We Imagine a New Landscape

Realities even more fundamental than ideology and politics undergird American life: common sense and making an honest buck. Our current issue offers two superb examples. In our cover story, contributing editor Michael Behar takes us to a conservative redoubt in central California, where pumping oil and serving the military-industrial complex have for decades formed the foundation of the economy. But now, Kern County's planners, developers, and landowners are constructing a new future built on solar and wind power and other forms of renewable energy -- all driven by the pure, irresistible economic logic of these emerging technologies. County planner Lorelei Oviatt assists energy companies in placing their new projects on private, marginal land -- for instance, arid, unproductive agricultural fields -- in order to preserve public open spaces that citizens value for wildlife and solace. Behar observes Oviatt as she buoyantly navigates the messiness of democracy, capitalism, and property rights. Her success in consummating deals and breaking ground on new projects suggests a post-partisan pursuit of profit and public good simultaneously -- a happy convergence of local self-interest and global self-preservation.

We dispatched another contributing editor, Craig Canine (our resident gearhead), to profile a leading Japanese car company. Not the one much in the news lately for its quality-control problems. Rather, a quieter company that is less in the public eye but that may have done more than any other enterprise in the world to change the automotive landscape. Many, if not most, car experts see Honda as the supreme green vehicle manufacturer. The company has consistently been preeminent in fleetwide fuel efficiency, meaning that it earns kudos -- and, by the way, healthy profits -- not with a single eco-glamorous hybrid but across its entire line of cars. Canine describes a fascinating corporate culture that has remained true to its own idiosyncratic philosophy and resisted most of the American industry's self-destructive delusions. At Honda's U.S. headquarters and at the big LA Auto Show, Canine spoke to the company's top brass and brainiac engineers for a glimpse of our automotive future. Hybrids? Plug-in electrics? Engines powered by hydrogen fuel cells? Canine reads the tea leaves.

Finally, I direct your attention to two pieces simply because of the sheer pleasure they offer. Sharman Apt Russell has given us a funny, true account of her attempt to become the world's leading expert on a common but remarkable beetle in her own backyard. We have also published a stunning portfolio by the photographers Diane Cook and Len Jenshel, who have spent almost a decade chronicling the often elusive, watery edges of New York City. Robert Sullivan has written an accompanying essay that guides readers through the history, geography, and significance of this border terrain. Taken together, all these stories help redefine our own conceptual borders -- natural/man-made, conservative/progressive, professional/amateur -- and beckon us to forge a better if less familiar path forward.