Ep. 4: "Green Energy" vs. the Mojave Desert Kevin Emmerich is 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. 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. (Links below.) 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: If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe, and share it on social media. It really helps get the word out! BASIN & RANGE WATCH SELF-DESCRIPTION: Basin and Range Watch formed as an informational website project in 2008 to educate people about public lands and the threats from development and extraction, as well as how to protect local communities' economies and quality of life, and recreational uses from outside commercial interests intent on taking land and resources for distant profit. We know, we live here. In 2015 we became a nonprofit organization to further our goals of keeping our public lands wild, natural, and accessible to all. A major focus for us currently is the push by federal and state agencies to open up undisturbed habitat and public lands in our region to energy development. Our goal is to identify the problems of energy sprawl and find solutions that will preserve our natural ecosystems and open spaces. We specialize in ground-truthing proposed project sites and reporting our findings to the public so that everyone is well-informed about how to comment during agency review periods. We pioneered citizen science monitoring of energy projects in the desert. We support energy efficiency, better rooftop solar policy, and distributed generation/storage alternatives, as well as planning for wise energy and land use following the principles of science and conservation biology. LINKS: Basin & Range Watch: https://www.basinandrangewatch2.org/ Substack: https://basinandrangewatch.substack.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BasinRangeWatch/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/basinrangewatch/ Twitter: https://x.com/BasinRange Western Solar Plan (Bureau of Land Management): https://www.blm.gov/press-release/bureau-land-management-releases-proposed-western-solar-plan FOLLOW / SUPPORT Kollibri: Substack: https://kollibri.substack.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kollibri Paid subscribers to Substack & Patreon get early access to new episodes, in their full unedited form, longer than the public versions. Venmo: @kollibri CREDIT: Intro & outro narration: Sarah Beth Reiss Support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/speaking-for-the-trees-no-matt This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-a50345 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From.

Are the Plants "Invasive"? or the Land Ethics? 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. The Nettle Witch, MD on Substack: https://thenettlewitchmd.substack.com/ Conservation Sense & Nonsense: (Website recommended by Kollibri during interview) https://milliontrees.me/ Source of the term "invasive land ethics": "Anishnaabe Aki: an indigenous perspective on the global threat of invasive species" (Reo, Nicholas & Ogden, Laura. (2018). "Sustainability Science." 13. 10.1007/s11625-018-0571-4.) https://www.academia.edu/36568069/Anishnaabe_Aki_an_indigenous_perspective_on_the_global_threat_of_invasive_species FOLLOW / SUPPORT Kollibri: Substack: https://kollibri.substack.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kollibri Paid subscribers to Substack & Patreon get early access to new episodes, in their full unedited form, longer than the public versions. Venmo: @kollibri CREDIT: Intro & outro narration: Sarah Beth Reiss Support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/speaking-for-the-trees-no-matt This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-a50345 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From.

Ep. 3: Bringing Land Use into the Climate Conversation 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! LINKS called out in interview: Millán Millán, climatologist: Publications on Academia.edu: https://independent.academia.edu/Mill%C3%A1nMill%C3%A1n1 Rob Lewis' three part series, "Millan Millan and the Mystery of the Missing Mediterranean Storms," on land use as the "other leg" of climate change: Part I: https://theclimateaccordingtolife.substack.com/p/millan-millan-and-the-mystery-of Part II: https://theclimateaccordingtolife.substack.com/p/millan-millan-and-the-mystery-of-526 Part III: https://theclimateaccordingtolife.substack.com/p/millan-millan-and-the-mystery-of-0e9 Meghan Walla-Murphy, bear tracker: http://www.meghanwallamurphy.com/ FOLLOW / SUPPORT Kollibri: Substack: https://kollibri.substack.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kollibri Paid subscribers to Substack & Patreon get early access to new episodes, in their full unedited form, longer than the public versions. Venmo: @kollibri CREDIT: Intro & outro narration: Sarah Beth Reiss Support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/speaking-for-the-trees-no-matt This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-a50345 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From.

Bringing Land Use into the Climate Conversation [TEASER] A teaser for the forthcoming episode 3, to be released Sept. 16, 2024. 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. FOLLOW / SUPPORT Kollibri: Substack: https://kollibri.substack.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kollibri Paid subscribers to Substack & Patreon get early access to new episodes, in their full unedited form, longer than the public versions. Venmo: @kollibri CREDIT: Intro & outro narration: Sarah Beth Reiss Support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/speaking-for-the-trees-no-matt This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-a50345 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From.

Ep. 2: Eugenics & Conservation: Too Close for Comfort 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: https://www.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.) Substack: https://kollibri.substack.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kollibri Interview with Calyx on Kelly Moody's Groundshots podcast: https://www.ofsedgeandsalt.com/podcastblog/calyx Support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/speaking-for-the-trees-no-matt This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-a50345 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From.

Eugenics & Conservation: Too Close for Comfort In episode 2 of the "Speaking for the Trees No Matter Where They're From" podcast, 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 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: https://www.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.) Substack: https://kollibri.substack.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kollibri Interview with Calyx on Kelly Moody's Ground Shots podcast: https://www.ofsedgeandsalt.com/podcastblog/calyx Support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/speaking-for-the-trees-no-matt This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-a50345 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From.

Ep. 1: "Plant Advocacy" 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. Support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/speaking-for-the-trees-no-matt This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-a50345 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From.

Plant Intelligence [Ep. 1 teaser] From the upcoming debut episode of the "Speaking for the Trees No Matter Where They're From" podcast: an interview with Paul Moss, Executive Director of the Plant Initiative, a plant advocacy organization. Subscribers to Kollibri's Substack or Patreon will have access to the episode on July 8th. It will be publically available July 15th. Substack: https://kollibri.substack.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kollibri The Plant Initiative: https://www.plantinitiative.org This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-a50345 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They're From.

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. https://kollibri.substack.com/ https://www.patreon.com/kollibri The Substack also features free blog posts, so head over and read. If you’re someone who loves plants and the planet, join us!