In my country of origin, the United States, environmentalism and concern for the climate have had a long and strange political journey. For a long time, the health of the environment and climate was something that concerned most people, conservatives included. “Conserve,” after all, is the base word for both “conservative” and “conservation.”
Unfortunately, the days of “live and let live” seem to be over, while an ethos of “let nothing get in the way of anyone’s economic growth” has taken its place. Forests only get to live if no money can be made by their clearing. Waterways only get to stay clean if no one needs to dump anything into them. Air only gets to stay pure if we don’t need to sell a bunch of cars. You know, “for growth.”
Why environmentalism has been pushed aside in the U.S.
I won’t get into the weeds of how this happened. Suffice it to say that today in the U.S., caring for the environment is “left coded.” Those who benefit from reduced environmental regulation and those they’ve convinced that environmental regulation is pointless and a serious impediment to our “freedom” seem almost giddy at opportunities to violate the environment. They also love to scandalize those who think that maybe we shouldn’t be actively sending ourselves and our planet to hell in a handbasket.
You put steel testicles on your gas-guzzling ginormous pick-up truck just to rub it in? Cool, cool.
You think environmental scientists are in a conspiracy to get…more funding for their research, I guess? But that the oil companies funding climate change speculation and the politicians who parrot it are completely unbiased? Um…okay, I guess.
It’s strange times up there, man.
Nature, let it be said, cares all of 0% about the economy. It also, I’m told, cares nothing for politics or has any interest in wanting to prove one side or the other right. And it’s not going to just stay the way we want it to because we wish it so.
Why environmentalism is thriving in Mexico
Mexico’s not perfect when it comes to the environment. But at least it’s not actively fostering delusional beliefs. Importantly, there seems to be nothing in the Mexican zeitgeist that causes people to snicker and call you a pussy for caring about the environment…not publicly, anyway.
In Mexico, conservation is cool.
It doesn’t hurt that we have an environmental scientist as president – a president who, by the way, is enjoying some of the highest approval ratings ever. She came in with a long list of how to improve the environment, both for its own sake and for the benefit of Mexicans.
I was especially heartened last year to read about Mexico’s National Water Plan. The philosophical base of the plan is one I agree with: that access to water is a human right. Here is a plan that starts with the assumption, for example, that the economy does not trump nature or individuals’ rights to access it. Unlike in some countries (ahem), already ridiculously-rich companies will not have free access while everyone else is stuck checking their local tanda schedules to see when they might be able to do laundry.
Mexico is part of a new trilateral environmental pact
Or take the new cultural and natural corridor. Mexico, Belize and Guatemala have together made an important pact to protect a not-insignificant patch of rainforest that spans the three countries. In doing so, they’ve emphasized an important point: nature doesn’t exist in a vacuum. We are nature – just as much a part of it as jaguars are. It means to conserve, in addition to the region’s ecology, its “living cultural heritage.”
In doing so, it’s giving the environment a much-needed boost at a crucial time. “As the second largest tropical rainforest in the Americas (after the Amazon), its preservation is key to addressing the climate crisis, regulating the water cycle and protecting regional biodiversity.” That’s no small thing.
What an example to set! It’s like saying, “Nature has no concept of borders or human claims to the right to dominate. We’re going to let it do what it does.”
There are plenty of “eco-friendly” alternative products to buy for one’s needs. We have the technology and the know-how to make sure new constructions are more sustainable than ever. But mostly, and importantly, we have the will of the government to support everyone, not just those who can afford “eco-products,” in enjoying the nature that is all of our birthrights.
My fear, of course, is that Mexico will somehow go the way of the US when it comes to concern for our environment. So many things in our society hinge on things “being cool” that it’s just stupid. Right now in Mexico, sustainability is cool. Conservation is cool. Getting your doctorate in Forestry is cool. Taking seriously the discovery of a new microscopic snail and assuming from the get-go that it’s got an important role to play in our ecosystem is cool.
Mexico isn’t perfect, just ahead on this issue
I know that Mexico is not perfect. I was especially sad about the extent to which AMLO seemed to throw care for the environment out the window as long as PEMEX and CFE were propped up. We’ve still got work to do.
In our current iteration of capitalism, the maxim seems to be, “if you’re not growing, you’re dying.” But what in nature grows and grows and grows forever, without stopping? It’s a losing game, and anything that does (like a cancer, for example) winds up devouring the whole of its environment.
Mexico seems to understand that aiming for constant short-term growth is not going to get us where we want long term.
It would behoove our big neighbor to the north to take a page from Mexico on this one.
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sarahedevries.substack.com.
