The lawnmower was broken. Not that I knew how to use it, anyway, as I'd spent my whole life until a year ago in lawn-less New York City. Now, though, I was in Boulder, Colo., with waist-high weeds in my yard. I refused to even consider herbicides, but my attempt to pull the weeds by hand proved futile: After several hours, all I had to show was one small patch of bare turf and an aching back. The weeds didn't bother my boyfriend, who reasoned that it was all just leafy green stuff and therefore natural and therefore good -- …

Earlier this week, Native Americans and environmentalists won a surprising victory when a power company abandoned plans to build a highly controversial coal mine in New Mexico. Zuni Salt Lake. Photo: Zuni Salt Lake Coalition. For 20 years, the Salt River Project, an Arizona-based utility company, had sought to build an 18,000-acre strip mine near a salt lake in Western New Mexico. The Zuni Pueblo, other tribes, and environmentalists fought the plan, saying the mine would disrupt sacred Zuni burial sites and damage Zuni Salt Lake, a focal point of spiritual life for many tribes. The tribes and their allies …