January 24, 2010

The other day I got a peek into the packed agenda - and the busy mind - of one of Mexico City's most influential young environmental leaders, Arnold Ricalde de Jager. On the itinerary: Green roofs, peak oil, Mexico City's emerging green leadership, the upcoming COP16 talks, and a festival to celebrate trash.

"Twenty years ago we were the most polluted city on earth," Ricalde reflects. My, how things are changing.

Yesterday I met with some of the most influential leaders of Mexico City’s environmental movement. Between all the cell phone calls and agenda-checking and detail management, Organi-K founder Arnold Ricalde de Jager shared a few insights in an interview I’ll post a little later. I also got a little window into the whirlwind that is Organi-K.

On the agenda: an alternative forum for the upcoming COP16 talks, to be held in December right here in Mexico City; Pepenafest, a festival to celebrate creative uses of garbage, scheduled for the spring; regrouping for a referendum among the residents at Lomas de Platero, the Ecobarrio project the group is helping to organize;a reforestation project; a ban on plastic bags; a new edition of their seminal book, EcoHabitat; green roofs and recycling, animal rights, the list goes on and on.

But right now, between meetings and phone calls, Arnold has been asked to give a few moments to a wandering journalist, and his attention focuses on the big picture. Ricalde, a founder of the Mexican Green Party, broke ranks with the party when it veered to the right, has served as a city counselor and an advisor to Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, an author and a teacher of sustainability principles, but above all a charismatic organizer, capable of inspiring and mobilizing the masses over the long haul. He flashes a megawatt smile worthy of a Brad Pitt and launches into an impassioned analysis, barely stopping to take a breath.

Mexico City’s growing emphasis on sustainable principles, promoted by Ebrard but carried out by environmental departments in every city agency and ratified by a cooperative legislative assembly, has been driven by necessity, Ricalde says – by the arrival of peak oil, by the dwindling water supplies, by an increase in prices. “It’s not that we woke up one day and it occurred to us to become environmentalists.”

“We had to do it, of necessity,” he said. “20 years ago, we were the most contaminated city on the planet, and we paid the price with our economy, with our health, with our citizenry, and now that we’re running out of oil in this country, we see that the costs of public transport are increasing, and we’re seeing the prices of consumer items increasing, too. We have to make the transition to sustainability; we have no other option.”

Organi-K works to push legislation, like a ban on plastic bags that went through last year, with companies given a year to comply. But more important, Ricalde says, is the change going on at the personal leve.

“After getting various environmental laws passed, trying to move the issue at the governmental level, we realize that this is important, but the most important is the change in each person, in his or her consumption habits; in how one transports oneself, in how they manage their waste, if they separate and recycle, if they make compost – everyone can make compost in their own home.

“Over the years, we’ve learned that ecological change begins within oneself, what we can do in our relationship with the environment. From how we transport ourselves – how I move throughout the day, how much trash I generate, am I consuming organic products or no, do I go by bicycle or by Metro, for example…”

There was much more, and I’ll come back to this with a translation of the interview, but now I have to prepare to meet with the grandfather of the Latin American environmental movement, “Subcoyote” Alberto Ruz, founder of the Rainbow Caravan for Peace.

First I want to mention briefly the others at the meeting, because I’ll be coming back to them, as well: Noelle Romero, a tireless organizer of the Green Circle project and many other initiatives, and Laura Kuri, founder of the bioregional movement in Mexico. I’ll be meeting Noelle on Friday to learn more about green roofs, and I’ll be visiting with Laura at her ecocenter in Cuernavaca later in the month.

Now, for a visit with the Subcoyote…. hasta mañana, amigos.

Happy travels,

Tracy