As even the names of plants suggest, birth and death are inescapable in the desert. 1 There are plants found nowhere else but here, in the Chihuahuan desert, such as the living rock cactus. Just past this verdant band, limber bush, resurrection fern, and candelilla grow in the unusual, shallow soil of limestone pavement. A thin tree zone outlines its water in stark green relief against the arid stones. The Rio Grande snakes through the desert, sharp as a knife’s edge. Rolling hills of craggy rocks and scrabbly soil are populated by ocotillo, a drought-tolerant creosote bush, and tarbush, another calcareous soil-dwelling plant. The land here is dry, with reds and oranges unfurling under a wide, hot, neon blue sky. We drive south from Albuquerque along deserted roads and past long-abandoned construction. September 2021: I find myself in a dusty corner of New Mexico to see one of the wonders of the American West: the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico, the United States’ only deep geologic long-lived radioactive waste repository.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |