Don’t Agonize. Organize.
Earlier this year, Arturo Sandoval, founding director of the Center of Southwest Culture, spoke with me about his role organizing the first Earth Day in 1970. (That conversation aired in two parts, “Arturo Sandoval on Earth Day in 1970 — and the decades since” and “’At the end of the day, we’re on this ship together.’”)
Now he’s back, talking about how to protect the environmental laws Congress passed in that era. These are laws that corporations and some politicians conspired to weaken and dismantle for decades, but they’ll face unprecedented challenges in the second Trump term, especially given the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court and the incoming U.S. Congress.
Sandoval acknowledged that New Mexicans will suffer in the Trump administration. But he’s not despondent.
“Somebody asked me ‘What are you going to do as a result of this election?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to agonize, I’m going to organize,’” Sandoval told me. “I think that’s the rallying call: that we need to keep doing what we’re doing, positively to build community, but we need to do it with much more intention. We have to really reach out to other groups and organizations and neighbors to continue to build the positive things we can do.”
It’s no surprise that the list of President-elect Trump’s nominees is full of men and women who support gutting protective laws and dismantling government institutions meant to serve people and protect the environment. There are also some prominent public critics of vaccinations, like Robert Kennedy, Jr. and Marty Makary. It shouldn’t be surprising, of course, that people who promote doubt in the importance of vaccines share company with those who have spent decades disinforming Americans that clean air and safe drinking water harm economic growth.
Vaccines, like environmental regulations, work for the good of everyone. And just as no one can slap a fence around their yard and protect their family from pollutants like PFAS, it’s impossible to “self-care” your way out of a polio epidemic or measles outbreak.
There’s so much talk about the impact of social media on young people, but adults are addicted to their own algorithms, too. Don’t fall prey to disinformation (whether it’s about vaccinations or the environment or anything else). It’s easy to be media literate, just by considering a few questions whenever you see something online:
- Who made this? Check for a byline and a media outlet, or a company or NGO.
- Why did someone make this? What’s the creator’s goal?
- Has this information been fact-checked or verified?
And now for some of the news you should read this week.
• “Long-unthinkable court fight looms over the Colorado River” (Tony Davis, Arizona Daily Star)
• “5 federal options suggested to manage Colorado River; some could mean water cuts for state of Colorado” (Colette Bordelon, KMGH-TV)
• “New Mexico experiences warmest October in more than a century” (Jaden Mckelvey-Francis, Daily Lobo)
• “Climate change is shifting wildlife migration routes and new crossings are needed, study finds” (Kaleb Roedel, KUNC)
• “Environmental group, feds and irrigation district reach settlement in silvery minnow suit” (Danielle Prokop, Source NM)
• “Heinrich questions FEMA chief over delays for those who lost everything in northern NM wildfire” (Patrick Lohmann, Source NM)
• “Biden seeking an additional $1.5 billion for Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire victims” (Patrick Lohmann, Source NM)
• “Lawsuit filed over arsenic levels in water from Southern New Mexico utility” (Danielle Prokop, Source NM)
• “Tent Rocks reopens under Pueblo management” (Alice Fordham, KUNM)
Speaking of the Colorado River (be sure to read Tony Davis’s story linked up above), I just started reading Zak Podmore’s book, Life After Dead Pool: Lake Powell’s Last Days and the Rebirth of the Colorado River. I’m really enjoying it — and appreciating the on-the-ground descriptions of Glen Canyon.
And, I should have already mentioned that I have a new book out that Our Land Weekly readers might enjoy. It’s called Water Bodies: Love Letters to the Most Abundant Substance on Earth and features contributions from writers including Michelle Otero, Dr. K. Maria Lane, Sarah Gilman, Daniel Rothberg, Luke Runyon, Chris La Tray, and more. And a huge thanks to KUNM’s Bryce Dix, who talked to me about the book earlier this fall.
Lastly, I want to pay my respects to former U.S. Senator Fred Harris, who died over the weekend. I had long admired Harris’s work (and fiery spirit!) and was honored ten years ago when he contacted me to write about environmental issues for a book he was editing, New Mexico 2050. “This is an honest book,” Harris wrote in its preface. And I’m mourning the loss of an honest politician and a good man.
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