Letter to the editor - Jan. 10

Climate change means more in drought

I wonder what ranchers in De Baca and Chaves counties think of Rich Lowry’s advice to husband their water sources better or just move away from their family’s parched land because it can’t sustain their herds anymore.

From Lowry’s view on the East Coast, concerns about the effects of climate change must not seem very urgent, personal or expensive. But here in the Southwest, climate change has pushed us into the second worst drought in 1,200 years.

Sure, we can use our ingenuity to make our soils healthier and conserve our scarce water resources a bit more. But we can’t make it rain when we need it. We can’t make the snow melt at the right time to keep the rivers running like they used to. We can’t turn down the rising temperatures every year.

What we can do is ease off the bust/boom oil and gas roller coaster that is fueling the drought and instead develop our abundant clean energy economy here on our land with our sun and our wind.

New Mexico can produce the cheapest clean electricity in the nation, which is a draw to states like California and companies like Google that have pledged to be powered by 100% renewable energy.

And wind and solar will help our ranching and farming neighbors and our communities generate income that the drought and the pandemic have taken away.

Stefi Weisburd

Tijeras