4. Social and Environmental Vulnerability in a River Basin of Mexico

Given the paralysis in global multilateral environmental negotiations and a lack of determination among the heads of states and governments of both the G8 and the G20 countries, alternative strategies, policies and measures towards a sustainability transition are proposed that actively involve civil society and the economic sector. Starting with general questions related to global environmental change, the chapter goes on to address the following questions: what are the real necessities for the Earth and for world society as a whole, especially for the socially vulnerable, and how can poor people living in a high-risk water basin and affected by climate change develop sustainable alternatives to deal with social and environmental vulnerability? A second question is how ethically committed scientists could support these bottom-up efforts to research and advise about the complex interactions existing between the natural and the human systems. The chapter first presents a conceptual argument concerning a double vulnerability. Later both environmental and social vulnerabilities are investigated in a river basin in Mexico greatly affected by climate change due to glacier melting on Popocatépetl, flash floods, droughts, urbanization, land use changes without urban planning, inadequate productive and waste management, overuse of water and social marginalization, especially for young people and the elderly. The next section deals with the description of the arena of conflict in this basin where water pollution and scarcity, land use changes related to chaotic urbanization and survival dilemmas caused by the desertification of rural areas are triggered by organized crime, pushing communities and family members towards migration. However, the global financial crisis, the lack of a counter-cyclical policy in the Mexican government and the migration policy of the USA have placed limits on international migration as a possible adaptation process, often bringing people to the edge of survival. This means that changes and adaptation are complex phenomena understood very differently in scientific disciplines and by the people affected.