Harmful pesticides not needed around the house
We are using way too much pesticides in our society, in our homes, in our schools, in public buildings and even in our forests. I have covered the many problems pesticides cause many times in my columns. We have to have a system where we use safe and effective methods for pest control. Some companies do this and I recommend them in some instances. Many companies prefer to spray pesticides because it is easier and you really don't have to know what you are doing. Just spray and pray – spray pesticides and pray you kill something...
CVNM’s 2013 Conservation Scorecard: Legislative actions to protect our water were the exception
Today, we unveiled the statewide 2013 Conservation Scorecard. The Scorecard reflects the deep disagreement over the management of our state’s scarce water supplies.
As our population grows and water supplies dwindle—exacerbated by the growing effects of climate change—we must work even harder to keep the water we have clean. Sadly, the votes tell the story: legislative actions to proactively protect our water were the exception, not the rule...
On the wild side
Some years ago my family, and a friend and I went for a long day hike to the high lakes around Truchas, Las Trampas and Santa Barbara in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains north of Santa Fe. At a gorgeous but icy mountain tarn more than 11,000 feet high, my quite large friend plunged into the clear turquoise water. His splash boomed through the thin air and created a wave that bounced off the far shore. He emerged shivering but with an ecstatic smile of pure triumph.
That incident occurred to me as I was reading a new book about the mountains of northern New Mexico, A Walk Around the Horizon by Tom Harmer (UNM Press, 208 pages, $24.95 in paperback)...
Protecting the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks
There is an important time in any young person’s life when they feel anything is possible. They are open to new things and new ideas and they truly come into their own as individuals.
As a leader for Groundwork Doña Ana County (GWDA), a non-profit youth conservation and education group based in Las Cruces, I have had the pleasure of getting to know some remarkable young people as they have expanded their own horizons by exploring and working to preserve the world around them. Our group has been surveying and learning about the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks (OMDP) region near Las Cruces...
Dear Climate Scientists, Please Note the Global Terror at Fukushima Four
Four climate scientists have made a public statement claiming nuclear power is an answer to global warming.
Before they proceed, they should visit Fukushima, where the Tokyo Electric Power Company has moved definitively toward bringing down the some 1300 hot fuel rods from a pool at Unit Four.
Which makes this a time of global terror...
What’s Happened to Albuquerque? Part 10: Gary Goodman and the Big Idea
Working to overcome a familiar sense of dejection after the city elections, this month, I was browsing the internet and came across the disappointing September 30th KNME mayoral debate and then, quite by accident, found myself watching a TEDxABQ on YouTube from October 14, 2012 with New Mexico real estate developer Gary Goodman. What a glaring contrast...
KOAT picks up our Glyphosate story (video)
Although no credit was given to New Mexico Mercury, it's nice to know that some local news outlets are paying attention to our stories. After our piece on the use of Glyphosate by city, county and state governments in New Mexico, Susan Clair, who's interviewed in the article, was contacted by KOAT for their brief piece. Our original story was written by our intern Svetlana Ozden, who studies at UNM and was a former editor at the Daily Lobo...
Hanging together—reluctantly
Edgewood is a tranquil rural village of pastures, mountains, cows and blue skies. This Edgewood is in northern California at the base of Mount Shasta, at 14,179 feet the tallest summit in the region and the second tallest anywhere in the Cascade Mountains.
Shasta’s year-round snowfield and five glaciers hang over Edgewood like a living presence, a white ghost exhaling pure, cold air over fields and homes. Rising some 11,000 feet above the village, the massive mountain doesn’t just dominate the skyline; it is the skyline. It is as if Sandia Peak rose 2 miles above Albuquerque instead of 1 mile and was sitting virtually on top of the city...
A Window into the Martinez Administration’s Environmental Policy Decisions
Yesterday, we released a new tool to shine a light onto Governor Susana Martinez and her administration’s decisions that affect our air, land and water.
Our new website, SunshineOnMartinez.org, serves as the public’s window into the decisions of Gov. Susana Martinez and her administration that impact the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land where we live and play. On the site, you can find responses to Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) requests, the original requests to the administration, related news, opinion and multimedia...
When pollution and poverty meet
Clear Lake, at 68 square miles the biggest fresh water lake in California, gleams serenely all the way east to the distant mountains. It all seems so pretty, so peaceful, so healthy, and in some ways it is, but it is not at all what I had been lead to expect.
After all, this lake, at 480,000 years the oldest lake in the United States, is the world’s worst case of mercury poisoning...