HYDROBIUM ETLI. CASE EXPERIENCE AT CUATZOQUITENGO, GUERRERO:

A SUSTAINABLE PROJECT TO DEAL WITH ENERGETIC ISSUES IN THE

RURAL COMMUNITIES OF MEXICO

OVERVIEW

This page contains the information about “Hydrobium etli goes Cuatzo”. This project was born thanks to the fact that this year our team is an association between the UNAM Genomics undergraduates as well as fellow students, also at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, from the Latin American Studies Undergraduate Programme.

Team

As we raised our ideas for what would become our 2011 iGem project, Hydrobium etli, it was quite clear that an interest to develop a project with the ability to improve our immediate surroundings was present. Namely, a situation in our country that could take advantage of Synthetic Biology.

Hydrobium etli goes Cuatzo represents the effort of building an interdisciplinary iGem project, because it aims to take the Synthetic Biology project “Hydrobium etli” and place it under the context of Mexico's current rural situation.

This area of the project vouches for the incorporation of new Synthetic Biology proposals, such as Hydrobium etli, as potential solutions to the necessities in the indigenous communities of our country. The posibility to supply environmentally-friendly energy to this localities, together with the energetic diversification it would imply, are the two objectives chosen to explore.

Among the results of this intiative you will find a document containing the analysis of the current mexican legal framework on GMOs, as well as the panorama on energetic matters of our country. Through this paper, it is concluded that the rural situation of our country could take advantage of a project like Hydrobium etli.

Teaching

Another fundamental section of Hydrobium etli goes Cuatzo is the diffusion of the Hydrobium etli project, which is where it takes its name from. Cuatzoquitengo or “Cuatzo” is an indigenous community that belongs to the mixteco linguistic group of the country. It is located in the Malinaltepec municipality of the Guerrero State, right in the middle of la Sierra (the mountain system). Cuatzo was the place elected to the field work part of the project.

The two goals of this field work were, first, to take the information of the Hydrobium etli project to the people of this community. And second, to collect their opinion on the posibility of carrying it out. Electric energy is a public fundamental service nowdays but in Mexico we have many communities like Cuatzo where sumministrating this service is a challenge for the government, Hydrobium etli goes Cuatzo is thus, a quite relevant approach to a social issue present accross our whole country.

Introduction

Placing the project under a relevant context

The UNAM-Genomics-Mexico 2011 team is formed by undergrads from both scientific and humanistic programs. We understand that Synthetic Biology is an evergrowing field and that it holds many challenges; but the outlook is quite promising: its ability to develop applications with the potential to solve problems posed by disease, environmental deterioration, and scarcity among many others, is overriding.

The development of Mexico and its international vinculation (specially with other countries from Latin America) beg for a systematic analysis of the cultural, political, and economical problems of the country. The Latin American Studies Undergraduate Programme is an interdisciplinary one seeking to understand the historical development and the contemporary problems in Mexico.

Mexico is a developing country with a large population and a vast cutural and ethnical diversity. This population is distributed across the whole country and the economical and social situation in which it is, presents itself in a quite wide range. The development of Science and Technology in Mexico is not as abundant as in other countries, which is concerning by itself; We also face a breach between scientists and society. We firmly believe that the way we have worked on Hydrobium etli sets a precedent for both scientists and humanists working together to achieve a common goal: constructing development of a country through approaches like Synthetic Biology.

Maturing the Idea

Ever since we started to concieve this Human Practices project, the objective was clear: Introduce the project "Hydrobium etli" as a sustainable option.

Through the whole summer and development of the project we held meetings to discuss the direction of the Human Practices. The social dimension of the Hydrobium etli project has really evolved. We wondered and discussed he best way to take this project to the right and relevant people. First, we wanted to start changing the law right away to implement projects like Hydrobium etli to a developing country like Mexico. Then while investigating the legal framework, we came to realise that it would be more relevant to first, go directly to a community with the potential to take on a project like Hydrobium etli, and then eventually with that experience as a background, start proposing the proper modifications to the law. Since then it has become a major objective to highlight and start to build what must become an integral and profound relationship between science and the society.

The Document

Precedents

Mexico consolidated, since the first decades of the 21st century, as an important oil producer at the global level. This natural resource has marked the historical evolution of the country, conditioned the economy, defined great part of the political debate and promoted the very construction of different development models. Mexico is today an oil country, the great networks that weave in its interior answer to such dynamic; the commercial balance, the public expenditure, the educational investment, the complex benefits system, the social capital, the foreign policy and even the sociability patterns.

