Here are 15 places that are at risk from the BLM's Western Solar Plan.

These are some of the most beloved places in the Western US. There are millions of acres of degraded or impaired BLM lands where we could put solar - there's no reason to trash our crown jewels! 🧵: First let's go to northern Nevada and beautiful Ruby Valley. At the foot of the spectacular Ruby Mountains, Ruby Valley has the important bird area at Ruby Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and extensive sage-grouse habitat with numerous leks.

And another thing on Rural Discourse...

It's so ill informed to characterize all rural people as white male farmers wearing overalls who live in the same place they were born and collect subsidies. This is a small fraction of rural people... 🧵

https://twitter.com/bitterwaterblue/status/1828950138745958624

First off, rural people are not uniformly white. Who do you think the farmworkers in this country are? Latinos make up substantial parts of rural populations - counties in rural Nevada are as much as 25% Latino. Same is true across the Intermountain West and parts of the Midwest.

It's very very simple. We won't rest until there are no more human accelerated extinctions. Solidarity with everyone who shares in the struggle. A pox and a curse on those pulling the levers of the extinction machine. You know who you are. There are species going extinct whose names we don't even know. There are species going extinct that only a handful of us have ever seen. There are species going extinct that we all know and love.

It's our moral imperative to prevent this. Not on our watch.

The clean energy transition will take decades. But the decisions we make right now - how & where we produce the energy & needed materials - will shape the coming decades.
🧵: Will we prioritize shareholder profits & carbon absolutism? Maintaining the existing political economy of energy with centralized production zones remote from consumption centers, owned by the largest corporations designed primarily to maximize profits?

The Colorado River #CORiver crisis affects the whole of the Southwest: humans, wildlife, food supply, air quality.

But there's an overarching, urgent moral imperative, & that's the 40 million people who rely on it.
The inequities between those people present a stark reality 🧵: People hear 40M & they mostly think of golf courses & suburbs. Maybe they think of alfalfa farms & winter broccoli.

But there are millions & millions people from low income, disadvantaged communities throughout the Basin whose lives are on the line.

Join me for a trip up over the Kingston Range, the mighty sky island south of Death Valley, w/ hidden springs, botanical oddities, & enough elevation to pull down moisture that feeds Willow Creek.

Today we are hunting for monsoon flowers over Tecopa Pass to Horsethief Spring. 🧵 We started in beautiful California Valley, which has been hit hard by the drought. Recent rains monsoon rains gave new life to the desiccated creosote bush, with leaves sprouting. Willow Creek flowed during the storms. We were lucky enough to get some milkweed after the rains.

I really disagree with the premise of this story. The situation with fire and prescribed fire in the South is so different from the West that it's not a valid comparison. Thread:
npr.org/2021/08/31/102… For starters, the south gets literally 2-5 times more rain than forests in the West. That means it's much easier to prevent prescribed burns from escaping. Also trees are wetter and more resilient. Finally while the West is in drought, precip is actually *increasing* in the South

As far as I know we are all still stuck at home, so why not join me for today's wildflower walk in the eastern Death Valley region where I live? The bloom is moving up in elevation with the weather, and things are really popping at 3000'-5000' right now. Thread: 1/ The big star of the day was antelope bush aka bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata), which was bursting with flowers for a mile up the canyon. The air was sweet with their scent - it was intoxicating. 2/

The thing I'll never forget about Ground Zero as long as I live is the smell.

A thread: I was 18 years old on 09/11/2001, living with my parents in NJ. I was working as a clerk in an office building. Someone came by around 8:50a, & said, "a prop plane crashed into the World Trade Center," and sure enough we went onto the top floor of our building and saw the smoke.