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Current environmental issues in Mexico

Current environmental issues in Mexico

This article has been reviewed by the following Topic Editor: Juan Pablo Arce

Natural resources: petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber

Land use: arable land: 12.66%, permanent crops: 1.28%, other: 86.06% (2005) 

Natural hazards: tsunamis along the Pacific coast, volcanoes and destructive earthquakes in the center and south, and hurricanes on the Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean coasts 

Current environmental issues: scarcity of hazardous waste disposal facilities; rural to urban migration; natural fresh water resources scarce and polluted in north, inaccessible and poor quality in center and extreme southeast; raw sewage and industrial effluents polluting rivers in urban areas; deforestation; widespread erosion; desertification; deteriorating agricultural lands; serious air and water pollution in the national capital and urban centers along US-Mexico border; land subsidence in Valley of Mexico caused by groundwater depletion . Note: the government considers the lack of clean water and deforestation national security issues 

International environmental agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, and Whaling. Signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements 

Source: The CIA World Factbook

 

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Citation

CIA (Content Source);Juan Pablo Arce (Topic Editor) "Current environmental issues in Mexico". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth May 6, 2009; Last revised Date May 6, 2009; Retrieved May 25, 2013 <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Current_environmental_issues_in_Mexico>

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