15 JUNE 1998. MEXICO: FIRE
Island Press reports: "After going through the hottest and driest spring
in the last 90 years, Mexico is suffering an unprecedented spate of forest
fires. An estimated 11,000 fires have destroyed upwards of 750,000 acres.
Smoke from these fires has drifted north, prompting health alerts as far
north as Kansas. In Mexico City, Mayor Cuauhtemoc Cardenas has ordered
environmental emergency measures. Citizens have been urged to stay indoors
as much as possible and to sleep with their windows shut to prevent contaminants
from entering homes. According to the Associated Press, the only reliable
statistics available in Mexico City on the effects of the increases in
airborne particulates and ozone are the number of medical consultations
at public hospitals: "Between May 22 and May 26, the (Mexican) National
System of Disease Monitoring .. . detected an increase of 26.9 percent
in the demand for consultations as a result of problems associated with
air pollution.'' Aside from the effects that the smoke is having on human
health in Mexico and Texas, the fires are also destroying large portions
of Mexico's "Cloud Forests". An estimated area of 170,000 acres of the
Lacandon Forest, Las Chimalapas, and El Ocote have been destroyed by fire.
These areas represent the world's most northerly tropical rainforest and
are located in the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca where a large proportion
of the population are dependent on the land for their subsistence. Criticism
has been leveled at the Mexican government for failing to prepare for this
predicable situation. Homero Aridjis, a Mexico City reporter, stated that
"if the fires have broken all previous records this year, we also have
to say that the incompetence of government officials has broken all previous
records. While we're here choking on smoke and the rain forests are burning
down, they're just waiting for Godot, waiting for the rains to come. Despite
this heated internal criticism many in the international community have
sympathized with the Mexican government, pointing to the severity of the
drought and the difficulties experienced in trying to prevent the use of
fire for land clearing in a region where this is traditional. One of the
few positive aspects of this situation is the cooperation of the Mexican
and US governments in fighting fires. The U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) has sent enough shovels, protective gear and chain
saws to equip 3,000 firefighters as part of a $5 million aid package. Along
with this material aid the US has sent more than 50 fire fighting specialists
to coordinate the efforts of the 200,000 Mexican soldiers fighting the
fires; air crane helicopters to drop water on the fires; and infra-red
navigation equipment to assist in navigation through dense smoke."-- Island
press, Eco-Compass http://www.islandpress.org.
Back to The
1997 El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO 97-98)