Damage from border wall: blown-up mountains, toppled cactus

[Ptah]

GUADALUPE CANYON, Ariz. (AP) — Work crews ignite dynamite blasts in the remote and rugged southeast corner of Arizona, forever reshaping the landscape as they pulverize mountaintops in a rush to build more of President Donald Trump’s border wall before his term ends next month.

Each blast in Guadalupe Canyon releases puffs of dust as workers level land to make way for 30-foot-tall (9-meter-tall) steel columns near the New Mexico line. Heavy machines crawl over roads gouged into rocky slopes while one tap-tap-taps open holes for posts on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property.

Trump has expedited border wall construction in his last year, mostly in wildlife refuges and Indigenous territory the government owns in Arizona and New Mexico, avoiding the legal fights over private land in busier crossing areas of Texas. The work has caused environmental damage, preventing animals from moving freely and scarring unique mountain and desert landscapes that conservationists fear could be irreversible. The administration says it’s protecting national security, citing it to waive environmental laws in its drive to fulfill a signature immigration policy.

Environmentalists hope President-elect Joe Biden will stop the work, but that could be difficult and expensive to do quickly and may still leave pillars towering over sensitive borderlands.

https://apnews.com/article/arizona-border-wall-damage-mountains-7986864266a6fc2764c671533957d958

[Takket]

1. billions of dollars for something easily thwarted by a ladder.........

[IcyPeas]

2. Sacred Saguaro Cactus Being Destroyed in Border Wall Construction

This infuriates me. ruining the environment and tearing down giant Saguaro cacti for a stupid fucken useless wall.


https://weather.com/news/news/2020-02-28-saguaro-cactus-border-wall-construction-arizona

Saguaro cactus, which can live up to 200 years, are being felled to make way for President Trump's border wall in Arizona, prompting outrage from environmentalists, activists and local tribal leaders.

Saguaro are the giants and elders among the cactus world, growing up to 60 feet tall. They're recognizable by their distinctive arms, which don't start to grow until the plant is about 50 years old.

...the remains of at least a half-dozen uprooted saguaros were spotted this month where crews were blasting sites on a dirt road along new border fencing inside Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument,

[mr_lebowski]

3. It's freaking sickening ... man I hate these people ...

[struggle4progress]

4. Ugly people leave an ugly scar across such a beautiful land

[Hekate]

5. Mr. Biden, tear down this wall. Also the one around the White House.

I just feel physically ill.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. This is obscene. Everyone involved needs to suffer some consequences.