How to Get Mexican Support for the “OMRR” and the “Greening of the Deserts” Ventures

President George W. Bush walks with Mexico President Vicente Fox, left, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2005 at Waco, Texas | Photo by Eric Draper/White House via Wikimedia Commons

Part XXXVI of the “EDEN America” Series

This column started writing proposals to President-elect Joe Biden in the last two months of 2020 and up to today. They have not favored us with even an acknowledgment or a reply. But it is our policy not to take “No” for an answer. After all, we are fighting for real socio-economic empowerment of the financially disadvantaged, especially marginal farmers, and the environment.

On Dec. 22, 2020, this Straphanger column presented an idea of developing the United States-Mexican border and the Rio Grande (Grand River) that separates the two countries. The idea proposed simple but doable solutions for illegal immigration, illegal-drug trafficking, homelessness, crime, violence, plastic pollution, barren mountains, shortage of freshwater, unemployment, and other social cancers. Instead of spending billions of taxpayers’ money on building concrete and steel walls, this columnist suggested that they plant mile-wide grooves of bamboos on both sides of the Rio Grande.

Nobody noticed in The White House the article “A ‘BAMOS A Ver’ slogan for the U.S.-Mexican Border” at this link.

“BAMOS” is an acronym coined by this columnist. It stands for “Bamboo, Abaca, Moringa, and Other Species” (of trees) that would make green on both sides of the border, along with adjacent nearly-barren mountains, hills, and even desert-like plains. Bamboo and abaca can provide raw materials for wallboards, plywood, corrugated boxes, shopping bags (to replace plastic ones), paper, and even bamboo shoots for salad and other recipes.

“The idea proposed simple but doable solutions for illegal immigration, illegal-drug trafficking, homelessness, crime, violence, plastic pollution, barren mountains, shortage of freshwater, unemployment, and other social cancers.”

To make deserts green with vegetation and permanent trees including fruit trees and the “BAMOS,” they need lots of water. As mentioned in Part 35, the roughly 200,000-square-mile Chihuahuan Desert is larger than the state of California. It stretches across six Mexican states and parts of Texas and New Mexico. The largest desert in North America is between two of Mexico’s most prominent mountain ranges called the Eastern and Western Sierra Madre.

Both countries share two deserts and the Colorado River, one of the principal rivers in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. The 1,450-mile-long river drains an expansive, arid watershed encompassing seven U.S. states and two Mexican provinces.

Like other rivers in North America, the Colorado River is getting less and less water from its often denuded watershed areas. Readers may like to view this YouTube video that tells the sad story, “40-Million People Rely on the Colorado River, and Now It’s Drying Up,” at this link.

As also mentioned in last Sunday’s column, the Sonoran Desert occurs primarily in Mexico. More than two-thirds of its total area is in Baja, California, and the state of Sonora. In the United States, most of the Sonoran Desert is in the southern third of Arizona, with small areas in southeastern California. Since the Colorado River is nearly “running on empty” (to use a Hollywood movie title), the seven U.S. states and two Mexican provinces will need lots of potable water piped in from the Mississippi River and its tributary rivers. And or Canadian water also piped in to the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico.

As suggested in Part 32 of this series, President Biden might negotiate with the Canadian government about “reinventing” the Keystone XL Pipeline project and letting it carry instead fresh water. If they did this, then water exports from Canada could add more water supply for the seven American states and two Mexican provinces that currently experience drought. And the Province of Alberta might not lose its current investment of Canadian-$1.0-billion and a pledge of Canadian $4-billion more.

In our humble opinion, the best way to persuade Mexicans to join in protecting the rivers of North America, especially the Colorado River and the Rio Grande, and the greening of its four deserts, is to help Mexico become the fifth-biggest economy in the world by 2050. President Biden may announce that he will negotiate with Mexican leaders on how the United States can assist Mexico in reaching its economic goal. If this happens, perhaps 99% of the nearly 35-million Americans of Mexican descent will enthusiastically support the Biden Administration and its socio-economic agenda.

“In our humble opinion, the best way to persuade Mexicans to join in protecting the rivers of North America, especially the Colorado River and the Rio Grande, and the greening of its four deserts, is to help Mexico become the fifth-biggest economy in the world by 2050.”

But before Mr. Biden officially invites Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to a summit meeting, perhaps we can request former Mexican President Vicente Fox to present his vision to the economic advisers of the White House. After all, it was Mr. Fox who began explaining — starting in 2014 — his fellow citizens’ vision of Mexico becoming the fifth-biggest economy 28-years from today.

Perhaps Mr. Biden may not live long enough to be around in 2050, God forbid. But history will indeed record his role as the first American President to officially sign on to the Mexican economic dream. And prepare the ground for massive American technical assistance for, and investments in, Mexico in the next three years. Or even longer.