Mexico City is it all doom and gloom?

1. Mexico City is it all doom and gloom? LO: To understand what threats Mexico City faces To understand how these threats can be overcome

2. Mexico City problems starter card sort • Order the cards into importance of the most serious to the least serious

3. Mexico City’s population is over 19 million making it the 3rd largest urban area in the world. • London’s population is 7.7 million so you can see the comparison.

4. So how do so manypeople get around?

5. Mexico City Facts • In July 2007 Mexico City had some of the worst air pollution in the world. • The city's residents lose 2.5 million working days a year to health problems caused by particle matter, such as soot.

6. It’s position doesn’t help! • Mexico City is situated on top of a high plain at an altitude of 7,200 feet (2200 meters), and is surrounded on three sides by mountains. • Because of it’s high altitude air pressure is greater making the pollution more visible. • Smog hangs over the city much of the year, and thermal inversions keep polluted air close to the ground during the winter. • About 21 million people live in the metropolitan area, and about 6 million cars are in circulation.

7. Thermal Inversion • Thermal inversion occurs when a layer of warm air settles over a layer of cooler air that lies near the ground. The warm air holds down the cool air and prevents pollutants from rising and scattering.

8. Pollution Levels • 30 to 50 percent of the time, Mexico City’s pollution levels exceed levels recommended by the WHO. And the metropolis did not meet acceptable air quality standards for ozone limits 209 days in 2006. Yet this was a major improvement over 1994, when 340 days did not meet the standards. • According to Dr. Juan Luis Jose Sienra, an asthma expert and a practitioner at the National Children’s Hospital in Mexico City, about 9 percent of Mexico City residents have asthma. “Pollution doesn’t cause asthma, but pollen and ozone can make it worse,” said Dr. Sienra.

9. So where does all this pollution come from?

10. Volcanic Activity- The Popocatepetl ("the smoking mountain") • Situated atop three of the large tectonic plates that constitute the earth's surface, Mexico is one of the most seismologically active regions on earth. • The motion of these plates causes earthquakes and volcanic activity. • This volcano has not massively erupted in a number of years, but often blows off plumes of ash as a reminder to the inhabitants of Mexico City that just 40 miles away a potentially devastating hazard lies waiting.

11. Earthquakes- Mexico City last major earthquake was is 1985, but is due another any time soon! • It has a hi-tech warning system in place. • Schools and Businesses have proper evacuation procedures which they practice regularly just like we practice fire drills.

12. Then in April 2009 came the Swine Flu outbreak • http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8083179.stm • How did the population of Mexico City influence the spread of the disease?

13. The crowded City

14. The poor parts

15. The rich parts

16. Crime • Mexico City's crime rate is continuing to rise especially in the current economic climate. The most common crimes reported are: • Kidnappings • Robberies • Murders • Mexico City's inner core has about 8 million people — about the same number as New York City. However, Mexico City's police force is only two-thirds the size of New York City's. • As the US and Canada increase their drug consumption, there is an increasing demand to supply their addicts and this has led to an increasing number of drug wars. • Wars between the police and the drug traffickers • Wars between the rival drug gangs • The police forces in Mexico are very disorganised and corrupt because: • Policemen earn less than a quarter of their U.S. counterparts so are easily bribed. • Policemen are rarely educated above primary education. • Even when criminals are caught, the courts are often too corrupt and inefficient to punish them.

17. Task • From the slides you have just seen create a spider diagram of all the hazards that this megacity faces. • Expand as much as possible. • When finished, write a paragraph to explain what is the biggest problem that the Mexico City faces and why?

18. Plenary • So is Mexico City all doom and gloom? • Discuss your answers and your reasons why.

19. What does this image show?

20. LO • To understand the strategies Mexico City is using to try and shape up. • To evaluate the successfulness of the strategies and see if they will work. • To decide what more can be done to make Mexico City a less polluted City.

21. Is the distribution of population changing and what does this mean?

22. Task 1 • Describe the graph and explain the reasons for this shift in population. • Swap your books and read/mark your partners. • Then hand it back and read over your own.

23. What does this show?

24. So what strategies have been applied? Mexico: Program to Improve the Air Quality in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (PROAIRE) 2002-2010 • Includes more than 80 measures that affect transportation, industry, the service sector, natural resources, health, and education. • It focuses on the reduction of ozone and particulate matter, and emphasizes environmental education and citizen participation.

