Author Archives: collaborators

Eco-Anxiety

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Many can identify with this new term…Eco-Anxiety. This was defined by the American Psychological Society in 2017 as “chronic fear of environmental doom.” We are bombarded by articles related to climate change and especially extreme weather events as drought and the resulting massive forest fires. The globe is hotter than it has ever been. (New Mexico is the second fastest warming state in the U.S.) There are dire predictions as to how many years we have left to make change before the situation becomes irreversible. The powerlessness we feel as eco-anxiety also has a companion of eco-grief for loss of certain beloved places from the extreme weather conditions as forest fires and floods.

Anxiety is normal. It is a reaction to keep us safe. It becomes a problem only when a person feels a sense of danger when it is not present. That is not the case in eco-anxiety. The danger of climate change is real and present constantly. The extreme worry the current situation causes can become paralyzing, interfere with work and life in general. So what can we do?

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Drying Foods

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Photo: Elena Mozhvilo / Unsplash

Living in the arid Southwest gives us an opportunity to dry many fruits, vegetables, and herbs instead of canning or freezing. Indigenous peoples have done this in the Rio Grande valley for centuries. Dried fruits make for great lightweight snacks, and dried vegetables are perfect for soups and stews.

Drying foods changes the nutrient content but not the calories. Even though the final dried product is small, the calories per piece remain the same as when fresh. Vitamin C is totally lost, but other vitamins and minerals are pretty much retained as long as you use the rehydrating water later when you are cooking.

Approaches to drying are different according to what you wish to preserve. Here is a little over-view of the general process:

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Recreation in our Open Space

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Photo; Roger Harmon / mid Rio Grande Times

The City of Albuquerque Parks and Recreation, collaborating with Mid Rio Grande Conservancy District, Bernalillo County, the US Forest Service, State Parks, and National Park Service, has developed an overall Open Space experience for those living in the mid Rio Grande watershed. Currently there are 29,000 acres in the combined program managed by these different entities. For an overview, you might want to start at the Open Space Visitor Center

This center has information about the locations and features of all the Open Space sites. They have workshops for adults and children, nature-themed art displays inside, and fascinating eco-art installations scattered around the parking area and nearby trails in the bosque. There is a field planted with grains for migrating birds and a viewing tower. You can volunteer at the visitor center or join some of the work days to clean trails. Then you can head out. Here are some places you might want to consider:

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Health Tips for the Desert

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Since we live in a desert, we have to be mindful of the stressors our climate places on us. There are steps you can take to prevent dehydration and sunburn when doing outside work or recreation.

Hikers near Abiquiu, NM. Photo: Pedro Szekely / WikiCommons

How much water does a person need in a day? It all depends on what you are doing (think sweating) and your size. Around 60% of an adult’s body is water. Heat realated hospitalizations and deaths are on the increase in NM and projected to triple in the next 30 years. We can teeter on the edge of a little dehydration and not notice much; thirst might not kick in at the beginning especially as we get older and our kidney function decreases. That is why it is advised to drink water regularly throughout the day. The most common advice is eight glasses (2 liters or a ½ gallon) a day for an adult. You will be getting additional water also by eating fruits and vegetables, which are at least 50% water.

If you are out working or exercising and sweating a lot, an additional three or four glasses of water during that time is in order. Since we also lose salts through our sweat, replacing some of the water with electrolyte packets or Gatorade is important.

Heat is becoming more extreme in the mid Rio Grande watershed. By 2030, 111 days annually are projected to be hotter than 90 degrees. Ninety degrees is considered a temperature when your risk of getting a heat related illness or death increases. What else can you do to protect yourself?

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Where Water Was

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This past summer our granddaughter led us on a walk to a part of the Rio Grande quite close to where she lives in the South Valley. It was distressing. Where water once ran, we could walk out on an expanse of dry ground. The remaining thin streams of water were easy to leap across.

I share this because of the feeling that confronts me, that what it will take for the river to be restored is insurmountable. It will take, in other words, a miracle. Doing everything we can to preserve and nurture the river may not be enough, but with God, all things are possible. Scott Walker started Eco-Prayer some years ago. The idea is to pray daily for something in the earth we care about and to engage others to do the same.

So I encourage you, besides doing what you can to care for the earth, pray for something, some form of life you care about. If isn’t our Rio Grande watershed, then add your prayers to mine.                                                                                                    By Glen Kappy

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Issue 5 – mid Rio Grande Times – July 2021

Collaborators: Sue Brown, Donna Detweiler, Ken Gingerich, Glen Kappy, Adrienne Jones, Deb Scott

Drought

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Climate is defined as a pattern of precipitation and temperature over years. Drought is an aspect of climate and is defined as decreased rainfall leading to a shortage of water. A deluge of rain can cause flooding, but the overall rainfall can still define that time as a drought.  Drought comes in cycles, some lasting much longer than others. For example, the people of Mesa Verde experienced 23 years of drought before they left in 1300. A 50-year drought led to the abandonment of Chaco Canyon between 1140 and 1150, with the population moving to areas with more reliable water for farming. Many of the pueblos along the Rio Grande were established at that time. Since drought comes in cycles, it leaves us constantly optimistic that change for the better is ahead. But is it this time?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was formed in 1970 from a loose grouping of climate agencies across various U.S. government departments. Data which had been collected as early as 1807 by volunteers was now available in one place to study trends in climate. Heat and rainfall data from 1895 to present were incorporated into the Palmer Drought Severity Index, a formula for calculations of severity which factor in both heat and rainfall. In 2020, NOAA began a graphic index displaying drought at five different levels with D 0 being abnormal short-term dryness and D 4 being the most severe with widespread loss of crops and pasture. Some climatologists think we in the mid Rio Grande are currently in a drought cycle which began in 2001. Why are our trends troublesome?

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