ABSTRACT
Globalization and the resulting fierce competition over natural resources have dramatically increased the over-exploitation of natural resources, such as water, land, and forests. This has led to deforestation, environmental pollution, and climate change, among other deteriorating effects. The free-trade agreements increase land plundering and common resources, and forced displacement of people from their homes (Havice 2004). In Mexico, according to official data from SAGARPA in 2008 (The Ministry of Agriculture, Cattle Raising, Rural Development, Fishing, and Nutrition) in the few years after the North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect, emigration from Mexican rural communities toward the United States doubled. Perhaps one of the most serious consequences of globalization is the breaking of both the intra-community social bonds and the virtuous interaction between the communities and their environment. It has led to the depopulation of entire small towns, whose former environment-protecting inhabitants were transformed into individuals who do not have any interest in foreign environments where they emigrate to, and tend to attack them.
