From green walls and wind turbines to turning old bangers into clean electric vehicles, Mexico City is working hard to clean up its image and its air.
Video: Mexico City: Eco solutions for pollution
“Red alerts, curfews and health crises resulting from air too hazardous to breathe – for those who lived in Mexico City in the 80s and 90s, its recent pollution problems are all too familiar. Back then, lead, ozone, carbon and sulphur were so rife in the atmosphere that residents claimed they were causing birds to fall out of the sky. The city authorities implemented an emergency action plan to revolutionize the city’s transportation system with some miraculous results. For the first time in 14 years, unusually high levels of ozone in the valley around Mexico City, have led authorities to activate an environmental contingency plan, restricting vehicle use and ordering factories to limit greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by up to 40%. But the infrequency of such warnings serves as a reminder of how far the Mexican capital has come.”
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