EPISODE 3
September 28, 2021 - 70,000 Joshua Trees are threatened by a 16-square mile project called Sawtooth Solar, near Beatty, Nevada. This utility-scale solar project proposal is adjacent to Death Valley National Park, along the "Nevada Triangle" in a basin called Sarcobatus Flat. Kevin Emmerich and Laura Cunningham of Basin and Range Watch are joined by filmmaker Justin McAffee in this third of the series Desert Apocalypse. They look at all the plant and animal life in these ecosystems that are at stake.
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You can watch the other episodes and additional content on this channel. You can also see more at https://desertapocalypse.com.
EPISODE 2
Filmmaker Justin McAffee joins Basin and Range Watch for Episode 2 of their series, Desert Apocalypse, to show us how the Bureau of Land Management is fast-tracking 7 solar projects with a combined 100 square-mile footprint in an area of desert habitat near Tonopah, Nevada in Esmeralda County. They look at the environmental and cultural consequences of systematically degrading one of the largest intact ecosystems in the lower 48 states. Visit to the Crescent Dunes solar power tower project as well.
EPISODE 1
Filmmaker Justin McAffee travels with Basin and Range Watch to explore what's at stake at the Yellow Pine Solar Project site in Pahrump Valley. They discover thousands of old-growth yucca and the endangered desert tortoise, among countless other species in the Mojave Desert that are threatened here and throughout thousands of square miles in Nevada.
The Long Drive
Beatty Solar Energy Center proposed next to the Famous Ghost Town of Rhyolite
August 26, 2021 - Beatty NV - BONUS film clip from Justin McAffee! This is how long to takes to drive through the proposed Beatty solar energy project. All this Mojave Desert would be replaced by solar panels, for miles and miles. The project extends from the edge of Rhyolite to the boundary of Death Valley National Park. Instead of wide open public lands, you'd be looking at solar panels and a chainlink fence.
New Film Series Debut: DESERT APOCALYPSE, Assault on Desert Habitats
July 26, 2021 - Las Vegas, NV - Nevada is moving forward with the GreenLink transmission system, which would enable an unprecedented opening up of 9 million acres of public lands for industrial energy development, mostly solar, with no regard for the fragile but rich ecosystems in the Mojave and Great Basin. Massive utility-scale solar projects are planned or already under construction on desert tortoise habitat. Desert Apocalypse, as the name suggests, is an exposé of this plan to destroy our deserts.
Nevada independent filmmaker Justin McAffee is producing a series of short films, in cooperation with the Nevada-based conservation nonprofit Basin and Range Watch, to go out into the field to observe the destruction first-hand.
Desert Apocalypseboldly questions assumptions concerning our renewable energy future, the toll taken on biodiversity, and how local people forge paths to protecting these high-value public lands. McAffee describes the film series as about the assault on desert habitats.
“The extinction rate is currently 1,000 times the background rate of the last 60 million years,” described Justin McAffee, filmmaker. “Scientists everywhere are now warning that the biodiversity crisis is as much a threat to humanity as the climate crisis. Destroying millions of acres of fragile ecosystems isn’t a solution to any of our problems, and would in fact be part of it.”
Conservation groups and many local communities in the Silver State have been for years questioning how “green” these large-scale solar projects really are. The film follows some of the desert activists who have been fighting to defend the desert.
“I live here in the Mojave Desert, and see the destruction of habitats and public lands first-hand,” said Laura Cunningham, Co-Founder of Basin and Range Watch. “We recreate here, hike here, enjoy the dark night skies here. Nevada has an incredible heritage of wide open spaces, a rare thing that many people seek out, and rich biodiversity. We should not make our state the national sacrifice zone for solar panels that can easily go on the abundant urban rooftops and carports.”
The impacts of large-scale solar projects on Nevada’s public lands are plain to see. The Yellow Pine Solar Project is already under construction on over 3,000 acres of public lands in south Pahrump Valley, Nevada. The solar project will destroy an estimated 92,000 Mojave yucca plants—too many to transplant. Badgers have killed a third of the desert tortoises translocated off the project site, and the Bureau of Land Management is re-initiating consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over this federally threatened species.
"It is a myth that any large-scale energy can be renewable when entire ecosystems are sacrificed just to build one or two solar projects," said Kevin Emmeriich, Co-Founder of Basin and Range Watch. "We are seeing large-numbers of Mojave Desert imperiled species like the desert tortoise be needlessly killed and displaced by these projects."
Recently the poorly-sited Battle Born Solar Project--proposed to tear apart the unique lower Mormon Mesa in Clark County, Nevada--was withdrawn by the developer over popular protests and acknowledgement of the unique biological, geological, recreational, and public land values this land holds.
Filmmaker Justin McAffee intends to cover a wide range of geographic areas in Nevada, and the many solar projects planned or built on public lands, as well as track the people who are trying to defend these unique desert landscapes. The first film in the series can now be viewed.
“While it isn’t the most popular opinion to oppose solar development right now, the science backs up finding ways to reduce energy use and at a minimum, properly siting solar on the ample areas that are solar ready, rather than destroying vast areas of habitat,” said McAffee. “I don’t apologize for defending living ecosystems. Thankfully there are many others in Nevada who feel the same way. I look forward to telling their stories too.”
View the film and trailers now live on the new website Desert Apocalypse.
See the trailer here.
Justin McAffee
A Series About the Assault on Desert Habitats
Visit the special website on the film series Desert Apocalypse for more information and news!
Watch the film series TRAILER on our Basin & Range Watch YouTube channel
Justin McAffee is a talented photographer, filmmaker, graphic designer, and Mojave Desert naturalist and storyteller. He is based in Henderson/Las Vegas, Nevada. More than ever we need his bold, fearless voice to uncover the dirty secrets of energy sprawl on thriving desert habitats and the loss of biodiversity due to the ongoing poor choices in siting utility-scale renewable energy projects on public lands. Go out into the field with us and see what is happening before it is too late!
Conisder a tax-deductible DONATION to Basin & Range Watch to help make this film series project.
Make a note that your donation supports the making of the film series DESERT APOLCALYPSE and 100% of your donation will go to support Justin McAffee and his efforts to tell our story of DEFENDING the DESERT!
Basin & Range Watch is supported wholly by public donations from people who love the deserts of California and Nevada. We do not participate in large corporate environmental foundation funding, and we do not accept mitigation money from project development; nor do we apply for government grants, so that we may remain fully independent. Your donation is what helps us continue our conservation and education work such as this film project. No other organization in the desert does what we do!
We are a 501(c)(3) organization, all contributions are fully tax-deductible.
Send your check to:
Basin and Range Watch, PO Box 70, Beatty NV 89003
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