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Naomi Fraga

@naomibot.bsky.social
1.5K followers 258 following 105 posts

Director of Conservation at California Botanic Garden and Associate Professor at Claremont Graduate University. I study the biodiversity extinction crisis, flora of Western North America, alkali wetlands, rare plants, #monkeyflowers.

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Gina Baucom @gbaucom.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
What is academic bullying, and how do you know when criticism has crossed the line into harassment? In the newest Evolution Exchange, I talk with Dr. Morteza Mahmoudi (Academic Parity Movement) and Dr. Aaron Roussell about bullying, mobbing, and doxxing. A long but 🌶️ convo! tinyurl.com/87nyfbzk
tinyurl.com
Society for the Study of Evolution
Site description
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Andy Murdock @andymurdock.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Botany friends: cool job alert. We're searching for a new Director for the UC & Jepson Herbaria here at UC Berkeley. Share with nice people. aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05405 🌿🌺🌵
aprecruit.berkeley.edu
Associate/Full Professor- Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics- Integrative Biology, and Director- University of California Berkeley Herbaria
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Report from Amnesty International: Boom in Li mining across NV is violating rights of Indigenous Peoples. The US gov is breaching international human rights standards by fast tracking new Li mines across NV without Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) www.amnesty.org/en/documents...
amnesty.org
USA: "We're here to Protect Mother Earth": Indigenous Rights and Nevada's Lithium Boom - Amnesty International
As lithium projects accelerate across Nevada, extraction is being approved on Indigenous ancestral lands without securing free, prior and informed consent. Companies are advancing projects as the US f...
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
The Ioneer Rhyolite Ridge Project is an extinction causing project in NV. An industrial build-out, in pursuit of "energy dominance" will alter a vast & diverse landscape. We owe it to ourselves & the the next generation to save what remains and not repeat the mistakes of the past. 💔
Tiehm's buckwheat in flower, listed as Endangered under the ESA due to thread of mining. Tiehm's buckwheat in flower, listed as Endangered under the ESA due to thread of mining. Rhyolite Ridge in the Silver Peak Range, a beautiful and biodiverse landscape, worthy of protection.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
I was roaming around the Great Basin Desert and met Oryctes nevadensis for the first time. Its a small annual tomato (Solanaceae) that lives in deep sand and has fruits that look like shiny marbles. I was mesmorized. ♥️
Oryctes nevadensis in fruitOryctes nevadensis seed close upOryctes nevadensis fruit
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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
LAST CALL! Tomorrow, Dr. Lauren Eserman-Campbell (Atlanta Botanical Garden) will close out ASPT’s special webinar series “Taxonomy: What is it good for?” with her talk “How Taxonomists Can Shape Conservation Outcomes”. Register today: us.list-manage.com/17pJQ4x_0SH?...
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Can confirm, the southern Great Basin Desert in Esmeralda and Mineral County NV looks amazing right now.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
My student Chloe Novak is documenting the flora of the Amargosa River headwaters, a place threatened by mining. She spoke to @alanhalaly.bsky.social about what is at stake. Its not easy to work on the frontline of extinction. www.reviewjournal.com/news/environ...
reviewjournal.com
Gold mines may give Southern Nevada town a second act
Southern Nevada could see the revival of the gold Bullfrog Mining District if federal permits go through. It may come at a cost to the Amargosa River.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
It is an honor to be featured in the latest California Native Plant Society magazine Flora! CNPS has been hugely important through various stages of my career development and I am grateful for their continued support. 💚
cnps.org
Desert Star: An Interview with Dr. Naomi Fraga - California Native Plant Society
Dr. Naomi Fraga steps into the spotlight to help folks understand and save the desert’s precious native plants.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Aw, thank you! It was a fun interview. :)
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Doc Hubbard @jeffhubbard.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Nice to see our friend @naomibot.bsky.social featured in an article in the CNPS Flora magazine. She's so informative and inspiring.
