The issue of environmental pollution, also called pollution, poisoning, infection, comes up; we would say destruction, death. It comes up because in Mexico City we are already experiencing the most difficult days of each year, that is, the most polluted days. Usually this happens from November to the end of May. It is called the “season of dryness or drought.” To find ourselves at the end of phase two is to face the toughest respiratory problems and, therefore, irreversible conditions. The year 2023 is ending all its hardships, its insecurity, its thousands of deaths, its absence of social security, and its lies. And 2024 starts off difficult. And air pollution, how about it? Nothing can be done to stop it. It is practically a problem without a solution. In mid-June the formal rainy season will begin and the atmosphere will clear up a bit. But we will have already lived immersed, for at least 6 months, in the polluting and disgusting bubble.
On a previous occasion I mentioned that in the northern part of the Valley of Mexico there were more than 35 thousand factories with more than a million workers. It is known that the daily winds blow from the north to the south, introducing dust and debris to the entire Valley of Mexico, that is, the Federal District and the surrounding municipalities. And to the south, east and west the area is surrounded by mountains so pollution hardly escapes; It stagnates, is inhaled, and goes to the brain.
What I also said is that about 25 years ago, Ramón Ojeda Mestre confided in me the reality of the problem: pollution was not produced by 80 percent of motor vehicles (as reported in 1989), but by factories, at 92 percent.
Thick, difficult, compromising statement. However, it is true. Evidence? Observe how every Semana Mayor, in which at least half of the vehicles leave the Federal District, the indexes will be the same as now, your eyes will burn, your throat will feel dry, and so on. In other words, the factories continue to spew their fumes into the air, and a Day Without a Factory cannot be decreed because the machinery stops, and the exploiting industrialist will say: If I don’t open today, I won’t pay. And will the needy worker, the heartless boss or the condescending authority be to blame?
I can assure you that it is impossible to move, oh, even a tenth of the factories with their employees. What population can receive 50 thousand people and provide them with housing, public services, schools, green areas, shops, supplies? None. I understand the authorities. Speaking the truth, having the ability, is difficult. And above all, when the problem started about 50 years ago; Few will remember that there was then a so-called Iron Regent, Ernesto P. Uruchurtu, who had the permits to build subdivisions under lock and key, and who lasted in his charge for more than 14 years, but was removed.
I think the solution is very far from being given. But we must be aware of our reality, our atmosphere, our organisms. We inhabit one of the largest and most extensive cities on the planet. And one of the most contaminated. We Mexicans have built this city almost in an eagle’s nest and we have brought our realities here. We are not located, like other metropolises, on the banks of rivers, lakes or the sea, to enjoy or allow the breeze or wind to carry away the deadly pollutants.
We have to climb and with great effort to this eagle’s nest, unthinkable volumes of water and exorbitant quantities of supply. But we have done it. Could we not make superhuman efforts to stop this absurd and aberrant pollution? We are already in 2024. Let’s be sensible: let’s remember that the sky is blue, that the stars shine at night, that the air is a balm and that our descendants deserve to live decently and with cleanliness of spirit, body and mind.
Founder of Notimex
National Journalism Award
pacofonn@gmail.com