Let’s Talk About Love

During the last episode of New Mexico in Focus, we re-aired four Our Land segments about topics ranging from the impacts of oil and gas drilling on the eastern Navajo Nation to the need for New Mexico’s rivers to have rights to their own waters; from a conversation about the morality of nuclear weapons production to our forests’ vulnerability to huge wildfires. 

There are common themes across the breadth of these topics—across all my coverage, really—and they include 1) love, and 2) the interconnectedness of care for the Earth and care for one another. 

People often ask me how we can better protect the environment, especially as the world warms and the impacts of climate change accelerate or exacerbate existing problems like water scarcity, wildfire, or poor air quality. 

I have a handful of answers, including to exercise the right to vote and the right to be in constant dialogue with your elected officials. But the one obligation I come back to most often is to be in conversation with the places you love and the communities you share this world with (human and non-human alike). 

If you watched last week’s rebroadcast of segments, you’ll understand that Mario Atencio’s family has seen, smelled, and felt how oil and gas drilling has affected the landscape they’ve known for generations. (As of mid-June, by the way, Atencio no longer works as Greater Chaco Energy organizer with Diné CARE. His words and perspective remain powerful, however.)  

And even if it’s complicated and cumbersome given how water rights are legally allocated in New Mexico, we all know—whether everyone admits it or not—that rivers and their ecosystems deserve to keep some of their own dear waters. 

Anyone who visits the Sandias can see the strain that warming—as well as a century of fire suppression—is putting on those forests. And who, with love in their hearts for humankind and the species we share this graceful planet with, can accept the premise of an economy centered around the manufacture of nuclear weapons?

On Our Land, we talk about science and history, analysis and policy. But underneath each of these segments is the call for us to love one another and the places we call home. That’s the best way I can imagine protecting this world and its joys and opportunities for future generations. 

As you’ll read in the news below, hundreds of people acted to stop the federal government from spraying pesticides over 25,000 acres of the Rio Chama watershed. Many, I’d guess, did it out of love—including for the pollinators and other insects who share the watershed with us. I’m certain that collectively, we can find better ways to think about the interconnected issues around grazing, vegetation, and native grasshopper outbreaks than spraying carbaryl out of an airplane. 

Anytime you want to revisit a past episode, you can watch all six seasons of Our Land on the PBS App or the Our Land YouTube channel. 

Some of the news for you (Yep, I know. It’s not just New Mexico news):

• “Federal agencies scrap aerial pesticide spray” (Scott Wyland, Santa Fe New Mexican)

• “Mounting pressure forces USDA to delay toxic insecticide spray in northern NM watershed” (Bryce Dix, KUNM)

• “Deal reached on new 10-year WIPP permit” (Scott Wyland, Santa Fe New Mexican) 

• “‘It’s not a done deal:’ Lawmakers voice discontent on Rio Grande SCOTUS presentation” (Danielle Prokop, Source NM)

• “New Mexico lawmakers question fallowing as way to reduce water use along the Rio Grande” (Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press)

• “Forest Service improperly withholding fire records, attorney says” (Colleen Heild, Albuquerque Journal)

• “The miller moth is hard to love, but it deserves our respect” (Samuel Shaw, High Country News) 

• “What a Texas oil company did in Lea County to earn a $40 million fine” (Matthew Reisen, Albuquerque Journal)

• “Advocates say state should regulate surface water after wetlands ruling” (Scott Wyland, Santa Fe New Mexican)

• “Stream regulation in Arizona likely slashed by Supreme Court, experts say” (Tony Davis, Arizona Daily Star) 

• “The Butchering” (Jake Skeets, Emergence Magazine)

• “Dow’s River: On the Brazos, one chemical company reigns supreme” (Delger Erdenesanaa, Texas Observer)

• “Arizona selling shipping containers from short-lived border wall at big loss” (Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services)

• “Call of the Rewild: Restoring Ecological Health to the Emerald Isle” (Ed O’Loughlin, The New York Times) 

• “‘Profit Over the Public’s Health’: Study Details Efforts by Makers of Forever Chemicals to Hide Their Harms” (Victoria St. Martin, Inside Climate News)

A few notes on the news, too:

• In 2020, while reporting on PFAS contamination in New Mexico, I created a timeline and linked to some of the documents from DuPont and 3M that St. Martin mentions in the Inside Climate New story linked above. You can scroll through that and read those documents for yourself on our Groundwater War website. 

• Have something to say about the WIPP permit renewal? Visit the state’s public comment page. Opposition from the Navajo Nation and some Diné allottees to the recent Chaco protections announced by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland—and the protests over her visit—received a fair bit of press. 

• On Friday, the Greater Chaco Coalition put out a statement reaffirming Diné and Pueblo solidarity. “The recent decision of Secretary Deb Haaland to implement a 20-year, 10-mile drilling moratorium surrounding the Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a good first step,” said Robyn Jackson, executive director of Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment (Diné C.A.R.E.). “Following the direction of frontline Diné leaders and our Pueblo relatives, our coalition will continue to demand that the Interior Department center public health and environmental justice in broad landscape-level management across Dinétah and the region through its Honoring Chaco Initiative.”  

Meanwhile, the Our Land crew is fresh back from a reporting trip to southwestern New Mexico. We can’t wait to share with you all that we saw and learned along the Gila River.

Thanks for reading! And please pass along our resources for middle school students and their teachers. You can find all those lesson plans on the PBS LearningMedia website.