Category Archives: Peter Miesler

In last month’s celebration of Earth’s Pageant of Evolution I touched on the interplay of tectonics, geochemistry and archaic life. The intimate love-making of Earth’s geology and biology – to put it poetically rather than scientifically. Getting back to the … Continue reading →

Last month’s column left off with Earth looking like a snowball roughly a billion years ago. In fact, there were a number of snowball epochs in Earth’s past, though most didn’t actually have glaciers growing all the way to the … Continue reading →

Who says understanding Earth’s Evolution is irrelevant? Sadly, all too many. I often hear people, not just the religious with their thoughtless rejection and outright contempt for our Earth and her story, but also rational educated people who superficially accept … Continue reading →

The increasingly shrill and disconnected- from-physical-reality attacks on science by faith-based organizations and individuals have me thinking about an essay that evolutionary biologist Stephen Gould wrote some 20 years ago. It was an attempt to address the tension between scientific … Continue reading →

Back in January, my Four Corners Free Press column was built around a talk by climate scientist Dr. Trenberth, an authority on our planet’s global heat and moisture distribution engine. In March there was a letter to the FCFP editor … Continue reading →

Recently, I was minding my own business listening to a fascinating talk on YouTube titled, “Rooted in Earth History: the Devonian transition to a forested planet.” It was about strategies that Earth’s first ground-hugging plants adapted to escape the confines … Continue reading →

Recently, I was minding my own business listening to a fascinating talk on YouTube titled, “Rooted in Earth History: the Devonian transition to a forested planet.” It was about strategies that Earth’s first ground-hugging plants adapted to escape the confines … Continue reading →

Children of the Intellectual Enlightenment, liberals, progressives, seekers of objective facts and rational learning based on constructive debates, believers in our pluralistic society and our democratic way of government, please look around and take note. We are in deep trouble. … Continue reading →

Early in December, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt told lawmakers he intended to organize a “Red Team vs. Blue Team” exercise to debate climate change. Pruitt is being willfully blind to the fact that the scientific aspects of … Continue reading →

The suspense is over. Red McCombs and family have decided to appeal Judge Matsch’s May decision, which nullified the 2015 Village at Wolf Creek/ LMJV landswap agreement with the Rio Grande National Forest/US Agriculture Department. There’s much to be said, … Continue reading →

I believe it is appropriate to personally petition Mr. McCombs and his daughter Marsha M. Shields, asking them to completely reconsider their out-of-date plans for a mountain village at Alberta Park, high on Wolf Creek Pass in Southwest Colorado. I … Continue reading →

I couldn’t bring myself to watch this year’s inauguration and from what I’ve heard about it, it was a good choice, blood pressure and all that. I mean, that’s the next President up there on the dais in front of … Continue reading →

I couldn’t bring myself to watch this year’s inauguration and from what I’ve heard about it, it was a good choice, blood pressure and all that. I mean, that’s the next President up there on the dais in front of … Continue reading →

It seems to me the single most important lesson of this election is that “The Lie” has become acceptable mainstream political currency. Though the Left is guilty of this, Trump and his Alt-Right champions and Republican tea-partiers have taken it … Continue reading →

On Sept. 8, I read a well-written but misleading letter to the editor in the Durango Telegraph. The letter dismissed ColoradoCare Amendment 69 and praised the perfection of our current Colorado workers comp arrangement. The author, a big-time insurance executive, … Continue reading →

On July 19, Ben Adler at grist.org reported on the GOP Platform’s environmental goals, compiling a list of 11 highlights. Republicans want to: • Cancel the Clean Power Plan • Abolish the EPA as we know it, or, barring that, … Continue reading →

The GOP Convention gave me a reason to read the 2016 Republican Platform. This is the distillation of their rank and file’s world outlook along with their wish list, so it’s worth paying attention to. I had intended to report … Continue reading →

It started with an email that read: “La Plata Electric Association’s board of directors is meeting on June 15 to consider a blanket waiver giving Tri-State Generation and Transmission, our power provider, the right to be the primary negotiator of … Continue reading →

  Mike Keefe’s cartoon is reprinted with permission of the cartoonist. Twenty years ago I came across a cartoon by Mike Keefe in the Denver Post that captured an attitude I had found all too pervasive among my fellow Americans: … Continue reading →

After writing about the June 20 “Honor Wolf Creek” art project in my most recent installment of the “Red McCombs’ Luxury Village at Wolf Creek” saga, I couldn’t resist driving up to Wolf Creek Pass to check it out. Besides, … Continue reading →

Up in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, below Wolf Creek Pass, an epic wetlands-preservation struggle has been going on. The smoldering mess was reignited in May when the Rio Grande National Forest released its final decision regarding the Village … Continue reading →

Recently I learned about a new documentary concerning James Randi, called “An Honest Liar.” Unfortunately, it won’t be out until early spring. What a shame, because though I’m no movie buff, here was one I wanted to watch. You see, … Continue reading →

Recently I received a call from a local Democratic Party worker that went something like this: “Hey, Pete, how’s it going? Haven’t seen you around this campaign, we could really use some help at the office, any chance we can … Continue reading →

Back in 1979, through a series of serendipitous cross-country hitch-hiking adventures I found myself driving down into Silverton and it was love at first sight — the setting, the town, the people, the community. Before I went to sleep that … Continue reading →

Colorado experienced its most extreme weather event in recent memory between Sept. 9 and 15. Golden, Boulder and Larimer counties received the worst of it, with rain accumulations of 16-17 inches and more. Some areas received nine inches on Thursday … Continue reading →

At 58, I can honestly say that geology has fascinated me for nearly half a century. Those first National Geographic maps and Popular Science stories about Earth’s tectonic plates and the Ring of Fire grabbed my young imagination. Within a … Continue reading →

I read Gail’s excellent articles on climate change in the July Free Press with much interest, particularly “Locals’ views differ on warming theory,” where the opinions were truly saddening. Quotes such as: “It’s climate change, but I’m not sure it’s … Continue reading →

The sad saga of Alberta Park began back in the 1980s, when a billionaire purchased some private land within the Saguache Ranger District of the Rio Grande National Forest. It was nice land — land the Forest Service had been … Continue reading →

It appears Billy Joe “Red” McCombs’ longtime dream of constructing a luxury resort town in the middle of Alberta Park (elevation: 10,300 feet), nestled against the Continental Divide on Wolf Creek Pass Colorado and coincidentally home to some 40 feet … Continue reading →

Perhaps the most enduring argument global-warming skeptics use against the broad scientific consensus regarding manmade climate change is attacking something called the “Mann hockey-stick graph.” What’s a hockey stick got to do with understanding global warming? Well, it goes back … Continue reading →

On Feb. 19, the U.S. House voted 244- 179 to kill funding for the International Panel on Climate Change because, they claim, we can’t trust them and we don’t need their stinking information anyways. (The bill has yet to pass … Continue reading →

What a long, strange trip it’s been. Forty years ago I was a bright-eyed high-school science student learning about greenhouse gases and the atmosphere and how that related to this incredibly fruitful climate our society has been enjoying, especially compared … Continue reading →