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Pam Ronald @pcronald.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
The mine plan calls for a 1,000-foot-deep open pit, surrounded by 2 square miles of waste rock dumps and a sulfuric acid processing plant, transforming a pristine area- home to bighorn sheep, golden eagles and hundreds of plant species — into an industrial zone
Close up image of Thiems buckwheat. Yellow flowers in long pedicels
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
“Rhyolite Ridge is much more than one can see with the naked eye. Appreciation and relationship to the land comes from the heart,” said Fermina Stevens, director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
The @biologicaldiversity.org appealed a federal court ruling that upheld approvals for the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium Mine in NV. Lets be clear, the mine would doom Tiehm's buckwheat to extinction, industrializing this rare plant's habitat. biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press...
biologicaldiversity.org
Appeal Seeks to Overturn Court Ruling Upholding Nevada Lithium Mine
Center for Biological Diversity: RENO, Nev.— Environmental and Indigenous rights groups today appealed a federal court ruling that upheld approvals for the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium Mine in Nevada. The groups asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the decision.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
She is the desert and the desert is beautiful. 👸🏻
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
I have been hiding in the desert, clamoring on rocks while taking tips from lizards on the best way to collect seeds from the Death Valley Sage. @npr.org came along for the ride and it was amazing. www.npr.org/sections/the...
npr.org
A botanist searches for the seeds of the rare Death Valley Sage
For more than 15 years, botanist Naomi Fraga has been trying to collect seeds from the rare Death Valley sage, for safekeeping in a vault of native California seeds.
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Dr Wernerehl @drwernerehl.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Great field #botany story of the difficulties of collecting seed from endangered species. Featuring the tireless and talented @naomibot.bsky.social . Lots of field photos in the story. I'm so glad this story got some coverage. #rareplants #conservation www.npr.org/sections/the...
npr.org
A botanist searches for the seeds of the rare Death Valley Sage
For more than 15 years, botanist Naomi Fraga has been trying to collect seeds from the rare Death Valley sage, for safekeeping in a vault of native California seeds.
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Daniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
New Weather West update is out now! Some relief, at last, from recent record warmth and astonishing lack of Mountain West snow in the coming days as cooler/wetter pattern returns. But just how much relief should we expect? Read more:
weatherwest.com
After a long, dry, and very warm January, a cooler & wetter pattern will return to the U.S. West, with partial relief amid record-low mountain snowpack - Weather West
Record warm winter-to-date continues across most of the American West; already abysmal mountain snowpack dips to record low levels in many areas (except...higher elevations in southern Sierra!) Well, it sure has been a winter to remember thus far across the Western U.S. Astonishing, record-breaking warmth has pervaded nearly entire region (with few exceptions, though one
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Martha Lincoln @heavyredaction.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
The California State University system spent $16.9 million last year giving ChatGPT to all students, faculty, and staff. We are asking the CSU chancellor not to renew the contract with OpenAI when it expires. Anyone can sign the petition — link below!
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
The Eureka Dunes are home to several rare plants some of which occur no where else in the world. Park biologists documented damage to five rare plants including the federally listed Eurkea Valley Dune Grass (Swallenia alexandrae) listed due to impacts from OHV.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Wildflower watch 2026 continues and all eyes on Death Valley, world renowned wildflower hotspot 👀. It was a pleasure to speak w/ @alanhalaly.bsky.social as I conducted reconnaissance w/ the supreme defender of wildflowers 💚 @bitterwaterblue.bsky.social. www.reviewjournal.com/news/environ...
reviewjournal.com
Death Valley could be weeks away from a wildflower bloom. Here’s what to know
At the 10-year anniversary of the 2016 “superbloom” that carpeted the desert floor in flowers, observers may have success in locating wildflowers once again.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
We just had the warmest November and December on record and simultaneously experienced a series of drought quenching storms, but everyone still wants to know, will California have another super bloom? www.latimes.com/lifestyle/st...
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
:-D I think it’s a Northern Mocking Bird. It’s seems to be one of the more common birds in my yard. Here is a different angle.
