Resilient New Mexico Podcast

We speak with Alice Main from the City of Albuquerque about the Central NM Comprehensive Climate Action Plan. Helpful links discussed during the conversation: Resilient Futures NM - The Central NM Comprehensive Climate Action Plan campaign website. Project Drawdown's SHIFT - Guide for individual action. City of Albuquerque Sustainability Office - The Office's main webpage City of Albuquerque Susta...

Join us for an indepth discusion about the current and future of renewable electricity generation in New Mexico. Jim DesJardins is from Renewable Energy Industries Association of New Mexico (REIA-NM), which represents the renewable enegery industry by working with lawmakers to shape forward-looking energy initiatives for New Mexico and coordinating with regulators and utilities to ensure that stak...

AT Cole joins us to share his efforts working with his wife to restore their ranch in souther New Mexico after it had suffered from decades of over grazing and poor land management practices. We discuss cienegas, land restoration methods and hear about their successes and leasons learned. You can learn more at their wonderful website for the ranch: https://pitchforkranchnm.com/

One of our best interviews for it's thought provoking ideas! Dr. Andreas Hernandez teaches in the Sustainability Studies Program at UNM. With a broad background and breadth of experiences, Andreas challenges us to think creatively about what sustrainability means, and what it will take for us to get there. 

Neal Denton, who was the Sustainability Officer for the city of Santa Fe, gives us a peek behind the curtain in to what Santa Fe is doing to promote sustainability. We get in to details of what sustainablity means, some of the city's programs, and what are some of the challenges we face. 

Christian Casillas from the Coalition of Sustainable Communities walks us through the current status of community solar in New Mexico, describes the progress that has been made, and the amazing potential the future holds! A few links from the show: https://www.coalitionscnm.org https://www.coalitionscnm.org/community-solar https://csnewmexico.com https://www.prc.nm.gov/utilities/community-solar/

Carol Ann and Mike Fugagli join us to discuss their impressive project of using Johnson-Su composting method to Engage Youth, Improve Soil Health and Sequester Carbon. They share about the educational components of the project, working with the local school system, how the Johnson-Su composter works. Some useful links:  Johnson-Su composting overview  Upper Gila Watershed Alliance Mia Mottley at t...

The wonderful and thought provoking Naomi Ortiz joins us to educate Sandra and myself about a very important topic that isn't discussed very much, specifically the intersection of disability justice and climate justice, and how inclusion in climate activism could look.  Keep reading to learn more about Naomi's work and content Naomi mentioned in the podcast. Naomi's books: Reimagining our relation...

Dr. Atcitty is a senior scientist at Sandia National Labs where he works on renewable energy systems. He is also a member of the Navajo Nation, and is deeply engaged with bringing renewable energy and energy sovernty to Navajo communities and indigenous communities across the country. He shares with us many great stories of his work, and of life in these communities. 

Tom Solomon from 350newmexico.org joins us to discuss the climate related bills that did, or didn't make it during the 2023 legislative session. We also discuss how NM compares to other states, some of our greatest successes and some areas that could really use improvement. Plus the lightening round!  

Sarah Pierpont is the Executive Director at New Mexico Recycling Coalition and stops by to discuss the 5 Rs (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot) with us, and shares some inspiration, practical tips for reducing your waste, and some of the worst things people try to recycle. 

Judith Polich writes a climate change column for the Albuquerque Journal , and covers a wide variety of climate related topics. We talk to her about how to engage people in climate action, how readers respond to her articles, and of course the lightening round! 

Genesis Arizmendi is a speach language pathologist who talks with us about how environmental polution impacts border communities, especially children in those communities, as well as climate change and the global south. 

We talk with Melinda Morgan who has a long resume, including the current Director of the Sustainability Studies Program as well as the author of  The End of Sustainability. We have a lot of fun and learn a lot discussing things including how communities can be resilient, what it means to move past sustainability, and how to define the Anthropocene. Please join us! 

We speak with Gabe Pacyniak about NM and greenhouse gas emissions, and how best NM can move towards a low emissions future. Gabe teaches climate change law and policy seminar at the UNM School of Law, and specializes in climate change mitigation policy. Prior to UNM, Gabe managed the climate change mitigation program at the  Georgetown Climate Center .

Cliff Villa, a Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico School of Law, shares wisdom gathered from his extensive experience, including 22 years as an attorney for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. His clear stories and compassionate advice illuminates a variety of ways we can improve our communities and ourselves.

Heidi Honegger Rogers from the UNM Health Sciences Center is here to talk with us about health and how it is impacted by climate change, both in NM and nationally. She also has lots of great tips for preparing yourself for these impacts. You can find papers that her students have written listed here .

The Community Solar bill was passed in to law, but is this a good thing? Sandra and Peter discuss the amendments that happened to the bill prior to being passed, how those amendments impacted the bill, and give their take on if the final bill is better or worse than the original version.

Arté is one of the co-founders New Mexico based Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA), and speaks with about why climate justice is a racial and human rights issue, and how ending environmental racism is a requirement to ending climate change.

Sue Barns joins us to discuss food waste, what it is, where it happens, and how to avoid it! We also have a good round of lightning questions, and find out the best way to store food long term.

We spoke to Mona Blaber, who is the Communication Director for the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club. New Mexico is in the middle of its annual legislative session, and we discussed specific bills, how the public can engage with their representatives, the Sierra Club's efforts on bills, and of course building a resilient New Mexico.

In this episode we discuss HB106, which would allow small groups or organizations to attach small scale solar instalations to the grid. This bill came up last year, but did not pass. We discuss why the bill did not pass last year, and our hope for why it might fair better this year. Note: after publishing the original version, we found an error in the statement about the balloon fiesta grounds. Th...

We spoke with Dr. Carl White, an ecologist who spent his career studying NM. We cover topics about nutrient cycle, forest fires, droughts, flooding, and what individuals can do to help all of those!

In this episode we share a bit about our motivations, and what we will be covering in the upcoming episodes.