TheVoiceOfJoyce It’s hard to wrap your head around climate change. The Navajo nation is spread out over 27, 000 miles of desert , with temperatures exceeding 1.5 C and no aquifers, thanks to water management of the Southwest. 5 generations of Navajo women have raised sheep and horses on their plains and now it’s difficult for them to survive. It’s past time for the US government to accept them as citizens and give them the loan money they require, to upgrade their infrastructure. They should also be included in Colorado River management. They may be small in population, however, their knowledge of their land is invaluable. Give them an opportunity to survive and thrive and their wisdom can help the rest of us, too! Politics affects US!

Posted on by jaslvr

www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/09/the-us-dammed-us-up-how-drought-is-threatening-navajo-ties-to-ancestral-lands

According to a multi-year study published in the journal Science last year, Indigenous nations have lost nearly 99% of their historical land base since Europeans arrived on the continent. Most of the homeland that tribes were allowed to retain are places that not only lack natural resources but that are most vulnerable to climate crisis, the study notes. Indigenous people in Alaska and the Pacific north-west are being displaced by rising sea levels. But in the south-west, it is the increasing desertification of already arid areas making life for the Navajo and other nations especially hard.

“When we think about how to address climate change, we sometimes forget that past US policies and actions have led to conditions in which some groups are burdened more by climate change than others,” said Justin Farrell, a Yale professor and the study’s lead author, to National Public Radio.

Although the average temperature in the south-west has increased beyond the threshold of 1.5C, it is even hotter in north-eastern Arizona where Mendez’s ranch and most of the Navajo Nation is located.

Leave a Reply