Navajos: the curse of coal

"Why pick on the little Navajo nation when it is trying to help itself?" asked the Navajo tribal head Joe Shirley to the New York Times in a recent interview.

A new hope for the Navajo nation?

The reason for this bitter question lies in the heating controversy surrounding the planned construction of a 1500 megawatts coal-fired plant on the Navajo ground in New Mexico. The plant, whose planned name is Desert Rock, would provide hundreds of jobs, might help send electricity to 20,000 remote homes on the reservation and would hopefully bring $50 millions of yearly incomes to the Navajo tribe. Joe is right: these prospects sound appealing for a people whose major source of income remains the American government's grants.

Uranium and coal: a blessing or a curse?

But past experiences make the Desert Rock prospect look grimmer than advertised by Joe Shirley; the Navajo people have already suffered a lot from the hidden riches of their underground. The exploitation of their uranium mines is probably responsible for cancer-rates among teenagers that are 17 times higher than the national level. The San Juan River, which crosses the reservation, is heavily contaminated with mercury. Ozone levels in some parts of the Navajo lands are higher than permitted levels. And finally, the reservation is already plagued by two coal-fired facilities that makes the air-quality on the reservation the worst in the whole state of New Mexico.

The threat of global warming

Some people, especially non-members of the tribe, also worry about the CO2 emissions that Desert Rock would generate. Coal is already responsible of half of the 59 millions tons of CO2 emitted by New Mexico each year (20% more than the average contribution nationwide), and the new plant would add 12 millions tons of CO2 to this balance sheet. The state of New Mexico has already declared that it would not grant the plant tax breaks. But ironically, the ones who have the most to lose from the global warming are the Navajo themselves.

Since the beginning of the drought that plagues the Southwest since 1999, the traditional farming of the Navajo has become increasingly difficult, and has driven more and more people (especially the youngsters) out of the countryside. Once in the cities, the Navajos lose their mother tongue and their culture. If the Southwest climate changes for good toward a drier one as is predicted, it might become increasingly difficult for the tribe to maintain its traditions.

Like so many Native-American stories, the Navajo story is a sad one. It is the story of a proud people who has lost most of its land and is now struggling to survive with the most valuable currency it possesses, energy. It is the story of a people that might lose its soul because of this currency. As one Navajo interviewed by NPR was saying, "dry days might be here to stay. And we don't even remember how to do a rain-dance".

Photo Navajo Plant: http://www.cpluhna.nau.edu/images/navajopwrplant.jpg
Photo Mother and Child: http://mle.matsuk12.us/american-natives/sw/navajo-mother.jpg