This is the stunning, unique and precious Rio Chama Watershed, New Mexico
Bepuwaveh, Bienvenidos, Welcome
Who are Rio Arriba Concerned Citizens?
We are a grassroots organization that defends against Oil and Gas development in the Rio Chama Watershed, NM while educating and advocating for sustainable, safe energy and income sources in our region.
Our Considerations Are:
- To inform and educate our community on current issues that affect public health, safety, land, air and water quality in the Rio Chama Watershed.
- To promote the Rio Chama Watershed as a model for sustainable development and renewable energy.
- To stand for the “Frontier District” as designated in the Rio Arriba County Oil and Gas Ordinance (2009). This district is east of the Continental Divide and home of the Rio Chama Watershed.
- To maintain a relationship with Federal, State, and County decision-makers to provide information and education concerning Oil and Gas development and promoting Green Energy to the wider community.
Keep up with the latest environmental and sustainability news affecting our Watershed, region and the wider world via our Facebook stream.
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If you use Facebook, please be sure to follow us.
Climate policy advisor and researcher June Sekera, presented her findings regarding carbon capture recently in a video we will promote once the push for New Mexico Hydrogen Hub becomes a topic in the 2023 legislative session. Her findings? Of the 12 massive carbon capture plants in the U.S. (paid for by tax dollars) - all have failed or in the process of failing and remove virtually NO carbon from the atmosphere (data to come). All support "mechanical" removal of carbon and help support the oil and gas industry. The only viable solutions, research shows, are clearly biological - the supporting and restoration of waterways, wetlands and regenerative agriculture whose methods have shown to actually absorb and remove carbon from the atmosphere. It makes sense that the planet can self heal, if we would simply allow it. (The 350 New Mexico talk was yesterday - we can connect with them for future events).
Water as Part of the Climate Solution - Inside Climate News
insideclimatenews.org
The intersection of freshwater and climate is a frequently ignored but critical element of the climate problem, according to a new study from Sweden that explores the link and offers solutions that wi... Chaco has been declared a "sacrifice zone" thereby justifying oil and gas and mineral extraction. We all know U.S. historical monuments or places nationally revered would not even remotely be considered areas for oil and gas exploration, yet alone exploitation. Ten mile protections is not nearly enough. Let's keep raising our voices.
" Nov. 17th - Counselor, NM—Today, U.S. Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan introduced the Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act, a move recognized by the Greater Chaco Coalition as a step in the right direction. Though the Coalition supports this legislation, more needs to be done to address the cumulative impact of extractive industries on the Greater Chaco Landscape and its communities.
This bill would withdraw federal minerals from new oil and gas leasing within a 10-mile buffer surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park, while recognizing that the Greater Chaco Landscape extends well beyond this ten-mile buffer. The bill affirms the need for health studies on the impacts of fracking in the region.
Though there is widespread support for protecting cultural resources and public health beyond the proposed 10-mile buffer, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) continues to rubber stamp industrialized fracking across the region, with more than 90% of the landscape already leased for oil and gas. By the Bureau’s own analysis, the proposed mineral withdrawal will have minimal impact on oil and gas extraction – reducing gas production only 0.5 percent, and oil production a mere 2.5 percent.
Secretary Haaland has committed the landmark Honoring Chaco Initiative to address landscape-level management, which the Greater Chaco Coalition hopes will finally address the cumulative impacts of oil and gas extraction across the Greater Chaco Landscape and chart a path towards a more just future. "Coalition declares bill introduction as positive first step, but calls for more to address legacies of sacrifice zones and environmental justice for communities and the Greater Chaco Landscape.
#FrackOffChaco #EnvironmentalJustice
wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/greater-chaco-coalition-statement-on-chaco-cultural-heritag...
More info from WildEarth Guardians - to support the rally for forest protections in Albuquerque this Wednesday (scroll down 2 posts). If you can't attend, WEG has a petition to sign below. Sustainability, climate change, healthy forests, land and water are all interrelated and need our attention.
"...Six months ago Biden issued an executive order directing an inventory of mature and old-growth federal forests and policies to protect them. Agencies can establish needed protections for these trees and forests while carrying forward the critical work of protecting communities from wildfire."
"America’s Vanishing Climate Forests (www.climate-forests.org/worth-more-standing) profiles 12 projects on federal public lands that will log thousands of acres of mature and old-growth stands, from Oregon to West Virginia, harming habitat for endangered species and releasing centuries of carbon being stored by the trees. Advocates had identified 10 similar projects in a previous report, and all projects combined put 370,000 acres on the chopping block."
“Instead of heeding Biden’s pledge to set an example for the world, federal agencies are moving full steam ahead with massive logging of mature and old-growth forests,” said Randi Spivak, Public Lands Program director with the Center for Biological Diversity. “These are some of the world’s most magnificent trees and it’ll take centuries to recover their loss. We’re running out of time. The U.S. needs to immediately change course and protect these carbon workhorses.”
Report: U.S. agencies undermine Biden’s pledge to protect climate-saving forests
wildearthguardians.org
Logging continues to be a primary threat to mature forests, undermining their role as part of a broader climate crisis solution.Help us keep this beautiful land and water pristine for another 100 million years.