Even with the pandemic, even as Earth’s climate is changing at a rate that has exceeded most scientific forecasts, even as the world grapples with centuries of injustice, the federal government is transitioning toward producing 30, then 80, nuclear-weapons triggers (pits) per year by 2030.
Zero Waste during a pandemic

The pandemic is having an effect on our efforts to refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle. A proliferation of latex gloves and plastic masks are making their way into our waters. Due to the “temporary” relaxation of restrictions on single-use plastic, such bags and takeout food containers are cropping up in huge numbers.
Navajo Nation schools might get monitors

Health advocates, Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, and members of Northern Arizona University’s Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals, with decades of expertise in monitoring air quality and community outreach, are considering funding to install air monitors in possibly all 150 Navajo Nation schools.
Outing of the Week: John A. Milne & Gutierrez Canyon Open Space
Pivotal Moments of the Development of the Voting Rights Act
The Climate Crisis – Solutions from New Mexico

The Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, Environment New Mexico, and Western Leaders Network are co-hosting a webinar on Thursday, August 27th at 2pm with U.S. Representative Ben Ray Luján to highlight the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis’ report on Solving the Climate Crisis and its importance for New Mexico.
Sierra Club – Rio Grande Chapter Responds to Publication of Draft NM Methane Rule
New Mexicans Criticize the Trump Administration’s Reversal of EPA Oil and Gas Pollution Protections

On August 14, the US EPA finalized its proposals to eliminate methane protections from the EPA’s New Source Performance Standards. This rollback undermines EPA’s own mission by threatening public health, and disproportionately hurts Black and Brown communities who are already exposed to air pollution from oil and gas development at much higher rates – the same communities that are already suffering the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Low-Income and Environmental Advocates Applaud New Mexico’s New Energy Conservation Building Code

The New Mexico Construction Industries Commission voted on 8/7 to adopt a statewide energy conservation code based on the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code. This new code will bring NM up to date with its energy code for new buildings, reducing energy use in new residential and commercial buildings by about 25 percent.
Comment deadline on Chaco plan extended

As federal and state health guidelines were announced in March in response to COVID-19, New Mexico’s entire congressional delegation, Tribal leaders, Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Dept., and multiple groups called on Interior Secretary Bernhardt to extend the May 28 comment deadline to allow for the public and state and tribal governments to meaningfully engage. Instead of heeding pleas to extend the comment period, 15 days before the deadline the BLM and BIA held four virtual meetings. That did not go well.