Sitting in a rodeo box in Augusta, Montana, I am reflecting on the juxtaposition of cultures we’ve experienced on our ride across Montana so far. This morning we spoke with Hal Herring, an avid hunter and environmentalist with a deep Alabama drawl. Along the way we’ve met activists whose chosen method of communication is theater,

Though I am originally from a beach town, riding into the Bonogofsky ranch immediately felt like home. As the late afternoon sun began to slowly descend, I sat in a circle with my Cycle the Rockies classmates and Alexis Bonogofsky, a Montana rancher and environmental activist. Alexis told us about her origins in activism and

It’s Day 15 of our 2021 Cycle the Rockies course. The heat bounces off the paved road as we pull our bikes off the street to lock them up. The heat wave has arrived. We’ve only ridden a couple of miles from our campsite into downtown Helena, but we’re all sweating. As we stand outside

Standing on top of the Signal Peak coal mine tipple—the 10-story chute that loads coal into train cars—you could see almost the entire production area: the mouth of Montana’s only underground coal mine, acres of inventoried coal and the maze of conveyor belts that moves coal from place to place. It has a huge environmental

The house at the corner of 7th Avenue and 23rd Street looks like a 2,400-square foot lunch box with a brilliant tin roof and desert-like landscaping. Mellow, yellow sunlight bounces off of the solar panels, and steel gutters snake down to red rain barrels. The sun glaring off of the entirely metal roof and the

The harsh light of the Exxon Mobil conference room is unforgiving. I try to focus on the company spokesperson’s overview of the refinery’s production. The Billings refinery turns crude oil from Canada into gasoline for the Western states. It refines 60,000 barrels a day in a maze of pipes and tanks using chemicals, steam and

After I arrived in Augusta, MT, I received a text message from my brother who lives in Okayama, Japan. During this bike trip from Billings, MT to Glacier National Park, I didn’t have many chances to have cell service, so I couldn’t check the news of my country, Japan. My brother told me that Japan

Not In My Backyard, not through the oak trees and my childhood playground, not through my favorite fig tree that produces fruit in August, not through the grass that stains my jeans and welcomes my wild running feet, and not through my neighbor’s either. Nimbyism, Not In My Backyard; defined as a term for someone

After riding nearly 500 miles thus far on my touring bicycle from Billings to Dupuyer, Montana, I have seen countless ranches, sherbet sunsets, mountain ranges, and other features that make Montana the “last best place,” as many Montanans claim. However, one important piece of the Montana landscape is often overlooked. The transmission lines that connect

If we’re to take something away from our dominant fossil fuel-based energy system, it’s that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. With their subsidization, abundance, and high energy density, fossil fuels became an unprecedented way to relieve man and animal of work, so they became the energy source of ultimate convenience.