In spite of the scientific and technological advances of the developed world, that have propitiated a severe questioning to the functioning of the international order with regard to energetic, just a little has been really modified with respect to this order. This is true mainly because the exploitation of the non renewable natural resources has produced, along with other variables, negative effects in the environment and in the way with which the Earth system works. Today we know that the climate change and the degradation and impoverishment of the natural environment is a tangible reality. However, there is an endless demand for fossil combustibles.

Science on the other hand, through its multiple disciplines, has participated in the generation of many and better technologies in benefit of the environment in two senses: to counteract the negative effects of the environmental degradation that already exists and to enable the emergence of new paths for the sustainable energetic functioning of the energy industry.

According to a study made by the World Banki (World Bank; 2006), extreme poverty is principally, though not exclusive, a rural phenomenon. Although in the last two decades there has been a significant advance – specially in comparison with the 1980 decade – in the health, educational and social infrastructure domains; the admission and the access to these services are found assume the two more profound conflicts of the Mexican rural communities. This does not implies the non existence of urban poverty nor the full access to these services in the cities; the rural problem increases when the access to these services is in extreme limited and the admission lacks of forms of regional reproduction and integration.

Current Panorama On Energetic Production In Mexico

As of the 21st century, Mexico stands as a country without a central conjoint policy regarding the energetic production. Oil and natural gas, and in general all other energy sources, are variables that determine the macroeconomic growth of any country, and by so, deserve to be treated as proprietary subjects in an independent manner by the federal administration. Hydrocarbons, in the milieu of a mainly exporter country, must be protected by legislations that compel the efficiency in the activity regarding the extraction, production and delivery of these resources, protected by laws that avoid public squander, that provide fiscal stimulus for the dynamic of the economy and that promote the generation of highly productive industrialization chains.

Mexico counts today with 12.9 billions of oil barrels, approximately 1.1% of the world's reserves. Our country has the third most important oil reservoir in North America - this one represents 5% of the world's reserves – and the second most significant of Latin America, that counts with approximately 8.6% of the world's oil reserves. Mexico suministers 1.5 from the 21 millions of oil barrels that requires the United States of America daily. The proved hydrocarbon reservoirs decayed a 47% in 2000-2006ii. The favorable set of circumstances in the international climate in that period – the rise in the oil price, the growing economy of the United States, the increase of the PIDIREGAS fundsiii and the rise of the remittances (Marcos; 2008) - promoted the overexploitation of the oil reservoirs. The objective was to raise the fiscal revenues, by means of an excessive tributary regime, in order to maintain a commercial balance less prone to loss guided by the exportations increment.

Despite the drastic plunge the hydrocarbon extraction industry had, in 2009 the fossil combustibles participation in the national energy consumption was of a strapping 89%iv. Meanwhile, the renewable combustibles and residues that constitute the solid biomass, the liquid biomass, the biogas and the industrial residues together did not get to more than 4.8% of the energy consumption for the same periodv. Clean energy, energy not coming from hydrocarbons whose generation does not produce carbon dioxide and that includes the hydroelectric, nuclear, geothermic and solar energies, among others, only conformed approximately 6.2% of the energy consumption.

Currently, the national electrical supply is a service provided by a state company called CFEvi. Such entity must then supply, manage and export electricity to the whole of the national territory.

Though the electrical system attempts to diversify, with the firm objective to achieve an energetic security program, there are left two national challenges, as pointed out by Elías Ayub (Valdivia; 2008): a) The investment of strong capitals into the electric system, at least 5 billion dollars annually; and b) The investment in research projects in relationship with hydrocarbons and electricity, supporting and encouraging the creation of new technologies to productively incorporate new forms of clean and renewable energies.

Mexico contributes with roughly 3% of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the world, being the Latin American member with the greater proportion contributor (Cárdenas; 2008). Within the GHG generated by Mexico in 2007, carbon dioxide occupied the first place, with almost 4.5 metric tons per capita, due mostly to the fossil combustibles consumption. Therefore, the support to other ways of generating energy must be prioritized.

Case Study

The community chosen for the case study was Cuatzoquitengo in the state of Guerrero. We have devoted a whole section of this page to the description of this experience (below).

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