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RESTORATION ECONOMY

View the original article published in High Country News magazine on August 29, 2022. 📊 Editor Luna Anna Archey added some infographics to complement my illustrations. ✍️ Writing by Jonathan Thompson.

I rendered these scenes in Adobe Illustrator to describe what a restoration economy could look like. Jobs could be created to clean up and restore the landscape around: (a) abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells, (b) uranium and hardrock mines, and (c) coal mines.

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FUSION ENERGY
Helion's fusion might power Microsoft data centers
FUSION ENERGY
HOW FORESTS CAPTURE CARBON
Illustration: Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into sugars, using the food to grow. This process, called photosynthesis, allows plants to make their own food, storing the carbon in their tissues as they grow roots, branches and leaves. In this way, forests help fight climate change by absorbing and storing carbon pollution that is heating the planet. Big trees store the most carbon because of their mass, and long-lived species such as Douglas fir and red cedar can lock carbon away for centuries. Trees absorb carbon dioxide gas through openings in leaves or needles called stomata. Chloroplasts within leaves and needles use the energy of the sun to split water molecules drawn up through tree roots into hydrogen and oxygen, released through their stomata. Trees and other green plants create the air we breathe, and shelter and nourish life as we know it.
HOW FORESTS CAPTURE CARBON
PINK SALMON BOOM
PINK SALMON BOOM
ICE ARRESTS BY SEATTLE FIELD OFFICE
Multi-chart graphic showing that several northwest counties and municipalities saw a sharp increase in ICE arrests following the start of President Trump's second term, including King, Clark, Whatcom, and Yakima Counties in Washington; Multnomah, Marion, and Washington Counties in Oregon, and Anchorage municipality.
ICE ARRESTS BY SEATTLE FIELD OFFICE