Reality of Mexico's green battle

Mexican President Felipe Calderón made international headlines recently with his comments regarding climate change at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he called upon developing and developed countries alike to act multilaterally rather than continue endlessly debating over how to tackle the problem.

Calderón expressed the need for "building bridges" instead of walking away, once again, from a forum with resolutions on paper that fail to materialise as actual policies – much less realities.

Calderón's position regarding climate change is coherent with his administration's current strategy touting Mexico as one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, as well as the venue of the UN framework convention on climate change this autumn. (By the way, the meeting is set to take place in the environmental disaster area that is Cancún, a project that converted an island into an artificial beach packed with human parking lots back in 1974).

But before allowing Calderón to crown himself International Advocate of Environmental Concerns, let's do a reality check. If as he says, climate change is a problem that "we are all obliged to attend to", he should start at home, where the "economic costs associated with trying to tackle climate change" are not the only concern.

While megadiverse Mexico is home to approximately 10% of the planet's species, soon, all that fauna will have no place to live. This is because according to Greenpeace, Mexico takes fifth place in world deforestation – which is also, incidentally, a key factor in climate change.

via guardian.co.uk

Posted via web from Global Warming News