Science in Perspective Blog Entries (1st)
5/14/2015–8/20/2015
Lauren Ortega
Blog Theme: Air Pollution
As soon as school ended for the summer, I began to travel because I knew that this would be the last summer I could give to myself to enjoy without too many commitments. Over the span of this break, I visited Mexico City, Chicago, Toronto, Chihuahua, and Monterrey. Right in between Toronto and Canada though, I took a three-week break of travel to take courses in a community college in Houston, TX. When I went to Mexico City, I went to some of the most famous parks and I also went to the pyramids of Teotihuacan. It was nice to get away from the enormous city and take a step back from all of the pressures the city life brings you. Also because my parents are huge museum fanatics and explorers so they made sure we visited the most historical places (which so happen to be way out of the city). One of the things I noticed, although not very huge, was how different the air I was breathing in was from the city. In the city it felt very clogged and heavy, while at the pyramids, I felt like the air compared to the crispness of my grandparents ranch in mountains of Chihuahua, Mexico. Not everyone focuses on these sorts of things, but it didn’t take me long to feel and appreciate this difference because for starters, all of my siblings have asthma and I am the only one who does not. I can appreciate the air of both worlds, because they are very different, unlike my siblings which have respiratory problems just as soon as we get into the city.
The second city that I visited was Chicago. Here I was not able to truly immerse myself with nature. However, I was able to visit some parks here such as Lincoln Park, which is a park along the lakefront of Chicago, Illinois, facing Lake Michigan. Also Millennium Park, which is a prominent civic center and much more urban, located in the loop community area of Chicago. Another place that I went to was Navy Pier, which is a 3,300-foot long pier on the shoreline of Lake Michigan. This Pier today is recognized as on of the most visited attractions in the entire Midwestern United States and is Chicago’s number one tourist attraction. I definitely enjoyed it. From these three places, this was as close as I got to really observing nature. Some things I noticed about these parks was that they were surprisingly very clean. Sometimes for example when I go to parks in Mexico, there is always trash in the water and I don’t see much life besides green algae and tall grass. Here though, the parks were very well kept, and I could almost feel like there was an all round cleaner feel the entire area. When people cooperate and decide to keep not only their natural parks clean, but their city streets clean too, makes a huge difference.
The third city that I visited was Toronto, Canada. I came here to visit my cousin who just so happened to also be living deep within the city. As soon as I landed, I felt like I wasn’t really in much of a different environment, other than just being in a new city, just with a different name and new location. Being that Toronto is a huge city, with so many people, one can safely assume that it may be highly unkempt. This was not the case though. The city of Toronto I felt was pretty clean and taken care of, just like Chicago. When I went to the Toronto Islands, I felt like I went on a mini green retreat with so many activities to do. The sandy beach on this island was incredible, again very clean and full of different recreational activities to do for the tourists, but yet very nature friendly. When I say nature friendly I am referring to activities such as soccer, beach volleyball, Frisbee, etc. As I had mentioned before the idea of people cooperating and keep not only their natural environment clean but their city clean as well, helps in maintaining the delicate balance of life on this planet. Not just for humans, but wildlife, vegetation, water and soil. Here I also noticed how people could still fish right on the Lakeshore Boulevard because the water is not polluted (props to humans not throwing trash in these shores), also I noticed that on the Toronto Islands there were a lot of small animals like ducks on the beaches, which is more than likely a result of humans not interrupting the natural life and environment of these small creatures.
The fourth city I visited was one that I call my second home, Chihuahua, Mexico. When I come to Chihuahua, I for the most part stay in the city, but a lot of times I go to my grandparents ranch which serves as an escape not just for me, but for all of my family members that decide they need a break from the city. Here you are surrounded by mountains, many animals, loads of dirt, tons of viewable stars (in the night of course), and NO wifi. Now that I am older, I don’t enter the corrals of the animals anymore just because I don’t have a reason to go and bug my uncle to let me milk the cows and feed the animals, when we have people who do that for us now. That doesn’t stop me though, from gazing at the animals and watching how all of them serve for such unique and different purposes. At the ranch, although only one hour and a half away from the city, I can feel a difference in so many senses, starting with the air I breathe, difference in the fields (where there is so much moist soil), rather than than the city where the soil and grasses are very dry, and loads of vegetation. It’s quite interesting to see how much of a difference air quality can make on the overall health and conservation of the environment. Especially since we have animals that produce the foods we sell to the city, we need the healthiest of animals, and everything from the soil their food is grown from to the way they are kept.
Lastly, I travelled to one of the three most important and biggest cities in Mexico, Monterrey, MX. Surrounded by the amazing Sierra Madre mountains in the Northeastern part of the country, this city has an altitude of 537m above sea level. The population here is a little over 3 1/2 million people, and the city is so full of tradition, culture, and progress. Though primarily a city of industry and big businesses, Monterrey has many things to do for the adventurist: rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking and more. While in Monterrey, I went to Chipinque, located a little on the outskirts of San Pedro. Here people really take care of their surroundings ( by not littering mostly) and conserving the beauty of the mountains by not tearing down trees for the construction of buildings for tourists and disturbing wild life. Later I visited Cola de Caballo, which is a very famous waterfall, that falls over the Sierra Madre Oriental and it gets its name from the form of the current. The road to this waterfall is surrounded by mountains and vegetation. People here don’t litter and just like Chipinque, they take care of their surroundings by keeping laws to protect these areas from industrialization. I found it really interesting how people had no problem throwing away their trash in the appropriate places designed for waste, but yet had no problem throwing trash in the streets of the city they call their home. And then I thought maybe because they care about their environment, or because there are laws that restricts anyone from littering in the natural environment. So then how hard is it to not litter in the streets and just do the same as being in national parks? I feel like a lot of people in Mexico litter because no one really cares. I remember having a conversation with my cousin about this, and he told me that not even authorities care about people who decide to litter in public areas, so how can an average person?
Work Cited
World Health Organization (WHO). Preventing disease through healthy environments. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO; 2006.
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards. Our Nation’s air: Status and trends through 2008. Washington: EPA; 2010.
Patz J, Campbell-Lendrum D, Holloway T, et al. Impact of regional climate change on human health. Nature. 2005 Nov 17;438(7066):310-7.
Kinney PL. Climate change, air quality, and human health. Am J Prev Med. 2008 Nov;35(5):459-67.
Yip, Marcela, and Pierre Madl. “Air Pollution in Mexico City, Smog, Health Effects, Fossile Fuels.” Air Pollution in Mexico City, Smog, Health Effects, Fossile Fuels. International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at QUT (Australia), 14 Dec. 2000. Web. 23 Sept. 2015.