As we are journeying east of the Manzanos in the coming days, we are in close proximity to the Cibola National Forest. The forest's ecology ranges from arid desert shrublands and piñon-juniper woodlands in the foothills to ponderosa pine, aspen, and spruce-fir forests at higher elevations. The entirety of this ecosystem supports over 200 rare species, including the Mexican Spotted Owl, Zuni Fleabane (plant), Zuni Bluehead Sucker (fish), and migratory raptors like the Northern Goshawk.

Today the US Forest Service released a revised oil and gas leasing rule aimed at furthering the federal administration’s relentless agenda of extraction. While the rule claims to balance conservation of natural ecologies and economic development, we know that the oil and gas industry has demonstrated little to no good faith effort when it comes to protecting people and places from their toxic pollution. Trump is determined to “unleash energy dominance” at a time when every signal from our planet is telling us that domination and exploitation of the natural world spells natural, economic, and spiritual disaster for us all.

This is why we need strong and moral state leadership on climate and we need it NOW!

This Thursday (January 29), the Clear Horizons Act (SB 18) will have its first committee hearing in the Senate Conservation Committee. The prayers we have been walking across New Mexico lead to this moment and the powerful choice that sits before our leaders. The prayers whispering through the arid desert shrublands, enshrined in the crystals of snow that grace the spruce-fir forests – these prayers are calling us to be people of action and witness.

Can you contact the Senate Conservation Committee and tell them that you are a person of faith and conscience and you are asking them to support the Clear Horizons Act (SB 18)? This act is one crucial step toward protecting our one earth, our one future. You can find the committee contacts here.

Though New Mexico is just one place in a world that must respond to the climate crisis, the presence of the Permian Basin in our state means that our leadership holds a particular political and moral weight. We can create a world where sacrifice zones of extraction and pollution live only in memory. We can create a world where the flourishing of people and the flourishing of creation are one and the same.

May it be so.

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