Energy and Environmental Politics in Post-Corporatist Mexico

No government that is serious about environmental protection will imitate the Mexican model. The undrinkable waters and defiled deserts of Mexico's northern border towns and the poisoned air of its capital city are infamous. But there are noticeable changes in Mexican politicians' and lawmakers' attitudes toward the country's environmental ills, in no small part because of changing public attitudes toward these problems. As Mexico's political system becomes more open and democratic, policy elites are increasingly attentive to environmental problems, as ordinary citizens, and especially urbanites, vent their frustration at the ballot box. Perhaps ironically, Mexico's hydrocarbon industries are potential leaders in the nascent environmental reform process. Inducements for better environmental behavior by the oil and natural gas industries are new, municipal and federal environmental regulations, stepped-up enforcement, and local and cross-border markets for Mexico's gas.     

北美自由贸易协定与美墨关系

北美自由贸易协定(NAFTA)的签定是冷战结束后美墨关系发生变化的一个重要标志,是经济全球化过程中的重要发展趋势。美、加、墨通过建立经济合作关系,实行经济自由化、一体化,既有利于三国经济的互利合作,又促进墨西哥的政治经济体制改革,为墨西哥对外经济开放、发展外向型经济提供机遇。但美墨之间由于历史遗留问题以及墨西哥国内依然存在的强烈民族主义倾向,墨西哥经济对美国经济的过分依赖等,使美墨关系还存在不确定的变数。由于墨西哥积极发展与亚太地区和欧盟的经济合作关系,未来美墨关系的发展,以及建立北美自由贸易区统一货币等问题,是对NAFTA的一个严峻考验。     

The Softwood Lumber Dispute and US Allegations of Improper NAFTA Panel Review

The dispute over Canadian exports of softwood lumber products to the United States (US) has lasted since 1982 and, so far, has gone through four episodes of litigation. In Lumber IV, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) determined that the US softwood lumber industry was threatened with material injury by reason of dumped and subsidized lumber from Canada. Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a binational panel concluded, however, that there was no such evidence and directed the ITC to reverse its finding. In its resort to the Extraordinary Challenge Procedure, the US alleged that the injury panel had misapplied the US standard of review. In fact, allegations of improper NAFTA panel review were used by the US in order to justify its non-compliance with adverse binding decisions.     

Environmental Performance of the Assembly Plants Industry in the North of Mexico

The northern border of Mexico, a region with great tradition and rooting of the assembly plants industry, outstands by its specialization in the processing of electronic products and automobile parts. Also, this industry outstands by restructuring its techno‐productive capabilities derived from its integration with North America, which has aroused the interest about the resulting environmental problems. As depository of direct foreign investment, this region demands to design efficient mechanisms for an environmental management actively involving all the local actors. The deepness of liberalization of the Mexican economy has not been a condition for Mexico to specialize itself in “dirty” industries because since the North America Free Trade Agreement has taken effect, it is favoring less polluting industries as this is compliant of the environmental regulations, which are determined by the cooperation among companies and government through inspection and promotion of voluntary self‐management programs and through the environmental policy imposed by the corporation to its affiliates by means of quality and environmental international certifications (ISO 9001, 9002, 14001, and 14002). The objective of this work is to analyze the environmental performance of foreign companies operating under the assembly plants industry regime, considering the relationship between industrial upgrading and environmental performance.     

Environmental Reconstruction and the Abandonment of the Largo-Gallina Area,New Mexico

Abstract

The hypothesis that significant climatic change occurred in NW New Mexico between 1200 and 1300 A.C., resulting in the abandonment of the Largo-Gallina area, was tested. Analyses of samples of microfaunal, corn, and pollen remains from a dated series of Largo-Gallina Phase sites and geological studies all support the conclusion that the study area experienced changing environmental conditions, probably the result of steadily increasing aridity, beginning about 1250 A.C. Study of the Largo-Gallina corn materials indicates that crop quality deteriorated substantially towards the end of the span of occupation.     

基于管理与环境视角的中国旅游效率研究

从管理和环境的角度对区域旅游产业效率进行分析,测算全要素旅游管理效率和旅游环境影响率,判断究竟是内生变量还是外生环境影响了全要素旅游效率的高低,有助于旅游资源利用方式的优化和产业管理效率的提高。本文利用四阶段DEA模型对剔除环境因素影响的我国区域旅游效率进行实证分析,研究结果表明,2005～2009年我国旅游效率水平总体偏低,旅游业发展管理都是无效的;现阶段旅游效率的提升主要是依赖外生环境的改善,管理效率的提升明显不足;区域间全要素旅游效率、全要素旅游管理效率和旅游环境影响率之间存在明显的区域差异,东部地区全要素旅游效率明显高于中部与西部地区。从提高旅游业管理水平和改善旅游业外部环境方面提出不同区域提高旅游业效率的发展对策：北京、天津、江苏等应重点改善区域旅游管理能力;河北、辽宁、新疆等应从管理和环境两个层面推进;山西、内蒙古和黑龙江等应重点优化外部环境。     

日本的节能措施、成效与启示

以能源资源在全社会的最优配置和能源利用效率的提高为主要目标,日本实施了以节能技术创新为核心的“规范-服务-鼓励”三位一体的节能措施体系,成效显著。日本节能的做法,对当前我国做好节能减排工作很有借鉴意义。     

Reflections on the Transformation in Mexico

This article offers panoramic portrait of Mexican politics since the election victory of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena movement in July 2018. Along its path to overwhelming success, Morena presented a vision of a historic transformation of a thoroughly corrupted Mexican state. Morena’s opponents viewed its emergence with anxiety, as a radical, populist, leftist force. But the new regime has been extremely cautious, affirming existing geopolitical and security commitments and pursuing conservative macroeconomic policies. Working within these constraints, the López Obrador government has largely focused on a moral transformation of the state. The context of Morena’s victory was the ongoing collapse in the Mexican state’s monopoly of force and its historic complicity with criminal and paramilitary violence. The government’s post-election approach has included a public reckoning with state crimes, from 1968 to Ayotzinapa. But its primary strategy has been one of ostentatious political asceticism. Rhetorically, this encompasses ideas of ‘political love’ and ‘republican austerity’; in practical terms, it includes campaigns of public frugality and the performative vulnerability of the president himself. In closing, we analyse the proposed National Guard, arguably the centrepiece of Morena’s putative state transformation, a policy condemned by some as renewed militarisation in the name of utopian republicanism.     

The Inquisition and prohibited sexual artwork in late colonial Mexico

The manufacturing or distribution of pornographic materials was among the many crimes pursued by the Holy Office. Twenty-one denunciations of illicit sexual artwork from 1750 to 1820 are housed in Mexico's Archivo General de la Nación. The items range from illustrations and prints of men and women in sexualized poses to elaborate and ingenious etchings and paintings on watches and jewelry boxes. The protagonists in this article include denouncers, witnesses, and suspects, inquisitors, qualifiers, and other church agents, and producers, sellers, and consumers of prohibited artwork. These cases provide valuable information on the sexual culture of Mexico City's urban leisure class. Those accused of selling and purchasing illegal art did not view themselves as libertines or free thinkers who advocated sexual experimentation. Nor did they advocate anti-Christian or anti-establishment sentiments. Inquisitors did not demonstrate the same fears and anxieties about erotic drawings and artwork that they did with prohibited books, nor did they conflate eroticism and licentiousness with heresy and treason. The consumers of prohibited sexual artwork in late colonial Mexico City seem to have mostly reveled in the excitement of seeing and owning prohibited materials and sharing a good laugh with friends. Neither they nor inquisitors took these items too seriously.