As we (myself and two co-researchers) begin to finalize the construction of our situated research of ‘The Narcocene’ and present it to the Environmental Studies Program at Lewis and Clark College in a couple weeks, I find myself excited, and yet not ready to stop digging. With the immense amount of data I have found on Mexican government databases, Forest Service Watch, and numerous others, I feel the urge to analyze more, and follow through with further research. Yet, without proper qualitative data by going to Mexico to collect information from primary, personally involved sources, I realize that I can only theorize this work (see our Methodologies for all posed forms of data collection). In revisiting the focus question that is guiding my research in Mexico specifically, “How do the impacts of deforestation fluctuate between areas more or less influenced by the illicit drug trade?”, I have yet to collect data on the effects of LUCC (learn more about Land Use Cover Change via Lab One) and biodiversity hot spots on locals and the environment of Mexico at large. Using Literature Research to collect secondary data analysis that informed research site location, ArcGIS-compiled global and country based data, local surveys to determine personal impacts and level of concern, and content analysis/inferential statistics to compare areas differing in degrees of drug activity related environmental impacts, I feel that the full hourglass of research, from idea to enlightenment, could be substantial in finding possible solutions to the problem and our original frame of questioning: “Could a reduction in illicit drug trade reduce the impacts of deforestation?”
While it is hard to find fulfillment in stopping my current research here, I do so with the idea that perhaps I can, at some point in my studies, go and carry out my full plan of research in hot spots revealed on my correlation maps in Mexico. Thus, only placing a bookmark as I cross my focus of research towards understanding the current environmental issues being created by an industrial complex just a few miles from the Lewis and Clark Campus, and the political economy that allows for this to occur (see Metal Mischievience for more information).