality? Here’s my perspective: the nosedive of the journalism world is directly undermining the quality and quantity of climate-related information US citizens consume. Consider the findings of the 2009 State of the News Media report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. The report found that the journalism world, like the financial sector, is in a meltdown. The global economic downturn is hammering the very advertisers that fund most news outlets…..”

Sean Kelly is an environmentally conscious chef and restaurateur – a partner in many well-known and loved Denver eateries, including Aubergine and (currently) the LoHi Steak Bar. He lives in Denver with his wife, psychologist Randi Smith, and his two children, Meredith and Nolan. He feels strongly about sourcing the food for his restaurants, and wrote an essay for the book about the challenges of doing this. Here’s an excerpt:

….Having been a chef for more than 30 years, I’ve heard countless sales pitches and been faced with thousands of food-purchasing choices. I’ve also seen the status of chef go from something roughly akin to picking up people’s trash for a career to something as elevated as celebrity, entertainer, and—most importantly—expert. As food has become more complex and restaurants have become more central to human experience, the public looks to chefs for answers not just about how to prepare food, but about which foods to purchase. As a chef, I maintain a responsibility to myself and my community to make—and therefore defend—the food choice decisions inside my business. The public seems more interested than ever before about how these choices get made…..

As part of the Rocky Mountain Land Series, How the West was Warmed will be featured in a reading and signing event at the Tattered Cover Lodo on Saturday November 14 at 2pm. Here’s a link.

The official launch date (when books are commercially more widely available) is the week of November 2, but books are available to order today from Fulcrum Press! (see link below).

Books will also be for sale at the Sustainable Industries Forum at the Westin Tabor Center in Denver 10/29/09, from 8-11 a.m.

Reading and Signing at the Tattered Cover Lodo in Denver November 14, 2pm! More on this here soon…