Mexico: Contemporary Environmental Issues
Causes of environmental degradation & Toxic
Contamination
1.
Raw materials are
needed as production inputs: resource exploitation
2.
Industrialization
provides employment opportunities, environmental laws are lax
3.
Toxics exports:
Mexico provides a cheap place to Œexternalize¹ waste from first world
industries
a.
toxic dumping
b.
Œprocess
separation¹: industries separate their manufacturing into Œclean¹ and Œdirty¹
components. Clean manufacturing takes place in the US, dirty activities are
undertaken in Mexico
4.
Cheap food
policies undercut rural lifeways. People leave rural areas: depopulation leads
to environmentally destructive activities as labor-intensive agriculture is
replaced by labor-saving herding activities (e.g., goat herding)
Forms of
environmental degradation
Resource
erosion e.g. Soil Erosion
Species
Loss (Habitat Destruction)
Genetic
Erosion within Species
Toxic
Contamination
Mexico Specifics:
i.
Highly varied
topography gives both strong environmental differences
a. elevation (tierra caliente, templada, fria)
b. orographic precipitation regimes: strong humidity,
desert differences
ii.
High rates of
endemism
a. many different species and varieties
b. many have very limited ranges
iii. History of uneven development has left many areas
with relatively pristine natural areas while others have become compromised
a. City-centered development
b. long history of human habitation: corn domesticated
~7,000 BP: Sauer, all environments are human modified environments
c. agricultural diversity extreme: Oaxaca is a world
center of maize (corn) diversity
d. genetically modified crops present important
challenges to highly diverse crops with little geographic extent
Mexico-City centeredness has had both
positive and negative effects vis-à-vis the environment
1. The vast rural-to-urban migration has kept rural
populations low up until the 90¹s (although this may currently be
changing).
Ergo, Mexico City is deteriorating but some rural zones are in fair
condition.
2. Current environmental problems are many, and
stem from three major sources
i.
Urban
concentration of industry, industrial diaspora to less-regulated areas:
·
North we know about
(i.e., Border pollution)
·
Many
less-well-regulated areas
e.g.,
Gulf Coast
(Coatzacoalcos, Tuxtepec)
ii.
Environmental
Degradation:
· Œenganadazacion¹ or rangeland expansion (Ganado=livestock) extensive production of beef on denuded forest slopes also are taking a toll.
·
Tourist devastation
Cancún, Ixtapa-Zihuatenejo
estuary draining/golf courses, condos
Beach hut building, turtle egg consumption
iii. Resource extraction:
·
Logging (Oaxaca:
Chimalapas, Chinantla; Chiapas: Lacandón)
·
hydroelectric
construction
·
Fisheries
iv.
Infrastructure
development:
Road building
·
Plan Puebla-Panama
(PPP): would have, and indeed is already having a tremendous ecological impact
·
Strategic
Pacification, particularly the road-building aspects have a huge impact on
deforestation on Mexico
Energy Development:
·
Oil burning for power
· Nuclear energy
· Hydroelectric development
Conservation ii: Conservation
history in Mexico
1. The periods of conservation have differed through
Mexican History, and have reflected the political and social views of the time
i.
Pre-colonial
ii.
Juarez
iii. Porfiriado
a. early
b. late
iv.
Revolution
v.
Cardenas
a. industrialism and environment separated
b. environment: an issue of national sovereignty
c. industrialization protected, toxic contamination
not challenged
vi.
Echeveria/Portillo
a. technocratic populism
agrarian
technology and land reform
environmental
policies as nationalism
industrialism
protected
b. Mexico-City centered, urban centered growth + rural
depopulation leads to environmental challenges
vii. De la Madrid/Salinas/Zedillo
a. pro-industrial policies
b. sensitivity to international environmental
pressures
c. rise of Mexican pro-environment movement (Auer)
Grupo
de Cien
Madres
de Veracruz
viii. Fox: appears to follow the same pro-industrial
lines, yet also be sensitive to international pressure
Laguna Verde, the nuclear
plant, produces 4% of the country's total electric
power and about 1% of its total energy production.
Plant information
Mexico's only nuclear
plant, Laguna Verde, with 2 units totaling 1294MW is
situated near Vera Cruz on
Mexico's Gulf Coast. The units were completed
in 1990 and in 1995.
Waste disposal
Spent fuel from Mexico's
one plant is kept in water pools
Development
Politics: The Golf War
2. The Golf War:
ix.
Highway
Development
x.
Valorization/Commodification
of space
xi.
Geographies
of Recreation: Internationalization of Golf
3. Location, location, location
c. Road to Acapulco
d.
a
game of golf?
e.
4. Anatomy of the conflict
d.
National
parks and private lands
e. International capital
investments in Mexico: joint ventures
f. Green logics: what about the
water?
g.
Let
them be caddies
5. Opposition coalition
d.
Peasant
coalition
e. Village elites and old money
f. Left politics
http://www.tourbymexico.com/morelos/tepoztla/tepofram.htm