Category Archives: Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They’re From

A plant advocacy podcast featuring interviews

Ep. 4: “Green” Energy vs. the Mojave Desert

Collage showing Hawk Moth, Windmills, Desert Tortoise and Solar Panels

I interview Kevin Emmerich, co-founder of Basin & Range Watch, a non-profit environmental organization based in southern Nevada that educates people about threats to public land from industrial development and energy extraction in the Mojave Desert and the Great Basin. These regions have been ground zero for “green energy” due to their plentiful sunlight, strong winds and lithium deposits.

TRANSCRIPT BELOW!

Kevin enjoyed a career in the National Park Service for 20 years in seven different National Parks and Monuments, including Death Valley National Park since 1991 (now retired). He has also worked as a field biologist for research on desert species such as the Panamint Alligator Lizard, Desert Tortoise, and Mojave Fringe-toed Lizard.

I’ve been following Basin & Range Watch’s work for over a decade, since I saw Kevin quoted in an LA Times article about a “green energy” project in California. I’ve interviewed both Kevin and the organization’s co-founder Laura Cunningham a number of times for print and podcast. I appreciate not only their knowledge and experience, but also the love they both so clearly have for the Southwest, a love that I share. So when I had questions how the incoming Presidential election might affect “green energy” projects in this area, my first email was to Basin & Watch.

We don’t go to Trump right away. First I asked Kevin to talk about the negative environmental effects of “green energy” development in the desert, and we mostly talked solar. Having laid the groundwork for why it’s important to stop such projects, Kevin speculated on whether Trump will be worse, the same or better than Biden was and Harris was likely to be. “Better” meaning less development. If you want to skip right to this section, go to timecode 35:01.

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Bonus episode: Are the Plants “Invasive”? or the Land Ethics?

Are the Plants "Invasive"? or the Land Ethics? Amy Walsh interviews Kollibri

In this cross-posted guest episode, host Kollibri terre Sonnenblume takes the guest seat and is interviewed by Amy Walsh of The Nettle Witch, MD. Amy describes herself as someone who is “not so gracefully walking the line between medical doctor and wild woman” and who is “exploring the science and magic of healing through essays, storytelling and poetry.” The subject: so-called “invasive plants.” In their conversation, they dive into many of the basic critiques of this common but highly dubious narrative. We cover much of what the science says and doesn’t say, and we also discuss what cultural beliefs and prejudices feed the narrative.

Listen:

Or watch:

 

Ep. 3: Bringing Land Use into the Climate Conversation

Episode 3: Brining Land Use into the Climate Conversation

Most of the time, the conversation around climate chaos is narrowly focused on carbon emissions, to the exclusion of land use as a major factor whose effects are at least equal if not greater. Both the mainstream corporate media and independent/activist media commit this same lapse. This is due in part to the fact that proposed policy around carbon emissions can be neatly folded into the appetites of industry, whether Capitalist or Socialist, without interrupting business-as-usual. Capitalist profits are not threatened by carbon trading. Socialist “development” can continue unabated with new energy infrastructure. Ecocide, however, marches on with both, and that’s what’s left out of the popular narrative as it’s currently told.

In episode 3 of the “Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They’re From” podcast, Nikki Hill and I talked to Nikos Giannakis is a biologist with the University of Leeds, currently working in Greece. His graduate work was in environmental pollution control and agricultural chemistry, and his PhD was on soil microbiology. His national service requirement in Greece led to environmental consulting including impact assessment. Currently he is living with his wife (an architect specializing in natural building techniques) and six cats in an abandoned village in a national park in northwestern Greece. His activism focuses on defending nature from “green energy” projects and on bringing land use into the climate conversation.

Our interview hit many topics including “green energy” projects in Europe; land use as the “other leg” of climate change (besides the greenhouse effect), as highlighted by Spanish climatalogist Millán Millán; carbon reductionism in the climate change narrative; the hijacking of the environmental movement by the carbon conversation; land use and fire mitigation; the necessity to be wholistic in our relationship with nature; the all-too-material reality of the digital realm; increasingly extreme weather; conservation efforts worldwide (which Nikos is involved with); future directions for agriculture; public vs. private land; humans as keystone species in ecology; the importance of community; opportunities for young people to find new answers; the power of media to control narratives and hence public perception, and much more!

Listen here:


Or watch on YouTube:

Ep. 3 teaser: Bringing Land Use into the Climate Conversation

Episode 3: Brining Land Use into the Climate Conversation

Most of the time, the conversation around climate chaos is narrowly focused on carbon  emissions, to the exclusion of land use as a major factor whose effects are at least equal if not greater. Both the mainstream corporate media and independent/activist media commit this same lapse. This is due in part to the fact that proposed policy around carbon emissions can be neatly folded into the appetites of industry, whether Capitalist or Socialist, without interrupting business-as-usual. Capitalist profits are not threatened by carbon trading. Socialist “development” can continue unabated with new energy infrastructure. Ecocide, however, marches on with both, and that’s what’s left out of the popular narrative as it’s currently told.

