“When a planetary crisis like the climate crisis or the biological crisis is presented at a global scale, we begin to lose local complexity and politics. On the other hand, if we present it at a hyper-local scale, we lose the big picture. It’s worthwhile to search for a sweet spot where we retain much of the local complexity while at the same time don’t lose sight of the larger story. The fabled and endangered Rio Grande, or Río Bravo as it is known in Mexico, its basin, and the associated U.S.–Mexico borderlands offered an appropriate scale and complexity. We are honoring the extraordinary yet overlooked ecological vitality of our region.” —Subhankar Banerjee, from “One Region Across Two Nations Issues a Clarion Call to Mitigate Biological Annihilation”
“Almost 20 years later, I’m standing in the river channel more than 300 miles downstream from the headwaters, and I’m trying not to cry. The channel in San Antonio, New Mexico, should be full, running bank to bank with reddish brown waters. Instead it’s sandy and dry. Dead fish fill divots against the banks. They’re piled atop one another, where the last hot puddles settled before the sun scorched off the water completely. Desiccated monuments to a winter that had nothing to give.” –Laura Paskus, “Acceptance and Redemption on the Rio Grande”