Is the Mexican government not taking care of the environment?

The world economy is in trouble from the coronavirus. However, the situation in Mexico could be more serious than it seems. For example, in Infobae they said that the Bank of Mexico warns about how difficult and prolonged the recovery of the post-pandemic economy will be, which could take a decade.

In this sense, from The New York Times they mention that the protection of the environment implies, at the same time , the care of the Mexican economy. However, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador does not seem to be too interested in caring for the ecosystem, quite the contrary.

In other words, in an effort to take care of the economy of this country, the planet's own health seems to be neglected, without understanding that both parameters could be related. Therefore, we decided to find out what is the policy of the current Mexican government to respect the environment.

Mexico and environmental care

Despite the global economic situation, the environment demands care. For example, from Mongobay they highlight that there are some environmental challenges in the country, so that some important aspects can be stopped, such as limiting deforestation and taking care of priority areas for biodiversity.

Continuing with this line, we see that the problem of cutting down trees, for example, is of enormous importance for the region. From El Universal they warn that Mexico is among the countries most affected by deforestation, devastating a large amount of natural resources that do not allow us to take care of the health of the forests.

They even revealed in El Economista that the former environmental leaders asked the current president López Obrador not to dismantle Mexican environmental policy. In other words, for several years there was some progress in ecological terms, which is why generating a setback in this sense could be really serious for the country.

Thus, another of the main current drawbacks is the investment project of the Mayan Train. It is a proposal that does not have the approval of various social sectors, because it involves a construction that could put the health of the population at risk. From the BBC they explained that this possible great work of the government would seek to communicate the main archaeological centers of the Mayan culture in five states of the Mexican southeast.

Also read: Rivers: the open veins of the planet

The point is that it could seriously affect the region. For example, GreenPeace indicates that hydrology could suffer structural damage, with the risk of contamination of water courses. At the same time, it would alter the structure of the fauna of the area, increasing the risk of fires in it.

In this country they lament when they say that Mexico is an “exceptionally privileged country in biological terms”, but there are destructive environmental policies that seriously affect Mexicans and the environment.

All this leads to El País, for example, qualifying the environment as the "black hole of López Obrador . " If we take into account that the president promoted these megaprojects that could threaten the Earth and people's health, the balance in this matter seems to be strictly negative.

In other words, in order not to condition Mexico and make it one of the regions most affected by climate change in a few years, it is essential to have policies that accompany the care of the planet. Planning to improve the economy can never be done at the expense of people's health, so the process of implementing new state projects must be evaluated considering all these aspects.

If we observe that, during his first year in office, López Obrador cut 74 percent of the budget of the Undersecretariat of Planning and Environmental Policy or reduced the budget of the air quality program by 92 percent, we realize that caring for the ecosystem, at least for the moment, is not part of his priorities.