The Desert Changed My Life. It Can Change Yours, Too.
It’s hard to believe how close to the edge of the earth we live in. The closest part of the continent to the North Pole is about 60 miles wide and 2,500 miles from the North Star. Most of North America has a coastline that’s over 100 miles wide.
As I write this, the sun is setting in the far western desert, blazing a series of neon-lit canyons. The ground is cracked, red, and baked hard from the sun’s relentless heat. But, as you know, the desert is where I am from, where my ancestors migrated after escaping the Spanish Inquisition. I am a native of the Sonoran Desert, one of the most biologically diverse regions on the planet. This region was only conquered by the Spaniards in the 16th century after they discovered it was once inhabited by a people who had built the world’s first known cities in the Americas.
In the Sonoran, you can get lost in the canyons of the western desert on many a walk. You can get lost in them, but you will never get lost. You always know where you are.
In many ways, we are the masters of the desert. We have found the cure for thirst, the cure for hunger and the cure for all diseases. After all, most of the people who live in our desert have never been anywhere else on the planet.
And, as much as we have left the confines of our desert, those of you who claim to be the masters of the desert and know a thing or two about the region might want to get your head out of your ass and accept that the environment is changing.
What is changing?
The world you live in is changing. And that change isn’t just physical. If you spend more than five minutes on the internet, it’s likely that you have been exposed to some alarming claims about the environment.
Whether you’re an average American in our modern, post-industrial world, or some self-proclaimed environmental leader, it’s important to realize that you
