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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Environmental economics > Sustainability
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Endangered Mexico - An Environment on the Edge (Paperback)
Loot Price: R605
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Endangered Mexico - An Environment on the Edge (Paperback)
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Fine environmental reporting from the Third World front lines.
Mexico, notes Pacific News Service editor Simon, "is the third most
biologically diverse nation on the planet," the home of countless
animal and plant species found nowhere else. Given current
international concerns for biodiversity and habitat preservation,
he argues that this vast biological cornucopia must be saved from
further destruction; yet, in one case study after another, he shows
that those international concerns have consistently been brushed
aside by a succession of corrupt governments. Some of Mexico's
problems are well known, notably that of air pollution in the major
cities. Simon adds a personal note as a resident of the capital,
where on windless days "ten thousand tons of toxic gunk" stall in
midair to choke Mexico City's 20 million residents - gunk, Simon
notes, that is made up not only of the normal car exhaust and other
airborne industrial particulates, but also of blowing dirt from
deforested hillsides, to say nothing of dried fecal dust stirred up
from the city's innumerable outhouses. But many of Mexico's most
pressing problems are less well known, and Simon performs a
valuable service by cataloging them in close detail. Among them are
the continuing destruction of farmland through overgrazing and
improper agricultural practices; the depletion of supplies of
potable water; and the devastation of old-growth forests (the
Sierra Madre of Mexico is now, Simon writes, the scene of "the
highest rate of deforestation in the world"). Unless something is
done to relieve the assault on Mexico's environment, Simon
suggests, that nation's growing population will continue to seek
routes of escape to safer, cleaner places - the US first among
them. This sobering book is required reading for environmentalists,
both critics and supporters of NAFTA, and all readers who care for
Mexico's future. (Kirkus Reviews)
In this work, the author makes it clear that there is more to
Mexico's environment than city smog. This book gives an account of
the whole range of environmental problems which face Mexico's
people, from tourist development to oil spills and land exhaustion.
Setting his account against the backdrop of Mexico's history since
the conquest, Joel Simon explores the connections between economic
exploitation and the management of the environment. He records the
results, such as Mexico City sinking as the finite water table is
sucked dry, or the deforestation of the Chiapas jungle. As a
combination of first-hand reporting and interviews and in-depth
research, this work is a account of Mexico's own crisis of
deforestation, water pollution and desertification which also
points to the broader contradiction between economic models of
development and a sustainable use of resources.
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