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The environmental debate revolves around the urgent needs of economic development and the defense of the country’s and the planet’s ecological well-being. A few days ago, the United Nations’ latest report on global warming reported that the 1.5-degree-Celsius threshold set by scientists as the point of no return for irreversible consequences to the planet’s climate has been temporarily exceeded—a piece of news that was not among the top stories in almost any media outlet. Mexico’s president was a member of the UN’s international scientific panel on climate change and knows this debate inside and out.
Amid criticism of shortcomings and limitations in current environmental policy—including public protests against an ammonia plant in Ohuira Bay, Sinaloa, as well as protests over river pollution, deforestation, marine spills, and more—the Ministry of Environment recently explained the new strategy outlined in the General Law on Ecological Balance submitted to Mexico’s Congress. “The initiative, signed by President Claudia Sheinbaum and now before Congress, strengthens the state’s authority over ecological restoration and climate-change adaptation; expands tools for prevention and environmental justice; protects environmental defenders; strengthens public participation and the rights of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples and communities,” wrote Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Mexico’s Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources. “Development and the environment are inseparable, and the well-being of our people requires social, economic, and environmental justice.”
The environmental conflict in Ohuira Bay, in Topolobampo, Sinaloa, centers on the construction of an ammonia plant, which communities and many others have long denounced in the pages of this newspaper. In response to the criticism, the president argued that “an important part has to do with commitments the company made regarding the area, and work is underway on that, but there are also issues related to pollution, and efforts are being made to determine how to address them so that the lagoon does not become contaminated.”
Victor Toledo, a biologist and former Secretary of Environment in the previous administration, says the case in Sinaloa is just one of many in which the government has granted permits benefiting companies—and not necessarily taking communities’ interests into account. He cites the examples of the wind farm in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; the Los Cardones mining project in Baja California; the La Esperanza mine in the Valle de Tetlama, Morelos; Malecón Tajamar in Quintana Roo; the San Salvador El Seco solar park in Puebla; the Cabo Pulmo project in Baja California Sur; and the Península de los Sueños project in Punta Arena, Baja California.
On another environmental front under debate, La Jornada Ecológica devoted its latest edition to fracking as an environmental disaster, following the government’s decision to consider extraction through hydraulic fracturing. “For 13 years, resistance to fracking in our country has been a common denominator among several territories, mainly in the Tampico-Misantla Basin and the Chicontepec Paleocanal. Some have been threatened and others impacted, and they have strengthened their social and community networks to protect their territories from extractivism, and especially from fracking,” write the coordinators, inviting readers to “join the actions being carried out by organizations, communities, and collectives to demand that fracking be banned.”
There are several fronts in the struggle over the vital issue of water, from the one mentioned by Victor Quintana in the Comarca Lagunera to the cases in the Alto Atoyac region covered by La Jornada del Campo, whose coordinator, Armando Bartra, concludes: “You cannot step in the same river twice. And not because the waters flow onward, as Parmenides said, but because it is most likely that the pollution will kill you the first time.”
The Quote:
Well, yes, AI has a planet’s worth of information, immeasurable analytical power, and as much ethics as a household appliance.
Rayuela, September 15th
In Case You Missed It
◻️ Rescuing Mexican music. An orchestra is seeking to reopen the Casa Escuela de la Música Mexicana. “Our music is still relevant because it includes current social issues. It is a rich contribution to our people, our social struggles, and community efforts,” says the orchestra’s director. Meanwhile, the folk and Latin American Nueva Canción group Los Folkloristas is marking its 60th anniversary with a new generation. And the Ojarasca supplement looks back at a century of border music: “Border music… is the music of workers, truck drivers, fruit, onion, carrot, and spinach pickers in the lands along the Rio Grande; the music of Tejanos, Chicanos, Norteños, Mexican Americans, and mojados.”
◻️ The debate over the use of AI. Regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) and its use during electoral processes should be addressed through a national debate, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said. Her U.S. counterpart opposes slowing the development of AI, while the UN is calling for “urgent action” to regulate it. “The situation is getting worse because the United States (…) is governed by a person who understands nothing about AI, thinks he knows everything, and is obsessed with absolute deregulation, the consequence of which, if it comes to pass, would be the destruction of the planet,” La Jornada argues, proposing that Mexico should not wait for AI companies to regulate themselves. “Mexico should develop its own legislative framework and, above all, develop artificial intelligence models that respond to local needs and are designed to improve human life, not to generate profits for a few.” Meanwhile, Cuba’s education minister, Naima Ariatne Trujillo Barreto, believes AI should be developed “with a humanist vision, and we should ask ourselves what we are teaching humanity to do with the development of every area of knowledge.”
◻️ Thousands march for peace in Culiacán. Nearly 50,000 people, including children, young people, adults, and entire families, most dressed in white, took part in the “Sinaloa, Rise Up” peace march, demanding that authorities put an end to the violence. “We haven’t gotten used to being killed!” and “We demand to live in peace!” were among the chants. “I dream of a Sinaloa where every boy and girl can be confident that we are safe here, that we can be happy. We cannot allow that insecurity becomes a shadow over our childhood,” said Stephany, speaking on behalf of the children of Sinaloa. In an interview, interim governor Graciela Domínguez Nava said she considered it “very valuable that citizens are organizing; we are all seeking to reclaim our spaces and our streets in Culiacán.”
◻️ New world orders. Leaders of the BRICS member countries—which, since its founding, has included Brazil, China, Russia, India, and later South Africa—concluded a two-day summit with a call to promote cooperation, “inclusive global economic growth,” and greater unity among the Global South. Meanwhile, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz wrote that “the Trump administration, through its accumulation of mistakes, is accelerating the transition toward a post-American world order,” and concluded that “no one has to tolerate Trump’s mistreatment. No one has to capitulate or remain dependent on the United States.”
◻️ The CIA-funded cultural espionage operation. Frances Stonor Saunders, who exposed the cultural espionage funded by the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, during the Cold War, died this month. Her book The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters has been translated into 17 languages, and Frances Stonor was described by novelist Ian McEwan as “one of the most fascinating nonfiction writers of her generation.”
◻️ Against all hopelessness. Hermann Bellinghausen writes: “Watching the day’s news, the minute-by-minute updates, bloodies our gaze at the various points of the compass…. As you read these lines, you have been instructed not to go outside because the sun will melt you, the air will poison you, and the water will drown you. Let us remember that we can also drink, eat, sing, embrace, and smile… When the weather is bad, put on a brave face, and respond to the discovery of small wonders with greatness and gratitude. Dream with your hands, know what to do and what not to do. We can postpone hope, distrust it, and still not lose it.”
🎥 What We Are Watching
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Edited by David Brooks and Jim Cason in the United States, Tania Molina Ramírez in Mexico City, of La Jornada, and Elizabeth Coll in Tokyo, under the direction of Carmen Lira Saade and Guillermina Álvarez. More information.