Travel

In the past four months, BLM has released six draft plans covering more than 20 million acres in Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. The Pew Charitable Trusts’ review of these plans reveals that in each of the alternatives preferred by the agency, BLM significantly reduced protections that have been in place for decades and proposed minimal new safeguards for only a fraction of 1 percent of the areas. In addition, BLM proposes opening vast acres in these planning areas to energy and mineral development. more »

Diane Girard writes: I ride city buses frequently and so do many seniors in my town, especially the older women. Fortunately, we have good public transit, because for some of us it is our only transportation except for the occasional taxi ride. The women I will mention here don’t resemble Xena, the Warrior Princess. They go about their business mostly unnoticed and uncelebrated except perhaps by their kindred. So, why do I refer to these older women I know a little about, the women who tell me personal stories, as warriors? Because they are honorable fighters. They get on with their lives, with grace in most cases and with smiles, almost always. more »

Inspired by an exhibition originally presented in 2014 at the Petit Palais in Paris, Paris 1900 re-creates the look and feel of the era through more than 200 paintings, decorative art objects, textiles, posters, photographs, jewelry, sculpture, and film, and will plunge visitors into the atmosphere of the Belle Époque. These objects, drawn from several City of Paris museums — including the Petit Palais, the Musée Carnavalet, the Palais Galliera, the Musée Bourdelle, and the Maison de Victor Hugo — form a portrait of a vibrant and swiftly changing city. more »

While a recent Pew Research Center poll found that 59% of Americans think climate change affects their local community “a great deal or some,” only 31% say it affects them personally, and views vary widely by political party. Why do so few doctors talk about the impact of the environment on health? Besides a lack of guidelines, doctors say, they don’t have time during a 15- to 20-minute visit to broach something as complicated as climate change. Some doctors say they worry about challenging a patient’s beliefs on the sometimes fraught topic. more »