25. PROAIRE & The Integrated Environmental Strategies (IES) Program • The IES (US) program engages developing countries to help build support for integrated planning to reduce emissions of both global greenhouse gases (GHGs) and local air pollutants. • The program promotes the analysis of and local support for implementation of policy measures resulting in multiple environmental, public health, and economic “co-benefits.” • By analysing and implementing “integrated” policies and measures, such as clean energy (e.g., renewable energy), energy efficiency (e.g., improved energy efficiency standards for appliances), and public transportation (e.g., converting diesel buses to compressed natural gas), IES partners have an opportunity to make a positive impact on local air quality, public health, and the economy, while at the same time reducing GHGs at the global level. • The National Institute of Ecology (INE)—the key Mexican governmental partner—began IES work with PROAIRE in Mexico City, in February 2002. • The policies that follow are the result.

26. Metrobús • June 2005 the Government introduced the Metrobús. • The system replaced 372 standard buses and microbuses with 212 articulated buses. • These busses are less polluting and have enabled average speeds at which the city busses travel to increase. • Doing so, travel times along the corridor where they have been implemented are reduced up to 50%. • The bus line claimed to be carrying more than 260,000 people daily and since then has increased the routes available around the city. • The plan is now for Metro Expansion: Complete 76 km of new metro construction by 2050. • The government also promised to replace 1,029 old diesel buses with hybrid buses by 2006.

27. Modernise Taxis • Taxi Fleet Renovation: Replace 80% of old taxis with new less emissions taxis by 2010. • Taxis have special license plates. • The registration number starts with "L" or "A" for free-roaming taxis, and with "S" for base taxis (registered taxis based on a certain spot, called "sitios").

28. Cogeneration • Cogeneration: Install 160 megawatts of new cogeneration capacity by 2010. • Cogeneration is combined heat and power. • It is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat. Eg. Using waste heat from power stations through pipes to heat homes. • It is one of the most common forms of energy recycling.

29. Reduce Liquid Petroleum Gas Leaks • Perform stove maintenance in one million households to eliminate leaks. • This meant millions of residential cooking and water heating devices across the city needed to be checked and improved.

30. Costs and Economic Health Benefits, 2003-2020(million U.S. $/year)

31. Vehicle Registration Limitations • In Mexico City there is a restriction called "Hoy no circula" ("Today you can't drive") which only applies to vehicles over 8 years old. • This restriction does not allow people to drive for one day during the week and one Saturday per month, depending on their last license plate digit number, 5&6 on Monday, 7&8 on Tuesday, 3&4 on Wednesday, 1&2 on Thursday, 9&0 on Friday. • For Example: "789 HME" license plate number cannot drive on Fridays and when the current month has 5 Saturdays. • If the pollution is really bad then the ban will extend for 2 days. • Government officials claim that this program: "it's for the well being and ecology of the city” however others claim has nothing to do with it, since you can only drive every day for 8 years and then you buy a new car. • Mexican people are forced to buy cheaper and less safe new cars, and dispose of it faster than they would on a fully equipped more expensive safer car, in order to maintain the privilege of driving every day. • Government car safety regulations do not exist in Mexico, cheap affordable cars are sold under £4,500 with little or no safety equipment at all. • An increasing number of middle class Mexicans are now buying cheap cars without ABS Airbags, ESP etc. (Although offered in more expensive models) in order to protect their investment due to catastrophic resale value of vehicles over the 8 year old barrier.

32. What do you think of this policy? • Due to these measures old cars are not thrown away, rather sold to people with lower incomes who cannot afford to buy new vehicles. Families on lower incomes buy used cars over 8 years old and instead of buying 1 car for a 4 member family they would buy 2 cars to be able to drive every day. • This program has been proposed to nations around the world, but all of them rejected it for being useless, creating more traffic and pollution due to higher numbers of vehicles than it is meant to stop. • In addition, car owners must have their vehicles certified every six months like an MOT in this country. • But if lead, carbon monoxide, and sulphur dioxide are now under control, pollution levels of other contaminants are still far above air quality standards.

33. So what do the Mexicans think? • A poll suggested that 30% of Mexicans do not trust any data produced by the government due to corruption. • Instead they judge the quality of the air by if they can see the mountains or not. • They feel that the policies have generally been effective, however much more could be done.

34. Summary & Review • In 1992, the United Nations described Mexico City’s air as the most polluted on the planet. • Six years later, that air earned Mexico the reputation of “the most dangerous city in the world for children” — a reputation Mexico has been working hard to improve. • But despite more than a decade of stringent pollution control measures, a haze hangs over the city most days, obscuring the surrounding snow-capped mountains and endangering the health of its inhabitants. • It’s geographic location doesn’t help nor did industrial growth or rapid population growth which has added many more vehicles on to the streets. • The Mexican Government actually found that a cultural change was needed to modify the society-city-environment relation. • 40% of Mexicans could not identify any of the government programs to improve air quality and did not consider them to be important. • A lot of Mexicans in Mexico City blame the factories and refuse to admit responsibility themselves.

35. Plenary • So what were the strategies that Mexico City has employed to shape themselves up? • Do you think they will work? • What would you do differently?