Coyote Crossing

An open letter to the right wing in the wake of the passage of Amendment One in North Carolina

We have been incredibly patient with you.

Who’s “we,” you ask? Good question! And it’s a question that has the kind of answer we’ve noticed you seem not to like very much, because its complicated. We’re socialists, sure, some of us. And feminists.

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

On Troy Davis

I said this over at Google Plus and realized I should bring it over here.

As those of you who remember reading my old post (linked here) will recall, the issue of Capital Punishment is less abstract for me than I wish it was.

I understand the

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

Wolf Update: Help the groups that stood firm

Interesting discussion going on in the wolf post comments, with several people who know more than I do holding forth instructively — and one person who knows remarkably less than I do as well. It’s funny: as that commenter, “K,” was accusing me of

The Further Adventures of Gang Green

Last week ten green groups signed off on delisting the gray wolf in Montana and Idaho.

The ten – let us name the names – were Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance,

Quote of the day: Emma Goldman

But what about human nature? Can it be changed? And if not, will it endure under Anarchism? Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name! Every fool, from king to policeman, from the flatheaded parson to the visionless

Quick Thoughts on Food and Class: There’s A Piece Missing

The Fat Nutritionist has posted an interesting article here – to which I was directed by way of one of Maryn McKenna’s tweets du jour – on the seemingly intractable divide between the Better Food movement (a name I just made up) and social welfare

30 different ways to say “I’m a big honking jerk” on the Internet

(A non-exhaustive list.)

1. “tl;dr”
2. “Wow, someone certainly has a lot of time on their hands.”
3. “When progressives form firing squads they stand in a circle.”
4. “Whatever happened to personal accountability?”
5. “I know it’s not politically correct to say

Feeding the bighorn

Something I knew even before moving here was that the local trails have ardent defenders. A recent land exchange, for example, between the BLM and the local Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians had trail user groups up in arms; the land at issue

Let’s be reasonable

It’s far too soon to attribute motives to the attacker. In the meantime, both parties have an obligation to refrain from … (continues)

Sometimes I hate being right

An article on the Mother Jones site takes Obama’s administration to task for failing to protect endangered species:

Obama is barely beating Bush at protecting new endangered species—and he’s far behind his Democratic predecessors. So far, his

A Native response to solar sprawl

Spiritual Journey Flyer

… (continues)

How you can help save Ivanpah — a concrete action

By Chris Clarke on 2010 08 25 at 2:49:10 pm | 20 comments | Shorter URL: http://coyot.es/x4qb

The California Energy Commission has indicated that if they get more public comment on their proposed decision to approve the Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System, they may have to delay their decision.

I can’t stress how important even a short

… (continues)

Three Americans still held in Tehran’s Evin Prison

By Chris Clarke on 2010 08 05 at 7:22:45 pm | 1 comment | Shorter URL: http://coyot.es/x8db

My colleague Shane Bauer (pictured), along with his fianceé Sarah Shourd and their friend Josh Fattal, have been held illegally in an Iranian prison for 370 days as I write this. As the website freethehikers.org says, the news reports about their

… (continues)

CEC 2 FTHL: FOAD

By Chris Clarke on 2010 07 28 at 10:00:14 am | 3 comments | Shorter URL: http://coyot.es/x07

FTHL: SOL. Tom Budlong photo

Friends who have intervened in the permitting process for the proposed Solar Two site at Ocotillo, California, which would replace old-growth desert habitat for flat-tailed horned lizards with industrial power

… (continues)

Carly Fiorina is a lying, anti-environmentalist sack of crap

By Chris Clarke on 2010 07 05 at 12:27:48 pm | 1 comment

Via On The Public Record, Mike Taugher, the Contra Costa Times’ environmental reporter, has a great piece on Carly Fiorina — the rich incompetent wingnut now trying to replace Barbara Boxer as senator from California — and her attempts to blame

… (continues)

July 4 2006, Central Valley CA

By Chris Clarke on 2010 07 03 at 12:54:17 pm | 6 comments

[Way back in the first decade of the 21st Century I was briefly a guest-poster over at Michael Bérubé‘s joint, and during that period in which Michael had inexplicably entrusted me with his readership I posted this as a July 4 travelog-essay. I was

… (continues)

Oh, the irony

By Chris Clarke on 2010 06 06 at 5:05:10 pm | 2 comments | Shorter URL: http://coyot.es/x6w

… (continues)

The Cross thief speaks

By Chris Clarke on 2010 05 13 at 9:00:43 am | 9 comments

Morongo Bill and Scott Fajack have alerted me to a new development. Looks like I may have spoken unfairly as to the character of the person who took the Sunrise Rock cross from its site in the Mojave National Preserve. The Barstow Desert Dispatch

… (continues)

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About me

I'm a natural history and environmental writer, an editor and photographer. I've lived in upstate New York, the SF Bay Area, Washington, DC, the Mojave Desert, and Los Angeles. My writing has appeared in publications ranging from Camas and Orion to Bay Nature, California Wild, the Boston Globe, and about thirty daily papers nationwide when I was a syndicated garden writer for the Knight-Ridder chain. No, I never got to meet the talking car.

I've traveled extensively in the Mojave, Great Basin and Sonoran deserts, as well as in the steppes and slickrock country of the Colorado Plateau.

About Coyote Crossing

This blog has existed in one form or another since 2003. At first it was called Creek Running North, after Pinole Creek, near where I lived back then. I moved in 2008 and renamed the site Coyote Crossing, but about a thousand people* still link here under the old name.

My publicist tells me I should mention that my writing here has frequently been called the best on the Internet.

* May not actually equal 1000

All content Copyright © 2011 Chris Clarke. All Rights Reserved.

Banner painting by Carl S. Buell.