Western Water Shortages: More than Just a Drought

Wired has a great piece on some of the many factors that contribute to the huge puzzle that is managing water resources in the Western US. Go check it out!

The Naughty Environmentalist on Trove.com

In addition to writing here about environmental issues, I have also mentioned aggregating a large amount of green and environmental news on my Twitter account, @EcoKade.
I've also discovered an excellent curated news tool called Trove. Originally cooked up in WaPo Labs, Trove uses complex algorithms to examine your tweets, Facebook posts, etc., to bring you news you care about. Trove also puts the power in your hands by letting anyone curate their own news channel -- called a "trove."

There is a Naughty Environmentalist trove, (mentioned above!) and I'm in the lab cooking up new troves as we speak. The editors at Trove seem to like The Naughty Environmentalist too, and highlighted it on their blog yesterday. Come check it out!

Moohoo hahah, mwahahaha, it's LIVE!!!

#NaturePorn Tuesday: Alaska Edition (Pt.1)!

Denali Viewpoint South, Alaska.

Detail view, Denali South Overlook. Inversion layers FTW!

Word to the wise: stating aloud for the Universe to hear, "I'm going to sit down and quickly pull a few pics of my awesome Alaska camping trip for the blog" is pretty much begging to be properly, full-on stumped, Matlock-style, for several hours.                                                                                       It's impossible to pick just a few! There is so much natural beauty in Alaska that it's almost hard to take a bad picture -- everywhere you point the camera, there is something awesome to capture. So today's installment of #NaturePorn Tuesday is going to be ... well, Alaska-sized!

Alaska, eh? All photos in this post are by the author (with an occasional
 one from my better half possibly mixed in).

I could blather on about how in Alaska it feels like the sky is taller, the vistas wider, the greens greener, and the wild, wilder. But I'm pretty sure most all of that's been said many times over. So, instead: some gorgeous pics.                                                                                         

Add caption

(I could also blather about what a pain Blogger is when trying to get text to flow inline with images, but suffice it to say I'll be changing platforms soon. In the meantime, apologies for the choppy text.)

Don't assume that any one type of sight or activity will be your focus, unless you are limited to one breakneck day of sightseeing. Even then, you'll quickly realize you aren't sure whether to photograph the water, or the mountains, or the wildlife ... and since you're probably mortal, you'll wind up trying to catch it all. Just make sure to be present, and not lose yourself behind the lens. It's easy to do, with canvases like these surrounding you!

The road north from Anchorage to Denali. Sometimes it's hard to
tell where the mountains end and the clouds begin in Alaska.

Yours truly, capturing the photo above.

There are many wonderful things to see in Alaska by boat and by rail, but if you want to get out,
camp, and find some quiet, you'll need to rent a (preferably 4WD) vehicle. Many Alaskan roads
and highways are gravel, and become dangerously mud-slick in the regular summer rains.

Alaska's gravel roads can lead you
right to breathtaking campsites. 

There's an eagle-sized mosquito
biting me in this picture. But
I'm smiling, because it's an
*Alaskan* mosquito!

View from tent door: yup, Mr. Porcupine's sayin' hi.

Mr. Porcupine was probably our first wildlife sighting, but he was soon in very good company.

MOST. BALD. EAGLES. EVARRRRRRRR!

Moose. Everywhere. And 0-60mph in like 3 seconds. Whoah.

Of course, the Alaska Railroad is a very relaxing way to take in some stunning vistas not accessible to automobiles.

Stay tuned! More Alaska #NaturePorn on the way. In the mean time, watch for more Alaska photos on The Naughty Environmentalist's Instagram, and your several-times-daily dose of environment and outdoor news at TNE's Twitter feed!

We're Now On Pinterest :-)

Lots of lovely environmental, outdoors, wildlife, and planetary science are inbound at our new Pinterest site!

New: #NaturePorn Tuesdays!

*clears throat, does best stuffy Grand Maester Pycelle voice*
"Aherrm, attend, ahhhhermm, attend!"
"We have Decided and thusly Decreed that each Tuesday henceforth Shall be Knowne throughout the Seven Kingdoms as '#NaturePorn Tuesdays.' And there will Be much Rejoicing -- on theInstagramme, the Twitter, and everywhere betwixt and between the Wall and Dorne!"

Is it Dorne? Outside Meereen, or Yunkai? No ... Sedona, Arizona.

Photos by Kade BP Hutchinson.

The rocks that launched a thousand thousand postcards ... welcome to Red Rocks State Park.

Traveling north of Sedona on US-89a is cooling
in the summer, and stunning in the fall.

Without question, the most fantastic view from any Starbucks, anywhere. :-)

Yay, public bike repair stands!

A big "THANK YOU!" to the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail and their self-service bike repair stations!

Unexpected Outdoor Awesomeness: Huckberry Ain't Just An Online Store

So I promise not to be a shill. I'll be doing reviews, definitely, but ... I have to be honest. Huckberry makes me squee.
Huckberry is an online destination, "your favorite store, your grandpa's favorite store, and your favorite magazine all rolled into one." Absolutely, the gear they feature is freakin' badass. These collections are painstakingly curated shops, clearly collected with -- I gotta say it -- love. They're damn-sexy, manly-outdoorsy without being sexist or hipster-douchey ... and almost always drool-worthy. Many of the items are also outdoors-geektastic, like the BioLite Campstove, Portable Grill, and Smartphone/Tablet Charger Bundle (squeeeeeee!). Also, beard oil!
But much better, they actually have a truly gorgeous "journal." It's a thoughtful and visually rich outdoor, travel, and adventure lifestyle blog with quality writing on par with straight-up magazines like Outside and Backpacker.
Some cases in point: A while back, I drooled over this gorgeous photo essay and interview with the founder and writer for Sidetracked, a bike-friendly, yet very broad-scope web publication about outdoor/adventure travel -- also ridiculously gorgeous itself.

Huckberry image from Sidetracked profile. All of this post's imagine belongs to these nice Huckpeople, not me.

 A little earlier, I was wooed by another interview/photo essay about the German photographs Jörg Marx who captures images of the Schwarzwald (Germany's famous Black Forest), its wildlife, and its hunters. This past week was a portrait of the haunting, stunning night photography of Iceland captured by Andy Lee.

Dark Iceland.

Surfing, kayaking, biking, camping, you name it -- if it's outdoors and engaging, Huckberry writes about it.

BADASS modern-day camper. YAAASSSSSS!

There are also substantively useful posts; one of my favorites so far is a how-to for folding up your skivvy essentials into the tiniest possible volume, the "skivvy roll" (or "grunt roll" as the Marines call it, apparently).
Sometimes even the gear they have available for sale tells a story, such as the "Weekly Pocket Dump". Herein they snag awesome people who lives that apparently are way more exciting than mine, and have them dump out their pockets. The result -- photos that say a lot about how much people care about the form and function of the objects they interact with daily -- is itself visually engaging, and naturally leads to the discovery of lots of really cool stuff.

And to prove it's as much about the story as the selling, I'm pretty sure nearly all the linked cool stuff is sold elsewhere; the links all head to Amazon.
Heck, they even have Explorers Grants to pay their success forward. I'm so applying next time around!
The company is "bootstrapped, profitable, and proud" -- and if you'd like to learn more about them, the owners were profiled by Signal v. Noise here.