I felt no smug satisfaction when reading of a recent federal court case involving The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. In March, the company pled guilty to charges that it had knowingly sold poisoned birdseed.

In a shaky, hand-shot video from 2010, Nimish Vyas of the United States Geological Survey pans across a field in Vernon, Colo. Vyas focuses on a dirt mound and then zooms in on a pale spot atop the dry, tawny grass. The spot twitches, and he zooms closer.

A major new federal study shows that New Mexico’s 1,000 underground miners face increased cancer risks from exposure to diesel exhaust—and that existing exhaust limits may not be enough to protect them. But thanks largely to a little-known industry group called MARG, little if anything is likely to come of this new information.

There are a lot of things Edward Abbey didn’t like: dams, fences, billboards—and cars in national parks. Writing of his time working at Arches National Park, in Desert Solitaire, he railed against visitors who never stepped from their vehicles: “Let the people walk. Or ride horses, bicycles, mules, wild pigs—anything—but keep the automobiles and the motorcycles and all their motorized relatives out.”

When the New Mexico Livestock Board found Bonito, he was so emaciated that he had to gain 300 pounds before be could even be transported from his neglectful owner’s home.

If a recent tussle between a local engineer and officials from Los Alamos National Laboratory shows anything, it’s that one lab’s error is another man’s dilemma.

Most New Mexicans have never spotted a wild river otter. In the 19th century, the animals were trapped out of existence in much of their historic range. The last one known to have lived—or at least died—in New Mexico was caught in a beaver trap set in the Gila River near the town of Cliff in 1953.

Do New Mexicans deserve low-cost electricity or clear skies? That question lies at the heart of the latest dust-up between federal regulators and the Public Service Company of New Mexico.

Climate change affects everyone, even if it doesn’t feel like it.Over the past 15 years, I’ve driven through a handful of dust storms that made me feel, even just momentarily, that I wouldn’t find a safe way out of the darkness and stinging grit. Even inside the vehicle, it was hard not to hold my breath.