Poverty and the Environment of Mexico

Mexico is the third largest country in the world and is located in North America just south of the United States of America. To the east you have the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. To the west is the Pacific Ocean. In Mexico, Mexico City is the largest in the world. As in the U.S. the geography is different in parts of Mexico. Northern Mexico is like Arizona where you have flat lands and mountains near each other. The further south you go you still have mountains, but it is much greener than the northern region. The southern regions have some volcanic activity and earthquakes like the one in Mexico City in 1985.

The climate is also different where ever you go in Mexico. In the lowlands the temperature reaches about 77 degrees, the tropical highlands reach about 66 degrees, and the central plateau reach 63 degrees. Annual rainfall is about 24 inches throughout the country.

Mexican homes are very traditional in that families are very close knit. Usually a household contains the parents the children and most of the time the grandmother or other family members. There are some very rich parts of Mexico and some very poor parts. The poor homes rarely have concrete floors, insulation or heat and air conditioning. The woman of the home does all the cooking like, making tortillas, beans and meat. While the man is at work making menial pay. The people of the poor communities have no health care so they use methods that are past down from generation to generation. If a baby has a fever they will take a potato, slice them fairly thin and place the potatoes on the forehead of the child and wrap a piece of cloth around it. The coolness of the potato pulls away the heat from the child’s head. Another treatment that they use a paper funnel and fire. If a person has an earache, you would take a piece of paper, roll it into a funnel and stick it in your ear. You then light the end on fire and let the smoke and heat go into the ear to melt the wax.

Mexico has a lot of natural resources, everything from metals to petroleum. Mexico is really known for their abundance of silver. Gold, zinc, lead, and mercury is also mined in Mexico. An overwhelming amount of petroleum is sent to the U.S. and to a lot of foreign exchange. The environment suffers a lot from the pollution of the mining and also transportation. Since Mexico has the largest city in the world they have a large amount of pollution. Many of the poor people work in the mines and get paid very little for what they do. The management will never have problems finding people to work. Poor people will almost do anything to get some amount of food on the table for their families. So officials pay as little as they can, so they put more money in their own pocket.

Mexico has a policy for people that drive all the time. Since the pollution is so bad you can only drive three days out of the week, and if they catch you driving more than three times you get a big fine. This policy helps out a lot. If people would cut back their driving the pollution would decrease some. Even though this policy doesn’t relate to the poor it still effects them. If the pollution is people will still be affected by it even if they don’t drive.

It’s sad how people have to struggle for what they have. Mexico is a country that is growing very rapidly and could later have a population problem. Mexicans today come across the border to try and have a better life. They’re still the people in Mexico that do menial jobs and get paid squat for it. I don’t ever think that poverty will come to an end. There has always been classes of rich, middle, and poor. There are people that are so rich and don’t what to do with there money, then on the other hand you have the poor you have to work everyday of there life just to get food on the table and clothing on their back. Hopefully some day we can figure out this poverty problem and do something about. People are too stubborn, or think they have better things to do, then to help out someone who needs the help.

“Mexico” Britannica Online

www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/html. Nov 9, 1997

“Mexico: Physical and human geography: THE LAND: Settlement patterns.” Nov. 10, 1997

“Mexico: Physical and human geography: The ECONOMY: Resources”

Nov. 10, 1997

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