Coyote Crossing

Out of the mouths of babes, desert solar edition

We’re going to win on the broader desert solar issue. Today was the day I realized it.

Annette and I went out to catch the tail end of a picnic organized by the local Stonewall Democrats organization. We got there as people were starting to think

Desert Solar Bingo

Those of you who've argued with other environmentalists about the wisdom of destroying old-growth desert for 20 years of electricity production will know that there are certain arguments that come up with depressing regularity. It can be

Energy waste as seen by the International Space Station

If you haven’t seen the amazing time-lapse video generated from footage shot by residents of the International Space Station, you should do so now. I’ve embedded it here. It’s undeniably beautiful. But there’s something about it that’s incredibly

Solar For The 99 Percent

… (continues)

Ground-truthing The Wilderness Society

As background, here’s a longish quote from the Facebook page of our friends at Basin and Range Watch:

Not long ago, joining an environmental organization seemed like a rational thing to do if you had a busy schedule and didn’t have the time to be

Chuckwalla Valley

I went out today to see a landscape before it’s completely altered. My camera is on its last legs after only 6 years, but I squeezed a few more washed-out shots from its unwilling frame.

It was in the Chuckwalla Valley, site of the Desert

Ivanpah Photos: Before and After

Here are two photos taken by Kevin Emmerich of Basin and Range Watch.

The first, taken around the time of Camp Ivanpah, just a few days shy of a year ago, shows a nice little spot in the creosote a few feet from where we all camped. It’s perhaps

Why I’m not voting for Obama in 2012

Or at least not unless he changes from who he is today.

The first time I voted in a Presidential election was in 1980. I wasn’t going to. Carter had disappointed me, responding to criticism that he wasn’t warlike enough by ramping up the

Dave Foreman on Desert Solar

This is the most recent “Around The Campfire” missive from the estimable Dave Foreman, who these days is working with the Rewilding Institute.

I received this and immediately sent off a request to reprint it, and then an hour later re-reading it I

Environmentalism without the environment: Madrigal in The Atlantic

If you know anything about the desert at all, you won’t get very far into Alexis Madrigal’s recent Atlantic Monthly piece on solar in the Mojave before things start to feel not quite right.

It took me one sentence.

The first one.

There are 25

Western Watersheds sues to stop Ivanpah SEGS

[Some good news for your MLK Day.]

WWP Sues to Stop Fast Tracked Power Plant in CA

For immediate release - January 17, 2011

LOS ANGELES — On Friday January 14, 2011 Western Watersheds Project filed suit in federal court to halt construction of

My Ivanpah story in the Desert Report

Now that the most recent issue of the Desert Report has been out for a couple of weeks, I think it’s fair for me to repost here the article I have in said issue. There’s plenty more articles where this one came from — by other, more expert and

I’m still figuring out how I can have a video on Public Radio

But here it is.

Between you and me, this is what I look like when I’ve been at a full day of meetings after getting three hours of sleep and driving for three hours.

Desert Activists from 89.3 KPCC on … (continues)

Calico Poster

… (continues)

BrightSource, Center for Biological Diversity make pact

As the bulldozers roll, energy developer BrightSource and the Center for Biological Diversity announce they have reached an agreement.

For Immediate Release, October 22, 2010

Contact:

Kierán Suckling, Center for Biological Diversity, (520)

Right now at Ivanpah

Just now at Ivanpah. Protesters from Desert Survivors bear witness as the ecocidal machinery heads for the Ivanpah SEGS site. Laura Cunningham … (continues)

Petition to Save The Desert Tortoise from Big Energy

The petition is here. Go sign it, then tell your friends to do the same. Post it on your blog, mention it in appropriate blog comment threads, facebook and twitter it to hell and back.

They’re finding a lot more tortoises than they expected at

“Get some perspective on climate change!”

I subscribe to an email list operated by the Sierra Club and devoted to the topic of desert conservation. The majority of the active participants on the list are horrified by the Club’s support of desert public lands energy development, but every

RELEASE: Destructive Ivanpah Solar Project approved in Mojave Desert Core Habitat

For Immediate Release

Destructive Ivanpah Solar Project approved in Mojave Desert Core Habitat
Renewable energy coalition calls for halt to misguided industrial development on fragile wildlands

October 7, 2010: Solar Done Right (SDR), an

Desert Tortoise Relocation is Desert Tortoise Eradication

A tortoise in Central Nevada. 2005. CC Photo.

During the Evidentiary Hearing on September 20 in which the California Energy Commission sought final comment on their plan to approve the gigantic solar sprawl at Calico, the following exchange took