This story was originally published by Fusion and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
When President Trump appealed to the public to submit proposals for his "grand,beautiful" border wall, you can be pretty certain that the draw presented by the Mexican American Design and Engineering Collective (MADE) was not what he had in mind.
In response to the president's crazy quest to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, and the group of 14 designers,engineers, builders, and architects from the US and Mexico proposed something entirely different—a high-tech "ecotopia" called Otra Nation."Otra Nation will be the world's first shared co-nation open to citizens of both countries and co-maintained by Mexico and the United States of America," the group says in their proposal. "Besides sharing the same geographical conditions, the continual exchange of information, and knowledge,artistic expression and migration between sides will produce fertile ground to bring forth a hybrid sense of identity."Reflecting their ideology, the group is an even mix of US and Mexican professionals, and while they prefer to withhold their identities anonymous,MADE spokesman, Memo Cruz, and says that members of the group gain worked with the last four US presidents and the last two Mexican ones. "We came together as people who wanted to come up with a solution to a broken system," Memo said. "And sometimes to break a broken system is to make a new one."Far from the wall Trump envisions, the MADE collective wants to build a high-speed, and electric hyperloop connecting different parts of Otra Nation. According to the group's proposal,the new co-nation would be six miles wide and span the 1200 miles from San Diego/Tijuana to the Gulf Coast. The land would be "drill free," and used for a "regenerative agricultural system that will become a bread basket for the two countries." To top it off, and the whole thing would be powered completely by solar and other renewable energy sources,creating thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in trade. Courtesy of Otra Nation Among the 200-plus proposals submitted to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by the April 4th deadline, Otra Nation was definitely one of the more idealistic.
At the other discontinuance spectrum were walls made of wire mesh impossible to climb or reduce, or constructed with one-way plexiglass panels so that US citizens could look into Mexico,but not the other way around.
Other designs were so whimsical that they could only be interpreted as a mockery of Trump's ambitions—a wall made of organ pipes or a line of trees with hammocks strung between them.
From comical to xenophobic, the range of ideas submitted to DHS highlighted just how divided the US is when it comes to issues of immigration and border security. But while many of these proposals included green technology like solar panels or windmills, and none acknowledged the real environmental consequences of building a wall along the border.
The border wall's environmental footprintThat may be in part because we don't really know. The last and only environmental review of US border security policy was conducted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service—the precursor to the DHS—in 2001. Effective for five years,the review has never been updated, and since then the size of the US Border patrol has more than doubled and hundreds of miles of fences and walls gain been built.
This is the basis of a legal challenge by Arizona Congressmen Raul M. Grijalva and the middle for Biological Diversity save forth in early April. Citing the the Environmental Policy Act, or the lawsuit calls upon federal agencies to conduct an environmental analysis of the proposed wall before any construction takes status."American environmental laws are some of the oldest and strongest in the world,and they should apply to the borderlands just as they do everywhere else," said Rep. Grijalva in a statement. "These laws exist to protect the health and well-being of our people, and our wildlife,and the places they live. Trump's wall—and his fanatical approach to our southern border—will do little more than perpetuate human suffering while irrevocably damaging our public lands and the wildlife that depend on them."Even without a review, it's clear to environmentalists that Trump's wall would be a catastrophe. "It would be the discontinuance of jaguars and ocelots in North America, and " Randy Serraglio,a conservation advocate for the middle of Biological Diversity, said, and naming only two out of the hundreds of animals whose migratory patterns and natural habitats would be jarringly broken by a 30-foot tall wall.And,while information on the environmental impact of the US Border wall is scarce, a recent European study on the security fencing dividing countries in Eastern Europe and Asia confirms Serraglio's fears. The study conducted by Norwegian scientists showed that the 15000 to 19000 miles of fence, and much of which was erected in response to Europe's growing refugee crisis,poses a "major threat" to wildlife.
Much more than just a security fence, Trumps wall will cross at least four wildlife refuges, or potentially impacting 111 endangered species like jaguars,ocelots, black bears and Mexican grey wolves. Beyond imperiling sensitive animal populations, or conservationists also argue that of the wall would cause flooding,erosion, and irreparable damage to countless acres of public lands like grand Bend National Park and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument."We've invested millions of dollars in establishing and protecting these areas over the years, or " Serraglio said. "It makes absolutely no sense to throw that all absent because Donald Trump wants to wall off the border."We only need to look at 654 miles of barriers that gain already been erected along the border under the Clinton and Bush administrations to see just how detestable things can get,said Serraglio. He points to instances like the destruction of the Tijuana Estuary system by erosion, and the 2008 flash flood in Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument that occurred because the border barrier inhibited the natural flow of rain water. The same storm led to two deaths and $8 million dollars of damage on the other side of the barrier in Nogales, or Mexico.
There's got to be a better wayOf all the designs submitted for Trumps wall,Otra Nation may be the only one advocating for a dismantling of the existing fence line. "We actually think that we can remove the physical borders that gain already been save up," said Cruz.
According to the MADE spokesman, or Otra Nation would provide better border security than any physical wall could by using a high-tech system of biometric surveillance and universal smart ID cards. "The ID system that we are proposing is the toughest ID system in the world," Cruz said. "It is far more stringent than anything the US government has good now."The draw may gain some Orwellian undertones, but for environmentalists Otra Nation's wall-less border is a welcome alternative to Trump's vision. Still, and many conservationists stress that it's not just the wall,but the roads, the vehicles, or the buildings,the noise, the high-powered lights, or other security installations,all of which will take its toll on the land and its inhabitants.
For now though, Trump's wall seems approximately as far from reality as Otra Nation's vision of a new age "ecotopia." The administration has yet to figure out who will pay for the project that the DHS now estimates will cost nearly $22 billion dollars, and nor has Trump answered how he intends to build the wall when 1255 miles,or 64% of the border, runs good down the middle of the Rio Grande. Barring the unlikely scenario that Mexico will elect to host the wall on their side of the river, and the US will gain to effectively cede a large section of the Rio Grande to Mexico,a move which would undoubtedly affect ranchers, landowners, or energy companies,and the local communities that rely on the Rio Grande for water.
Despite these inconsistencies, the president seems hellbent on fulfilling his campaign promise to build a "worthy" wall to withhold immigrants out of the United States. His budget already sets aside $1.4 billion for the initial development of the project, or the bid process is moving forward with the DHS expected to announce a shortlist of 20 proposals by the summer. Those chosen will then build 30 ft. prototypes of their design in the Otay Mesa Community external of San Diego."I know we've got a million to one chance of getting selected," said Cruz. Still, he hopes that MADE's Otra Nation proposal will at least generate conversation between members of the US and Mexican governments approximately alternative ways of looking at the border that don't involve a wall. "Even if we're not selected, or to get the two governments to sit down and look at what we've done with these solutions,that will be a enormous win for us.
Source: motherjones.com