Pollution in Mexico City

Pollution and Mexico City.  The two seem to go together in a lot of people’s minds.  We were first in Mexico City in 1993.  The government was trying hard to control the smog in new ways.

It had gotten to the point where children coloured the sky brown or gray instead of blue.  Birds actually fell out of the sky.  During emergencies, cars were supposed to stay off the streets and people were urged to stay indoors.

The good news is, it seems to be getting a little better.  You can actually see blue sky overhead.  A couple of times each month you can even see the snow-capped volcanoes.  Where we they the last few decades?  Mexico City is no longer in the top 10 most polluted list (I think Linfen City in China wins the #1 place).

So what happened?  Well, there are a lot of factors.  Strict government regulations over the last few years are a piece in the puzzle.  But a big part of it may just be that newer cars are cleaner.

In Mexico City, there are certain days you can’t drive your car (depending on your license plate number).  The idea was to lessen the number of cars on the road, and increase car pooling and use of the (excellent) public transportation.  But we were told that the plan kind of backfired – many people simply went out and bought another vehicle, so they could keep driving!

Now some researchers are concerned about another trend – the trend toward vehicles with worse emissions.  It may just be that the improvement won’t last long.  But there are so many factors – forest fires, wind direction – we’ll just have to wait and see.  Meanwhile, we can breath a little easier next time we visit the big city.