Tag Archives: ecology

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.

Or watch on YouTube:

If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe, and share it on social media. It really helps get the word out!

Continue reading →

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:

 

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.