Bird in branch
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
This Agave ‘blue flame’ bloomed in my yard last year, but I have been remiss to remove the decaying plant. The stalk is still technically green so it’s not actually dead right? I think the bird agrees.
Agave blue flame stalk with a bird on the tip
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
We are hiring at California Botanic Garden! The Restoration Intern will have the opportunity to work on a variety of projects involving out-planting, seed collection, plant propagation and monitoring. This is a full time temp position (6 months) that can be extended. Please share! lnkd.in/gaNuNGxA
intern measuring plantrestoration siteplants in the nursery.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Join me Fri Dec 12 @ 2pm PT for a for a presentation with Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. I'll be discussing how "Mining for the Renewable Energy Transition Threatens Endemic Plant Diversity". Zoom info in the link dornsife.usc.edu/icw/upcoming/
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
A beautiful documentary on the work of @criordor.bsky.social on a mission to document the microbes in salt flats of the Atacama Desert, Chile. Life invisible, but essential to a hauntingly beautiful ecosystem under threat from the worlds demand for lithium. www.grainmedia.co.uk/work/life-in...
grainmedia.co.uk
Life Invisible — Grain Media
Professor Cristina Dorador is on an urgent mission. She’s leading an expedition deep into the stunning landscape of the world’s highest and driest desert, the Atacama in Chile. Her goal is to find new...
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Cristina Dorador @criordor.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Con mucha alegría comparto el micro documental "Life invisible" (Vida invisible) que habla de la importancia de preservar los salares para salvar la vida de las personas a través de la búsqueda de nuevos antibióticos. Que lo disfruten 😊🎥🦩🦠🩷 www.theguardian.com/film/ng-inte...
theguardian.com
Life Invisible: the fight against superbugs starts in the driest place on Earth – documentary
Cristina Dorador is on an urgent mission in the world’s highest desert, the Atacama in Chile. As the rise of drug-resistant superbugs kills millions per year, Cristina has made it her mission to uncov...
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Jennifer Mandel @jennifermandel.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
📣 The latest issue of the journal published by The International Compositae Alliance (TICA) is out! Check it out at: www.compositae.org/capitulum_04...
Cover image of the woolly devil, a newly described species in the sunflower family.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Patrick @bitterwaterblue.bsky.social, you are not only my most favorite field partner, but you are the most special wildflower I have found in the field. To our love, to our life. 🌼 💘
Naomi, Patrick and Kelso at their honeymoon.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
My heart remains full from the showing of generosity from our friends & family who shared this special day with us. As we professed our love, to have and to hold, for better or for worse, in rain and in drought, for as long as we both shall live, a community of people were there to support us.
naomi, Patrick and naomi's students at the wedding.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Since we’ve joined forces in a more formal way, we have adopted many new plants; a milkvetch, a bird’s beak, and an orchid. We will certainly adopt many more as we pursue our shared goal to protect life on earth, including many obscure and perhaps not so charismatic micro flora and fauna. 🐟🌱🦋
Naomi and Patrick the day after the wedding.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
We monitored, photographed and documented our two-inch-tall plant friend in pursuit of saving life, and in the process we found each other.
Naomi and Patrick at the waterfall.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Of course, our love story started with a plant, the enchanting Tiehm’s buckwheat. The plant brought us together, spending countless hours on the road, in the field, and traversing across the white lithium rich soil of the Silver Peak Range.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
We have been friends for 10 years, a couple for five years, and on Oct 25 we affirmed our love before our family, friends, and our beloved desert.
Naomi and Patrick kissing at the alter
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
It’s hard to believe, it's already been three weeks since I married my love and #Teambuckwheat co-conspirator @bitterwaterblue.bsky.social in a beautiful ceremony in the Amargosa River Basin. 💕
Naomi and Patrick on their wedding day
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Center for Biological Diversity @biologicaldiversity.org · 29/10/2025
A fossil-fueled surge in U.S. data center growth to serve the #ArtificialIntelligence boom threatens to sabotage the country’s already faltering climate goals, according to our recent report: Data Crunch. Get the full report ➡️ bit.ly/4hvYguI
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
youtu.be/6zMMTcYEXDU?...
youtu.be
"Because The Night" by Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen at Tribeca Film Festival 2018
YouTube video by According2G Presents...
