In my comic novel Cooperative Village, I poke the mildest of fun at bossy, nosy Cooperators in a Lower East Side cooperative housing complex who use their community’s online message board to foist their unsolicited advice on others….“even if you don’t ask, if they think you need their help, you’ll get it anyway, like it or not.” We all know the type—pushy, opinionated people who feel it’s their God-given right to hold forth on any and every topic under the sun whether it concerns them, or not. These intrusive characters are easy to mock, especially in comic fiction.

But here in the realm of reality, for a limited time only, the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Affairs are inviting the public to offer up our thoughts (and feelings) on continued oil and gas development in the Greater Chaco area. They’ve initiated a Scoping Process in connection with their amendment to the area’s obsolete Resource Management Plan, written in 2002 before current fracking technologies were even contemplated.

So this is no time for reticence or taciturnity.

Rather this is the public’s carpe diem moment, where we are invited to speak from our heart/minds about the immorality and madness of sacrifice zones and disposable populations.

We’ve been invited to document in the public record our fears for our vulnerable public lands…water and air quality…fragile humanity…all other living beings who will be affected by the flares, noxious smells, traffic hazards…decreased property values, adverse effects on tourism, and economic development…the terrible health and social impacts associated with more and more drilling in our water-poor state.

We have this “window” for public commenting—a grimy, soot-covered, creaky and rarely opened casement that will slam shut on December 20.

So here we are. It’s upon us. Chaco Canyon is on the chopping block.

There may be some tough customers out there, cynics who may not be buying the notion there’s much purchase in participating in this process, presented by the bureaucrats as a fait accompli.

Understanding that the BLM plans to proceed with an auction of four parcels on January 25, without waiting for our requested input might  make these same cynics say something like: “Yo Frances, that’s no casement window, that’s a cracked porthole on the low deck of an already sinking ship.”

That Titanic feeling may intensify with the knowledge that New Mexico’s next auction will be held online, instead of in person at the Courtyard Marriott in Santa Fe. Hear ye, hear ye: In the name of efficiency, the public is shut out of the lease sale that will doom another thousand acres of our public lands to the whims of oil and gas speculators and frackers.

Nausea may in fact be induced by knowing that BLM and BIA officials arrogantly walked out of their own first Scoping Meeting on November 10, when it was pointed out to them by Shiprock Chapter President Duane “Chili” Yazzie that their bizarrely secretive and intimidating process, whereby commenters had to approach a table staffed by the Feds to register their comments one by one, was not in alignment with Diné values. (BLM Farmington Field Manager has since issued an apology and requested a do-over.)

But no matter how disadvantaged the public is in this flawed and lackluster Scoping Process, it’s the shot we now have.

So we’re taking it in the sincere hope that BLM/BIA will Scope this:

It’s illegitimate to sell more oil and gas leases in the Greater Chaco area while the amendment to the Management Resource Plan is pending. (My own submitted comments will demand that the BLM cancel its January 25 sale.)

Scope this, too:

The Greater Chaco area is home to the nation’s largest methane hotspot as a result of oil and gas activities in the San Juan Basin. Methane is a greenhouse gas 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Leasing more lands for oil and gas development will worsen climate pollution.

And by all means, Scope this, as well:

Sacred sites in the Chaco Culture National Historical Park and the surrounding tribal lands have to be protected as a matter of policy and practice, as well as law. Rewind all talk of further lease sales until environmental impacts are in fact assessed and tribal communities have been consulted.

Comments are to be directed to Mark Ames, BLM Farmington Field Office Project Manager, at the following email address: BLM_NM_FFO_Comments@blm.gov