Laura Paskus At The Precipice, in conversation with Valerie Rangel Environmental Justice in NM

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At the Precipice, by Laura Paskus, explores the question many of us have asked ourselves: What kind of world are we leaving to our children? The realities of climate change consume the media and keep us up at night worrying about the future. But in New Mexico and the larger Southwest, climate change has been silently wreaking havoc: average temperatures in the Upper Rio Grande Basin are increasing at double the global average, super fires like Las Conchas have devastated mountains, and sections of the Rio Grande are drying up.  Laura Paskus has tracked the issues of climate change at both the state and federal levels. She shares the frightening truth, both in terms of what is happening in nature and what is not happening to counteract the mounting crisis. She writes, “I wonder about the coming world. Which trees will grow, which birds will have survived. . . . The door to that new world has opened. And there’s no going back.” And yet our future is not yet determined—or is it?

You can order At the Precipice from CW here.

Environmental Justice in New Mexico, by Valerie Rangel

In New Mexico and across America, communities of color bear the brunt of contamination from generations of expansion, mining, nuclear testing and illegal dumping. The nation's largest uranium waste spill occurred in 1979 at Church Rock, and radioactivity in the Rio Puerco remains at dangerous levels. The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Mount Taylor as one of the ten most endangered historic sites in America. After decades of sickness from Rio Grande river water, the first female governor of a Pueblo Nation, Verna Olgin Teller, led tribal members to a Supreme Court victory over Albuquerque. Valerie Rangel presents stories of strife and struggle in the war to protect the integrity of natural systems, rights to religious freedom and the continuation of traditional customs.

You can order Environmental Justice from CW here.

About the Authors

Laura Paskus is an environmental journalist and a correspondent whose work has been widely published. She is the producer of New Mexico In Focus 's series "Our Land: New Mexico's Environmental Past, Present, and Future. Before becoming a journalist, she worked as an archaeologist and tribal consultant

Valerie Rangel is an author, environmental and public health research consultant, and environmental health and justice advocate, as well as being the fiscal sponsorship & outreach coordinator at the New Mexico Foundation. She is an alumna of UNM’s Master of Community Regional Planning program where she majored in Indigenous planning with a minor in public health. She has lectured in Earth Science, Health, and Southwest History courses as a contributing faculty member at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. In April 2018 she presented selections from her book, “Environmental Justice in New Mexico: Counting Coup,” at the National Environmental Justice conference in Washington, D.C. Her book presents stories of strife and struggle in the war to protect the integrity of natural systems, rights to religious freedom and the continuation of traditional customs.