Environmental Degradation in Mexico City
Most people who find themselves concerned with the history of Mexico relate to famous figures, monumental events, tide turning battles, or topics about a class and time period, but what concerns me is what Mexico City’s future will be like due to the environmental degradation around the Basin of Mexico. There is an important interrelationship between the city and its environment here. Environmental Degradation in post-conquest Mexico, around the Basin of Mexico, has been often ignored by scholars. In this paper, I will try to show that Mexico’s history concerning the nation’s attitude and relationship with the environment shall continuously shape Mexico City. Mexico has been a land plentiful in resources, but with rapid economic eras such as in Diaz’ presidency capitalizing with the exploitation of natural resources, permanent natural losses such as the complete depletion of Lake Texcoco, and other natural resources have taken place thus creating environmentally hazardous conditions that permeate until today in Mexico and especially in Mexico City.
Mexico five-hundred years ago was a scene that was recorded to be so remarkable and majestic with a sense of a pure and lush landscape however we must first consider if this Eurocentric myth of a “pristine landscape” was indeed the case for pre-Columbian Mexico. There is evidence suggesting the environment was already modified to a degree. Environmental effects from the neolithic age spanning across Central and South America included settled populations such as the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan. Tenochtitlan had an estimated population of over 200,000 inhabitants at its peak and the Basin of Mexico supported this city with natural resources harvested from the lake and the forests around the mountain sides. After the arrival of the Old World epidemics and the decline in the population of indigenous people there was an era of environmental recovery up until 1750. This is when more Europeans were exposed to the Americas and the
Mexico five-hundred years ago was a scene that was recorded to be so remarkable and majestic with a sense of a pure and lush landscape however we must first consider if this Eurocentric myth of a “pristine landscape” was indeed the case for pre-Columbian Mexico. There is evidence suggesting the environment was already modified to a degree. Environmental effects from the neolithic age spanning across Central and South America included settled populations such as the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan. Tenochtitlan had an estimated population of over 200,000 inhabitants at its peak and the Basin of Mexico supported this city with natural resources harvested from the lake and the forests around the mountain sides. After the arrival of the Old World epidemics and the decline in the population of indigenous people there was an era of environmental recovery up until 1750. This is when more Europeans were exposed to the Americas and the
Cited: Buckingham, Susan, and Mike Turner. Understanding Environmental Issues. London: SAGE Publications Inc., 2008. 235-264. Web.