El Niño, Lake Powell & The Outdoor Community
I started hearing El Niño everywhere, so I invited Pete Deneen on the podcast seperate fact from fiction and explain what "The boy" actually is. But, we ended up diving into a lot more!
Pete is an environmental writer, a former Coast Guard officer, and a person who can make complicated things easier to understand. We talked about what exactly El Niño is, how it influences weather patterns, and why the West needs to rethink its relationship with water.
Why is it called El Nino?
Peruvian fishermen called it El Niño (the boy) because the warm current often arrived around Christmas, evoking the Christ child.
What El Niño Means for the West
El Niño is a natural climate pattern tied to changes in ocean temperatures and the atmosphere over the Pacific. The effects show themselves around the world. It isn't a simple forecast everywhere, but it helps explain some of the larger forces shaping a season.
The Debate Over Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam
The general climate conversation, and reading Pete's writing led us to Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam. He argues for eventually bypassing the dam and letting the Colorado River flow through Glen Canyon again. It’s a wild idea at first, especially for people with years of memories tied to the lake. But in a purely water resources and conservation aspect, it makes a lot of sense.
Pete’s argument is that rethinking the reservoir would ultimately conserve water, restore habitat, and change how we manage a river system under growing pressure. You can read his full argument in “It’s Time to Drain Lake Powell”. He also writes about water management and community in “For Water in This Climate, We Must Change”.
In a more personal and relatable aspect, Mr. Deneen and I both were early members in run clubs and we have a fun conversation about community and the meanings behind it.
Pete helped start a trail running club that has grown into much more than a weekly run. The group holds full-moon gatherings with local musicians, raises money for nonprofits, and helps protect the places where they run. It is the connection piece that really stuck with me. Running was the starting point but it became a lot more over time.
It’s easy to think of the outdoors as a place we go to exercise, clear our heads, or take on a challenge. But the more time we spend in a place, the harder it gets to separate enjoying it from caring about what happens to it. If a place matters, we can do more to preserve it.
Journaling
We talked just days before my wedding, and Pete gave me a simple piece of advice: take 20 minutes and journal. I tried it by dividing a page into past, present, and future.
What am I grateful for? What’s going well now? What do I want to carry forward?
It didn’t need to be profound or polished. It just gave me a chance (and permission) to slow down and notice what was happening in my life.
Listen to my full conversation with Pete Deneen on the Free Outside podcast.
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