Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Ecological Destruction from the Border Wall, in "American Scar" (New Yorker)
Very good documentary.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/the-ecological-destruction-from-the-border-wall-in-american-scar
Trumps wall hasnt stopped people from crossing into the U.S. from Mexico, but it has wreaked havoc on the wildlife populations and natural systems of the borderlands.
Film by Daniel Lombroso
Text by Murat Oztaskin
April 30, 2022
Film by Daniel Lombroso
Text by Murat Oztaskin
April 30, 2022
In a remote and rugged expanse of southern Arizona, between the vast stretches of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, a straight line runs. It cuts through mountaintops, across the foothills and valleys. At one time, the line was conceptual: the border between one country and another, a geopolitical abstraction real mainly to those who ached to cross it and to others who wished to prevent that. Now, in the past few years, much of it has been made physical, filled in across the desert in steel. The documentary short American Scar, by the New Yorker filmmaker Daniel Lombroso, explores some of the border walls unintended consequences.
In 2016, Donald Trump energized his Presidential campaign with three words: Build the wall. On the campaign trail, Trump insisted that Mexico would pay for the project, but once in office he looked to a more likely source of funding, Congress, which for two years declined to offer the moneya battle which eventually sparked the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Then, in early 2019, the President found a different way: he declared a national emergency at the southern border, a move that allowed him to reallocate funds for the walls construction from the Department of Defense. All told, the Trump Administration built more than four hundred and fifty miles of the barrier, about a quarter of the length of the U.S.s border with Mexico. Construction continued until the moment of Joe Bidens Inauguration.
Construction projects of this size typically have enormous environmental impacts. But funding the project from the D.O.D.s budget and classifying it as a matter of national security offered the Trump Administration a way around protections: it made the walls construction exempt from the stipulations of the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, and more than eighty other laws and statutes. Theres a certain kind of lawlessness that applies to the southern border that does not apply anywhere else, Stephania Taladrid, a New Yorker writer whos covered the effects of the border wall, and who reported and produced American Scar, told me. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, and the Inauguration in particular, people were thinking that, with Trump gone, we could afford to just forget about the wall. And, in reality, there were just a series of questions that were left unanswered. Among them are the impacts on the seventy-plus animal and plant species that the new sections of wall now endanger, including the jaguar, the ocelot, the desert bighorn sheep, and the Mexican gray wolf.
In 2016, Donald Trump energized his Presidential campaign with three words: Build the wall. On the campaign trail, Trump insisted that Mexico would pay for the project, but once in office he looked to a more likely source of funding, Congress, which for two years declined to offer the moneya battle which eventually sparked the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Then, in early 2019, the President found a different way: he declared a national emergency at the southern border, a move that allowed him to reallocate funds for the walls construction from the Department of Defense. All told, the Trump Administration built more than four hundred and fifty miles of the barrier, about a quarter of the length of the U.S.s border with Mexico. Construction continued until the moment of Joe Bidens Inauguration.
Construction projects of this size typically have enormous environmental impacts. But funding the project from the D.O.D.s budget and classifying it as a matter of national security offered the Trump Administration a way around protections: it made the walls construction exempt from the stipulations of the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, and more than eighty other laws and statutes. Theres a certain kind of lawlessness that applies to the southern border that does not apply anywhere else, Stephania Taladrid, a New Yorker writer whos covered the effects of the border wall, and who reported and produced American Scar, told me. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, and the Inauguration in particular, people were thinking that, with Trump gone, we could afford to just forget about the wall. And, in reality, there were just a series of questions that were left unanswered. Among them are the impacts on the seventy-plus animal and plant species that the new sections of wall now endanger, including the jaguar, the ocelot, the desert bighorn sheep, and the Mexican gray wolf.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
2 replies, 628 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (10)
ReplyReply to this post
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
The Ecological Destruction from the Border Wall, in "American Scar" (New Yorker) (Original Post)
erronis
Apr 2022
OP
SamKnause
(13,091 posts)1. Thanks for posting.
Wounded Bear
(58,645 posts)2. For trumpers, that's a feature, not a bug...