Climate Change and Indigenous Communities: Article Review

Argomedo (81) argues climate change has worsened marginalized people’s situation based on the reduction of land activities such as farming. The already disadvantaged marginalized people face the problem of high food prices based on climate change’s impact on land competition from the drug dealers and the government. The author bases the article on unveiling how climate change will impact marginalized people by using the indigenous community in Northern Mexico as the case study. Argomedo (81) argues that climate change has led to increasing challenges for the indigenous community in Northern Mexico based on increased difficulty in sustainable farming. The article describes the various sources of land competition and pressure in Nothern Mexico and examines ways climate change aggregates the competition to produce unconducive conditions for indigenous communities. In addition, the article unveils how drug trafficking organizations increase competition by displacing indigenous communities from their land and engaging them in drug trafficking activities.

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Summary

The article uses persuasive strategies to draw attention to the impact of climate change on marginalized communities, such as indigenous families and argues for the need for collaborative governance and sustainable practices to address the issue. The strategies used include appealing to emotion by highlighting the human toll of climate change, using evidence to establish credibility, the author’s authority as an expert, and a call to action to encourage readers to take steps to address the issue. The article aims to persuade readers to take the issue seriously and work towards a solution.

Review

Article Organization

The article is well organized into several sections that explore the different challenges of the Tarahumara indigenous people from Nothern Mexico. The first section introduces the Tarahumara and the overall condition of indigenous people in Latin America. It briefly overviews the Tarahumara, their culture, and their way of life. Additionally, it discusses the broader context of indigenous people’s conditions in Latin America, highlighting their socioeconomic and political marginalization. The first section highlights how the indigenous community in Northern Mexico is already disadvantaged and marginalized people. The second section analyzes the impact of climate change in the Sierra Tarahumara and its effects on the Tarahumara. The article examines the region’s climate change model, exploring the reduction of productive land and increased competition over land. This section emphasizes the impact of these changes on the Tarahumara people’s traditional agricultural practices and livelihoods. The third section turns attention to the pressures imposed on the Tarahumara by caciques and local business interests that want to take over its land. The fourth section examines the role of drug trafficking organizations in the region and how they create more competition for land. The section discusses the ways drug trafficking organizations engage in activities that range from the forced displacement of indigenous communities to the forced recruitment of indigenous children. The conclusion summarizes the challenges faced by the Tarahumara and provides policy recommendations. It argues that effective policy solutions must be grounded in understanding the social, political, and economic contexts that shape the lives of the Tarahumara. Additionally, the article emphasizes the importance of addressing the region’s climate change and land rights issues. However, the article lacked charts and other visuals that could have helped analyze the statistics.

Article’s Main Points

The article discusses the impact of climate change on indigenous communities in contested areas, such as the Tarahumara community in Northern Mexico. The effects of climate change, such as droughts, have decreased crop yields, affecting subsistence farming in the area and leading to food insecurity for indigenous communities. The article notes that drug trafficking organizations further aggravate the situation as they seek to expand control over the land, leading to violence and displacement of indigenous families. The article provides a framework for understanding the relations and interactions between criminal organizations, the state, and violence. It describes collaborative governance as a regime under which armed group forms have relatively cooperative relations with the state apparatus and guides many state actions in its area control. The article also notes that rural farmers and indigenous communities in Mexico, who practice subsistence farming, face similar struggles due to climate change, with a significant percentage of the population living in rural areas.

Persuasive Strategies

The article uses several persuasive strategies to highlight the impact of climate change on indigenous communities in Northern Mexico. One of the strategies is using statistics and expert opinion to establish the severity of the situation. For example, the article cites a report by the United Nations and statements by Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University, to show the impact of climate change on the poor and marginalized people. Another persuasive strategy used is the use of emotional appeals. The article highlights the impact of climate change on indigenous communities, particularly the Tarahumara community, by discussing their dependence on subsistence farming and their limited access to resources. The article also mentions how chronic undernourishment and food insecurity affect these communities, creating a sense of sympathy and concern in the readers. The article also uses the persuasive strategy of providing evidence to support its claims. The article provides specific examples of the impact of climate change on crop yields, cattle, and indigenous communities in the region. It cites a nutritional survey of Tarahumara indigenous people and the warning from the coordinator of legislators for the political party of Morena in Chihuahua about the risk of famine this year for over 19,000 indigenous people who practice subsistence farming in the area.

Furthermore, the article uses a contrast technique to emphasize the severity of the situation. It contrasts the economic development and membership with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development with the fact that a significant percentage of the Mexican population lives in rural areas, of which 57 percent practice subsistence farming. Finally, the article uses the persuasive strategy of fear appeals to highlight the impact of drug traffickers on the region. It discusses how drug trafficking organizations seek to expand control over the Sierra Tarahumara and how they have been responsible for several assassinations and non-consenting displacements of indigenous families in the area. This fear appeal helps to show the severity of the situation and the urgent need for action to address the impact of climate change and drug trafficking on indigenous communities in the region.

Conclusion

The article is well organized into several sequential sections. The Abstract helped summarize the article. The introduction and background sections discussed the context of indigenous people’s conditions in Latin America, helping highlight their socioeconomic and political marginalization. The climate model section helped describe the reduction of productive land and increased competition over land. The article highlighted that climate change led to food insecurity for indigenous communities. The article used several persuasive strategies to highlight the impact of climate change and land competition on the marginalized community in Northern Mexico. The persuasive strategies involved the usage of statistics and expert opinion in establishing the severity of the situation using emotional appeals. The article’s claims were also supported by evidence as well the usage of specific examples. Finally, the article used a contrast technique, and fear appeals to highlight the impact of drug traffickers on the region. An article by Harvey & Pilgrim (40) reviews evidence of land availability. It suggests that political, social, and technological factors significantly shape the competition for land in different global regions. The paper emphasizes the importance of an integrated approach to the food-energy-environment trilemma. It suggests that a strategic political direction of innovation and sustainability regulation is required to bring about a sustainable intensification of cultivation rather than the continued expansion of the cultivated area.

Work Cited

Argomedo, Daniel Weisz. “Climate change, drug traffickers and la Sierra Tarahumara.” Journal of Strategic Security 13.4 (2020): 81-95.

Harvey, Mark, and Sarah Pilgrim. “The new competition for land: Food, energy, and climate change.” Food policy 36 (2011): S40-S51.