S1E103 - Felicity Barringer: The West Is a Tortoise on the Environment Ahead of Other Tortoises

We began our second Bill Lane Center for the American West sponsored episode with leading long-time environmental and former Russia-based journalist Felicity Barringer, editor of & the West, a magazine about the future and nature of the West. We discussed the future of water in the West, focusing on the divisions in the Colorado River, new water technologies, and the region's concentration of lithium. We then explored geothermal energy alternatives, the Sustainable Groundwater Act, and the threats of sea level rise to coastal communities, as well as how the insurance industry has adapted to survive the effects of climate change. Felicity addressed the ongoing debate about the West's advancement on climate change compared to other regions and we examined the damage to salmon runs resulting from both climate change and dams. Rounding out this rich conversation, we delved into topics ranging from seaweed farming and dust storms to Native peoples and western land, social media's impact on national parks, and coal. The discussion concluded with Felicity's insights about what distinguishes the American West culturally, her experiences as a journalist in Russia during the Gorbachev era, and what lies ahead for & the West.

Biography

Felicity Barringer created the online magazine, & the West, for the Bill Lane Center in 2016, with Geoff McGhee, a data journalist who has been her partner in the enterprise ever since. Felicity, who is 73, started the work about 18 months after retiring from a 28-year career at The New York Times, where she had been a reporter and editor on the national, foreign and business desks. Her career at The Times began in Moscow, where she reported on the reawakening of Soviet society under Mikhail Gorbachev – and covered Chernobyl, including a visit to the plant. Her last decade at The Times was spent as a national environmental reporter, covering everything from the build-out of natural gas wells in western Wyoming to the passage of California’s groundwater management law. Before joining The Times in 1986  she worked for nearly a decade at The Washington Post. The Heart of & the West's coverage has always been environmental reporting – from droughts to floods to land use and wildlife issues. We try to look behind the news and look over the horizon at the issues that will soon dominate environmental coverage.

Conversation recorded on October 18, 2024.