Three years ago, residents of Pavillion, Wyo. asked the US Environmental Protection Agency to figure out what had happened to their drinking water, which had begun to taste and smell bad.

Don’t believe in climate change? Congratulations. But this isn’t the Rapture. Whether you believe or not, you’re coming along for the ride. This means that, if you live in New Mexico, you’re going to experience higher temperatures, worsening drought conditions, conifer forest die-offs and variable precipitation.

New Mexico is warmer than it was a decade ago. Already this year, 1,242 square miles of New Mexico have burned. Worldwide, scientists are watching their models and predictions play out—and we’re all experiencing symptoms no one expected.

I wish I could recall the first time I heard those sounds of madness in the night. I’m sure they tore a hole in my understanding of all things simple and orderly. A cacophony of blood and wantonness. Coyotes.

In the late 1980s, people living in the border town of Sunland Park, NM, had a big problem on their hands—and on their laundry lines, too.

The economy is in the tank and New Mexico faces a $400 million budget shortfall. A new governor has taken office and a wave of change will soon crash across all state agencies and trickle down to impact schools and youth services. Not only that, but the state’s political boundaries are shifting. Oh, and the federal government is eying New Mexico as the nation’s new nuclear bomb factory—as well as the final resting place for the nation’s accumulated waste from nuclear power plants.

We wrap up 2010 with a look back at the top stories that shaped the roller coaster of the last 12 months. True, not all of these stories woke us at 3 am with our teeth chattering. But the pervasive sense of seditious intent from the powers that be did fuel our thinking as we wrapped up the year. So we present not just the top 10 stories, but our own take on the conspiracies behind them.

Just as the UN talks moved into full force in Cancún, the state’s Environmental Improvement Board voted to approve a second greenhouse gas cap-and-trade proposal that had been debated over the summer.

Almost four years ago, in January 2007, biologists at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation received a disturbing report: Dead bats lay on the ground near a known hibernation area.

Just home from a camping trip within the territory of the Hawk’s Nest wolf pack in eastern Arizona, activist Jean Ossorio complains that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has released only one new wolf into the wild within the past four years.