#7 Trump's Wall and the Environment with Journalist John Platt

Sciencentric

One of the most polarizing political issues of the day is President Trump’s proposed border wall. An Executive Order he signed in 2017 calls for a “contiguous, physical wall or other...impassable...barrier” along the entire U.S. Mexico border. The idea being that an unbroken, impassable wall would help deter illegal immigration and drug trafficking. According to a visual survey by USA Today, only about 650 miles of the nearly 2000-mile border is fenced. About half of that fencing can stop people on foot. The other half only prevents vehicles from crossing. Trump’s supporters see the wall as a necessary step to secure our borders and protect our national sovereignty. Critics see it as ineffective, xenophobic and even racist. What we hear less about is how such a wall would impact the creatures whose range crisscrosses the border. A 2017 study by professors at the National Autonomous University of Mexico found 841 species would be affected by a large impassable barrier. What's more, Trump’s wall would cut through several important ecosystems and centers of biodiversity like the Sonoran desert and the National Butterfly Center. In this episode, I spoke with John Platt, editor of the environmental news website The Revelator. John and other writers for the site have covered this issue extensively since the Revelator launched in 2017. We talked about which species would be affected by The Wall, if there are other ways to protect our border that would be less intrusive and how likely it is for Trump’s magnus opus to ever see completion. -- Help support this podcast: http://sciencentric.com/support Check out our reading room for great science books: http://sciencentric.com/reading -- -- Links: Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg3HxJxrow0 The Revelator's coverage of the border wall https://therevelator.org/tag/border-wall/ -- Tell us what you think of this episode: Email: [e-mail] Instagram: http://instagram.com/sciencentric Facebook: http://facebook.com/sciencentric Twitter: http://twitter.com/sciencentric Border wall image courtesy of Wonderlane via Flickr