In this interview with biologist Nikos Giannakis, Nikki Hill and I delve into these topics and more.

Paid subscribers to my Substack and my Patreon will have early access to the full, unedited interchange (2 hours and 12 minutes in length) on Sept. 9th.

The edited public version, at 1 hour and 25 minutes, will be dropped on Sept. 16.

Here’s a six-minute teaser!

Listen:

or watch on YouTube:

Ep. 2: Eugenics & Conservation: Too Close for Comfort

Ep. 2: Eugenics & Conservation: Too Close for Comfort

YouTube

In this episode, Kollibri is joined by co-host Nikki Hill for a conversation with Calyx Liddick, founder of the Northern Appalachia School. Calyx has taken a deep dive into the common origins of the eugenics and conservation movements in the US in the early 20th Century, and what she has found is alarming. The boosters of race science, white supremacy, forced sterilization of “lesser” people and other now discredited concepts were the same who founded conservationism, and their odious residue remains. Conservationism must now be re-thought so that what is good can be kept and what is bad dismissed.

In our far-ranging discussion, we talked about all this history plus “invasive species” (a central pillar of eugenics as expressed through anti-immigration sentiment and law); the futility of “fortress conservation”; how the wilderness ideal erases Indigenous people and their relationship to ecology; the importance of reciprocity, integration and coexistence in our interactions with nature; our disagreement with the characterization of “invasive plants” as agents of settler-colonialism; climate change, and more.

Calyx Liddick is a bioregional herbalist, ethnobotanist, holistic nutritionist, wildcrafter, writer, wildlife tracker and a mother of two. She is strongly interested in exploring the relationships between plants and people. Find out more about her and the school she runs at:
northernappalachiaschool.com

Subscribers to Kollibri’s Substack or Patreon enjoy early access to all episodes in their full length. (Public episodes are edited for length and clarity.)

Podcast ep. 2 teaser: “Eugenics & Conservation: Too Close for Comfort”

Episode 2 of the “Speaking for the Trees No Matter Where They’re From” podcast is upcoming!

Aug. 12: full unedited version for paid subscribers of my Substack or my Patreon (3 hours and 14 minutes long)

Aug. 19: edited version for the public (2 hours and 34 minutes long)

Here’s the teaser on YouTube:

Or listen here:

In episode 2 of the “Speaking for the Trees No Matter Where They’re From” podcast, I am joined by co-host Nikki Hill for a conversation with Calyx Liddick, founder of the Northern Appalachia School. Calyx has taken a deep dive into the common origins of the eugenics and conservation movements in the US in the early 20th Century, and what she has found is alarming. The boosters of race science, white supremacy, forced sterilization of “lesser” people and other now discredited concepts were the same men who founded conservationism, and their odious residue remains. Conservationism must now be re-thought so that what is good can be kept and what is bad dismissed.

In our far-ranging discussion, we talked about all this history plus “invasive species” (a central pillar of eugenics as expressed through anti-immigration sentiment and law); the futility of “fortress conservation”; how the wilderness ideal erases Indigenous people and their relationship to ecology; the importance of reciprocity, integration and coexistence in our interactions with nature; our disagreement with the characterization of “invasive plants” as agents of settler-colonialism; climate change, and more.

Calyx Liddick is a bioregional herbalist, ethnobotanist, holistic nutritionist, wildcrafter, writer, wildlife tracker and a mother of two. She is strongly interested in exploring the relationships between plants and people. Find out more about her and the school she runs at northernappalachiaschool.com

Also, check out Kelly Moody’s 2023 interview with Calyx on the Ground Shots podcast, which inspired this interview.

 

Ep. 1: Plant Advocacy

YouTube

An interview with with Paul Moss, Executive Director of the Plant Initiative, a plant advocacy organization. In this far-ranging and intriguing conversation we talk about plant intelligence, agriculture, “invasive” plants, anthropocentrism, and more.

Paying subscribers on Substack and Patreon will get early access and exclusive content.

The Substack blog, “Speaking for the Trees No Matter Where They’re From” also features free blog posts, so head on over to read.

To find the podcast, search for it by name, or follow these links:

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Introduction / trailer

Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From

YouTube

Introducing “Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They’re From”—the podcast! Featuring interviews with nature lovers on plants & ecology, with a special focus on “invasive plant” mythologies and the threat to wildlife habitat from “green energy” development. Plus agriculture, wildtending, plant consciousness and more.

Paying subscribers on SubStack and Patreon will get early access and exclusive content.

The SubStack blog also features free blog posts, so head on over to read.

If you’re someone who loves plants and the planet, join us!

To find the podcast, search for it by name, or follow these links:

Continue reading