The Sonoran Desert is simply not a pretty backdrop or neutral ground. It is cut in half by the border in the world with the greatest economic disparities.
It is the front seat to the civil wars going on with regard to that border. It is a destination point in the Sun Belt for the greatest (post WW2) migration in in human history. It is the laboratory for the future, with regard, to how all of humankind will deal with climate change.
That is why I am so grateful to friends such as Homero Aridjis, Paco Cantu, Ruben Martinez, Alberto Burquez, Ellen McMahon, Paul Mirocha, and Alberto Mellado who take issues of this magnitude on in their contributions to The Nature of Desert Nature anthology, just out, from the University of Arizona Press.
I cannot do full justice to their works by simply paraphrasing them. I urge you to dive in deep to what they say not just in this book, but in all of their lifeworks.
Join Homero Aridjis, Exequiel Ezcurra, Alison Deming, Ben Wilder and I, on December 9th, for a virtual book launch on Tumamoc Hill 6-7:30 pm Az time, by registering at:
https://tumamoc.arizona.edu/nature-desert-nature—book-launch-gary-nabhan
