Environmental complexity in Guanajuato’s Bajio: implications of the civilizing project linked to economic growth

Abstract

This article’s objective is to make the environmental contradictions of the logic of economic growth evident, which was adopted in Guanajuato’s Bajio, in the context of the ecological economy, which show the socio-environmental non-viability of public policies in Guanajuato. The municipal human development index, the state’s compilation of environmental reports, the workshops with key actors, as well as the feedback with academic peers, experts on environmental issues, reflect the environmental contrast of the development model which prevails and operate in a standardized way in this region. It is evident the deliberate disarticulation between economic and environmental policies, which is favorable to the first thanks to the second’s permissibility. This results in the transfer of the environmental costs from the private sector to the public one, and support for the logic of accumulation against the common interest. Pollution and overexploitation of water bodies, atmospheric pollution, extractivism, overgeneration of solid waste, the loss of soil quality are, among others, some elements that put a strain on the capacity for social and environmental resilience in this area. This visibilization of environmental crisis reflects the relevance of incorporating an analytical approach able to deal with a multidimensional crisis and understand that it stands on the illogical part of the logic of economic growth.