Climate Point: Wild places can hide bloody human history

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. In Palm Springs, Calif., I'm Janet Wilson.

A few years ago, my husband and I hiked Blood Mountain on the north Georgia stretch of the Appalachian Trail. Legend has it that the Cherokee Nation and a second tribe fought a fierce battle here 1,100 years ago that made the creeks below run red. In North Carolina, we hiked past a turnoff for "Burningtown Gap" — where, a sign said, in the 1800s an entire village of free Blacks was burned as they slept.

Today these are leafy, awe-inspiring natural places. It was jarring to learn of the past carnage. I wanted to go back and shout a warning to the sleeping mothers and children.

In a review this week of the history of America's national parks and how they are largely comprised of what were once sacred tribal lands, David Treueur chronicles the brutal history of Yellowstone, Yosemite and other national treasures. He argues for more than a cry in the dark. It's time, he says, to return most of America's national parks to the tribes from which they were taken. There's precedence: The indigenous peoples of Australia and New Zealand have resumed control of large swaths of those countries’ most significant natural landmarks. And consider this: As Treuer writes, one land grab bled at least 90 million acres away from the tribes. That's five million acres more than the 85 million acres that comprise America’s 423 national park sites.

Here are some other stories of interest:

MUST-READ STORIES

Dirty solar. The award for persistence this week goes to a team of Bloomberg Green journalists who decided to take the Chinese government at their word when they invited reporters to come see that factories making polysilicon, a key solar panel ingredient, were not violating human rights.

The team flew to the province of Xinjiang, where they were repeatedly denied entry to four huge, gated compounds that produce much of the key ingredient for all panels globally. They also saw coal-fired plants that power the solar manufacturers. Labor at the plants is provided by ethnic Muslim Uyghurs who are not allowed to refuse, watchdogs say.

Some Western nations have accused the Chinese government of committing genocide in Xinjiang. In March, the United States, Britain, the European Union and Canada imposed sanctions on China over alleged human rights abuses. The U.S. has already banned imports of cotton and tomatoes from the region. The substance needed for solar panels could be next, the Bloomberg team writes.

Border blues. Along Arizona's southern edge, a 30-foot-steel wall now slices across the San Pedro River, impeding not just would-be human migrants, but jaguars, ocelots and other wildlife. Erin Stone, Anton Delgado and Ian James with the Arizona Republic paint the picture of the construction during the Trump administration and possible aftermath of a key stretch of border wall.

The river, which provides habitat for a diverse array of wildlife, has emerged as a symbol of the ecological damage that conservationists say was inflicted when new segments of wall severed wilderness areas across the borderlands. 

“Just watching that progression over the last year and a half, it’s like watching a slow death,” said Myles Traphagen, a biologist and program manager with the conservation group Wildlands Network.

POLITICAL CLIMATE

Frick and frack. A tough California bill that would have banned risky oil and gas production and required a large buffer between drilling sites and schools and homes died in the state legislature Tuesday. Despite the Golden State's Democratic majorities and vaunted green reputation, as I report for The Desert Sun, oil lobbyists and organized labor work in lockstep to defeat such efforts. Environmentalists blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom too, saying he stayed on the sidelines after winning headlines for announcing a fossil fuel phase-out, then punting to the legislature to get it done.

Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), a co-author of the bill, decried the loss as "a stain" on California's global reputation, noting even oil-friendly Texas has a buffer.

"In California, it is legal to drill next to someone's home and that is indefensible. And when Texas has setbacks and California doesn't, I think that speaks volumes," said Wiener. "No offense to Texas."

Step it up. Hundreds of U.S. and European companies and investors called on the United States to slash its greenhouse gas emissions at least 50% this decade, adding to pressure on the Biden administration ahead of a virtual climate summit next week.

The world's biggest economy is expected to unveil its emissions-cutting target at the U.S.-hosted virtual gathering of global leaders on April 22, as Reuters' Kate Abnett reports. The United States should commit to halve its emissions by 2030 compared with 2005 levels, urged a group of 310 businesses and investors, representing over $3 trillion in annual revenue and $1 trillion in assets.

Cough cough. But for Mexico's president, the future isn’t renewable energy — it’s coal. That's according to Kate Linthicum for the Los Angeles Times, who reports that since taking office in 2018, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has halted new renewable projects, mocked wind farms as “fans” and poured money into a state oil company, including $9 billion for construction of a new refinery. Last month, he pushed legislation to force the energy grid to first take power from state-run plants — fueled largely by crude oil and coal — before less expensive wind and solar energy.

Cabinet making. President Biden plans to nominate Tracy Stone-Manning to lead the Bureau of Land Management, per Emma Dumain and Scott Streator at E&E News. Currently vice president of the National Wildlife Federation, she was previously Montana Gov. Steve Bullock's chief of staff and headed the state's environmental quality agency. Energy lawyer Tommy Beaudreau was picked by Biden for No. 2 at the Interior Department, per the Washington Post. He was the department’s chief of staff during the Obama administration and also led the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

WATER AND POWER

Cutting the grass. Las Vegas, a desert city built on a reputation for excess, wants to become a model for conservation with a first-in-the-nation policy banning grass that nobody walks on. The Southern Nevada Water Authority says there are miles of “nonfunctional turf” in the metro area — grass that no one ever walks on or uses — in street medians, housing developments and office parks. They want the state legislature to outlaw the thirsty turf so it can be replaced with drought-tolerant landscaping. Sam Metz and Ken Ritter with the Associated Press fill us in.

Icing the desert? How much water and energy will it take to fill and chill two hockey league rinks in blazing desert summers? Those questions and more are examined by yours truly for The Desert Sun in a deep dive on a proposed American Hockey League rink and concert venue outside of Palm Springs along the Interstate 10. Turns out a lot of air pollution would be generated by all the cars driving to and from events too.

Mapping health. The Biden administration may follow California's lead on new environmental justice mapping technology that allows regulators and residents to pinpoint sources of air and water pollution, lack of green space and other problems. Community activists say California's mapping tool helped explain why northern Stockton has trees and green spaces while Little Manila does not, and why hospital ER visits for asthma were 2.4 times more frequent in the Filipino neighborhood. Per Reuters' Valerie Volcovici, Biden wants 40% of clean energy investment to go toward such communities. As experts realize these areas first need to be identified, his directives also call for US EPA to upgrade its mapping tool, called EJScreen.

AND ANOTHER THING

Homing in.  Ever wonder how those wild Canada geese know how and where to head north or south, depending on the season?  Two new pieces help explain the dynamics behind flight across thousands of miles. One, dubbed Night Moves, uncovers millions of birds on the move across North America's nocturnal skies, thanks to cutting edge technology. Paul Bogard lays it out in the spring issue of Audubon magazine.

The second, actually a review of two books, focuses on why all manner of species, from bees to housecats, don't get lost even if they're hundreds of miles from home. But the focus is mostly on birds, including individual ones going it alone across enormous swaths, possibly by constantly re-orienting to the Earth's magnetic field. Kathryn Schultz explains in The New Yorker.

Scientists agree that to maintain a livable planet, we need to reduce the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration back to 350 ppm. We’re above that and rising dangerously. Here are the latest numbers:

Hope you have a magnetic week. For more climate, energy and environment news, follow me @janetwilson66. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here. And if you are interested in California news, sign up for USA Today's In California here.