National Parks Service

Six months ago Siikauraq Whiting applied for her dream job as superintendent for the Western Arctic Parklands. After a lengthy process, she was selected over more than 100 nationwide applicants in early January. But then on Valentine’s Day, Whiting received the news. She had been fired along with around 30 or so other probationary Park Service employees statewide.

In Frank Herbert's Dune, the inhabitants of Arrakis work covertly to terraform the desert in the hopes that plants would eventually cover the surface of the planet. Something similar is already happening in the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, but without direct human intervention