The Positive Correlation of Politics and Air in Mexico City
Political influence that augments to corrupt societal structure and its impact on Mexico City’s air quality.
Mexico, in its entirety, is known for its political corruption. This political corruption keeps class divides at an ultimate high, housing both the richest man of this century as well as a majority population that continually lives under the poverty line. Although many social issues are affected by this political corruption, the environment is a major concern for Mexicans as well.
The systematic caste of Mexico creates disadvantages for the people of rural villages. Around 90% of Mexicans live in the outskirts of the capital, living in impoverished communities with critical conditions. These conditions cause many Mexican to either immigrate to the United States or head in the direction of the country’s capital; Mexico City.
Mexico City is located geographically in a basin surrounded by mountains. With over 25 million inhabitants, it is the largest populated city in Latin America. The city’s borders are continually expanding due to the city’s rise in population.
The preferred method of transportation is by car. Mexico City is known to have some of the worst traffic in the America’s but yet people continue to avoid the public transportation system at all costs. With its high crime rates, limited stations, and overcrowded carts most prefer the method of driving or riding in a taxi. This overcrowded number of cars leaves citizens sitting in their cars for hours just to get across the city.
This idling of traffic releases immense amount of CO2 into the air, leaving this large city polluted in chemicals. And to make matters worse, the geographical location leaves little to be dispersed to areas outside of the city. The mountainous regions surrounding the city block the air flow creating a recycling motion of air rotating in circles within this basin. Air quality has greatly improved with government issuance of free public transportation on days where the pollution is extremely contentious. Many citizens are affected by this and continue to struggle with the political decisions and lack of air pollution policy efforts made by their government.
So, the question is, if Mexico’s government has the investments to improve the air quality, what are they doing to prevent further contamination? Do we start with a safer and more efficient public transportation system? Or does it run deeper within the depths of their society’s class hierarchy? If Mexico’s government dispersed its resources evenly, would there even be a migration to the country’s city center? These are the questions that we need to ask in order to better our nations border sister.
References:
- Mexico Population. (2017–10–20). Retrieved 2017–11–07, from http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/mexico-population/
- “Mexico City’s Mountains: Every Possible Elevation (Photos).” MXCity, 29 Nov. 2016, en.mxcity.mx/2016/04/mexico-citys-mountains/.
- Paulina Segarra Ph.D. Candidate , Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, and Ajnesh Prasad Research Professor, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. “How Corruption Is Hurting Mexico City’s Efforts to Tackle Air Pollution.” The Conversation, The Conversation, 7 Nov. 2017, theconversation.com/how-corruption-is-hurting-mexico-citys-efforts-to-tackle-air-pollution-57517.