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
The more I hike this road the more and more I want to proselytize for chaparral love ❤️ I am pretty sure this California towhee sitting on a San Gabriel scrub oak is feeling it with me.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
These are my fall colors 😀
California buckwheat Oak acorn Rusty Rhus leaf Longstem buckwheat
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
I overheard someone say the thing they didn’t like about living in CA was the lack of “seasons”. I didn’t want to be rude, but I wanted to say that maybe haven’t been paying close enough attention. Go outside, touch some grass & maybe a buckwheat. I’ll forgive you if you don’t touch the poison oak.🍂
California aster California buckwheat flower Poison oak with red leaves Parishes golden bush in flower
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 06/09/2025
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n
Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or
even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in
the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or
apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we
are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not
considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This
is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse
and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece,
we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology
industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to
relevant work to further inform our colleagues.Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI
(black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are
in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are
both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and
Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf.
Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al.
2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA).Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms
are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe.Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles
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Patrick Donnelly @bitterwaterblue.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
I fired up the old newsletter machine for the first time in a while. In it, I take a lay of the land of the Western public lands extraction boom. TLDR: it's chaos. Read more: sageandsand.substack.com/p/sage-and-s...
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Oregon State University Botany and Plant Pathology @osubpp.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is Hiring! We are searching for a Director of the Oregon State University Herbarium and applications are welcomed at the ranks of assistant, associate, or full professor.
Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is hiring a Directory of the Herbarium
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Nick Haddad @nickhaddad.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
More bad news for butterflies. Our new paper led by Wendy Leuenberger shows common species are declining even more rapidly than rare ones. @ZipkinLab Three decades of declines restructure butterfly communities in the Midwestern United States | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2501340122
pnas.org
Three decades of declines restructure butterfly communities in the Midwestern United States | PNAS
Insects are declining worldwide. These declines have been documented across taxonomic groups and are worrisome given ecosystem services provided by...
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
It's striking how "wildflower" is often used as a pejorative; a way to dismiss biodiversity as insignificant. The disconnect between humans & nature is fundamentally linked to our inaction on climate. The magnitude of ignorance is well illustrated in this cartoon, w/ the original by its side.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
The piece was shared on X and further illuminates what a dumpster fire platform it is. Comments from seemingly real people overwhelmingly call for the active harm of Tiehm's buckwheat. From "just move it" to "herbicide it" to "its just a wildflower".
herbicide the flowercan i personally kill these flowers?
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
In a time where a new crisis seems to drop every min due to the current political regime, two crises remain at center of all life on earth: biodiversity & climate. Our inability to plan, prioritize & rein in consumption leads us to a false choice between the existence of a whole species and a mine.
latimes.com
Commentary: A climate-saving lithium mine could doom an endangered desert flower
The dilemma at Nevada's Rhyolite Ridge offers a preview of the hard choices ahead.
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
This story is not new but a presentation at #Botany2025 raised awareness on the impact of avocado production on biodiversity. U.S. demand is driving deforestation in rich Mexican cloud forests which also support monarch butterflies. www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/u...
nytimes.com
Americans Love Avocados. It’s Killing Mexico’s Forests. (Published 2023)
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Naomi Fraga @naomibot.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
The story of our fight to save Tiehm’s buckwheat continues. “There’s a real tension there, where we need to avert the worst of the climate crisis. But in doing so, we can cause real harm to ecosystems,”story by @sammyroth.bsky.social @latimes.com www.latimes.com/environment/...
latimes.com
Commentary: A climate-saving lithium mine could doom an endangered desert flower
The dilemma at Nevada's Rhyolite Ridge offers a preview of the hard choices ahead.
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