Development versus Rewilding
Diverging Futures for the Desert
After widespread losses in the congressional and presidential campaigns, the Democrats have been doing a lot of soul-searching. We just listened to a new podcast by California Governor Newsom interviewing Ezra Klein, New York Times journalist and co-author of the recent book Abundance with Derek Thompson. We read reviews of this book, marketed by Simon and Schuster as a “paradigm-shifting call to renew a politics of plenty, face up to the failures of liberal governance, and abandon the chosen scarcities that have deformed American life.” The podcast clarified that the title referred to an abundance of technology. That is the goal.
Klein argued that we need to build an ungodly amount of new renewable energy projects. Seemingly just for the sake of building things.
We at Basin and Range Watch are a mix of Democrat and Republican voters, and we try not to get too political. We want to represent everyone who loves the Mojave and Great Basin deserts, and we critique all administrations regardless of party. We couldn’t help notice, however, a shift in liberal talking points to the right recently, and towards the all-out development mentality of some conservatives. Governor Newsom’s podcast was surprising in its reach towards Trumpian values. We could hear a little envy in their voices.
Klein and Newsom covered a lot of topics, from failed high-speed train plans, the race for Artificial Intelligence, and controversial low-income housing needs, to the desire to cut through red tape and build, build, build more. We have noticed that many Democrats have embraced development policies and plans, and moved away from traditional conservation and environmental values of protecting natural areas and rare species, and even saving public lands. But we were surprised to hear Governor Newsom discuss with Klein about the need to streamline environmental reviews and reduce the time it takes to build major projects through wildlands and people’s backyards. Bedrock laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and California Environmental Quality Act were described as obstacles for developers, rather than as public safeguards for the excesses of corporate greed and government overreach.
Having spent the last 15 or so years commenting on environmental reviews in California, we can attest that the streamlining has already happened, the developers almost always get what they want, and the people of this country have the deck stacked against them if they don’t want a giant high-voltage line being built at record pace over their land, or a utility-scale solar project built next to their house. If you don’t agree, tough. Eminent domain is alive and well. Public lands are a resource to be used for extraction.
Newsom bragged how he pushed through a 300-megawatt solar project in the California desert (probably the Oberon Solar Project, which was built partly overlapping hundreds of acres of Critical Habitat for the federally threatened Mojave desert tortoise, and which took the threat of a lawsuit by the local community to get the developer to move the solar project away from homes at Desert Center).
Klein and Newsom complained about “localization,” a new word for “NIMBY”—an acronym for “not in my backyard,” which has been turned into a bad word by developers.
These damn people who want views of nature and beautiful landscapes, Newsom said in so many words, they are a hindrance to the future of build-out for technology.
That future in this new liberal world is one of data centers, factories, renewable energy projects, urban housing sprawl, and new transportation corridors. Newsom even hinted that California should become more like China, a nation where people’s rights are practically nil, where entire towns are forced to be removed for vast construction projects like dams, and nature is routinely polluted and bulldozed.
Values of wild nature, biodiversity, ecological health, open space, and quality of life for local communities are values that we believe many people in both political parties still hold dear.
But many “Development Dems” as we call them, are seeking to wholly urbanize and domesticate their party, and imitate Elon Musk in pursuing high tech solutions to all perceived problems.
We are a bunch of ‘desert rats.’
We perceive that sometimes the best solutions are to leave wild nature alone, let it be, allow the natural world to thrive.
Whatever your political views we thank you for continuing to support the wild desert, and working with us to try to minimize the damage and destruction from the construction projects that each year eat away at our public lands and natural areas. The Mojave Desert and Great Basin habitats are among the most intact ecosystems on Earth, and regardless of political direction we will continue to fight to defend these beautiful landscapes, working with both parties and all administrations.
There is still a place for having an abundance of desert tortoises and pronghorn antelope, plentiful Joshua tree woodlands full of lizards and birds, superblooms free of bulldozers.
I very much agree with all you've said. The deck is indeed stacked against us. The coming of the Europeans was the beginning of the end for the western lands. The ascendency of capitalism sealed the deal. Now all we can do is fight delaying rearguard actions on saving the arid lands. Maybe someday things will change