Desirée Bernard participates in Climate Solutions Day at the state Capitol Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. Bernard, the executive director of the New Mexico and El Paso branch of Interfaith Power & Light, set out with others on a more than 300-mile faith-based, climate-focused trek toward the Roundhouse. Photo by Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican
By ALAINA MENCINGER
The Santa Fe New Mexican
GALISTEO — As Desirée Bernard walked between Roswell and Corona in January, local farmers and ranchers warned her of a big storm coming. Some offered a lift.
Bernard wasn’t looking for a ride. Instead, she asked the would-be good Samaritans for a prayer.
Moisture was one man’s request, she said — drought was making it difficult for him to feed his cattle.
Bernard, the executive director of the New Mexico and El Paso branch of Interfaith Power & Light, a faith-based organization focused on climate change, said it was an apt request. In mid-January, she and other members of the group set out on a more than 300-mile statewide trek, winding from Carlsbad north to Santa Fe. The pilgrimage wasn’t in honor of a religious holiday, but rather an effort to raise awareness of climate change.
The group walked Wednesday on N.M. 41 north of Galisteo — day 23 of the pilgrimage — with hopes of arriving at the state Capitol in Santa Fe at noon Thursday.
The pilgrimage came as other organizations rallied for climate-friendly policies at the Roundhouse and the nonprofit New Mexico Voices released a new analysis of state data estimating climate change has cost the state more than $4 billion — over half of which is tied to wildfires and water needs, and extreme weather events.
‘Common thread’
Faith and the environment aren’t mutually exclusive for the climate pilgrims. For Jim Ekstrand, who joined the pilgrimage Tuesday morning, caring for the planet is living his faith.
“It’s a common thread [in many religions],” he said.
More than that, it’s “common sense,” added Ekstrand, who grew up running around in the outdoors of rural Minnesota.
Tuesday, Bernard was joined on her trek by a longtime friend from California, as well as Ekstrand, the group’s spokesperson, and Assistant Executive Director Clara Sims.
In the weeks past, guests often would join and break from the group.
The Rev. Sims of Los Lunas — an associate minister at the First Congregational United Church of Christ Albuquerque — said during the journey she’s seen the extremes of New Mexico’s climate: The temperature climbed above 70 degrees in January in Roswell, then a winter storm hit Central New Mexico and the temperatures dropped.
Water in the group’s van was frozen early Tuesday morning, but the sun warmed their journey by midday.
Sims, who was ordained in 2023 — and celebrated her third ordination anniversary Tuesday — said her favorite part of the trip was in the heart of oil and gas country. For the past few weeks, the group has couch-surfed with friends and fellow faith groups, camped and spent the odd night in a motel.
The goal was to reach the Capitol for Climate Solutions Day, where they would deliver a series of “prayers for the world” collected on their journey.
The Clear Horizons Bill, which would codify the state’s emissions reduction targets, was their main push for the legislative session.
As they walked on the side of the road Tuesday, the Clear Horizons Bill was being heard in the Senate Conservation Committee. The contentious bill’s hearing stretched on for hours in the Senate chamber, which could accommodate a large crowd. The committee narrowly approved Senate Bill 18 on a 5-4 vote.
The group carried dozens of prayers, some written on paper, others submitted online and a handful given verbally along the road.
Bernard said the trip has made her “bold” — she wouldn’t typically stop strangers to ask for their prayers.
She read a handwritten prayer from an anonymous person in Albuquerque.
“Dear legislators, my hope for you is that you look into the faces of children, yours and others, and decide to leave them a future,” she recited Tuesday.
Although she was facing some aches and pains more than 20 days into the trip, Bernard’s mind wasn’t weary.
“My soul, my heart needed this treatment for the pockets of my despair,” she said.
‘Fight for a future’
Bernard and the others arrived to an almost carnival atmosphere at the Roundhouse on Thursday, with hundreds of advocates gathered for Climate Solutions Day. The rotunda was festooned with banners bearing quotes from renowned conservationist John Muir and those of groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife.
“Climate change is real and it’s here,” said Demetri Smith, a youth intern with NM Native Vote.
Earth, he said, “is not just a resource. She is our mother, and now is the time to protect her.”
Many of the people in the rotunda wore yellow “Clear Horizons” shirts and listened as the bill sponsors urged the crowd to keep pushing their representatives to make sure SB 18 makes it across the finish line.
“We fight for a future where our unique way of life as New Mexicans is protected and allowed to flourish,” said Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, who sponsored SB 18.
Stewart said the state has made progress under Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration, but “that progress is under threat by oil and gas companies and their need for ever-greater profits at the expense of families and communities.”
Rep. Kristina Ortez, D-Taos, recounted how her daughter asked after a snowstorm in late January if it would be the last snowstorm of the year. When Ortez replied it probably was, she said, her daughter cried.
“We know what the impacts are,” Ortez said. “We know where they’re from and we’ve got to fix them now.”
Bernard recalled walking into the storm near Corona, saying she was “envisioning this place here” as she did.
“The storm was coming,” she said. “I was imagining almost like I was the storm.”
She remembered feeling overwhelmed and powerless when, as a young woman, she first learned about climate change: What can one person do in the face of such powerful forces?
But later, she said, she learned to embrace the power we all have within us.
“We’re going to be the storm,” she said.
Assistant city editor Nathan Brown contributed to this report.