Mexico's natural wonders are under threat. Can a poet save them?

Mexico's natural wonders are under threat. Can a poet save them?

Thu 23 Aug 2018 10.45 EDT

As Mexico emerges from the most violent election campaign within living memory and embarks on the presidency of Andres López Obrador, one prominent citizen watches at a diagonal: a veteran of Mexico’s other war – not that over narco-traffic and its clients in politics, but that against nature.

In a recent interview with the daily El Universal, Homero Aridjis – award-winning poet and former ambassador – described all the candidates at last June’s election as “environmental illiterates” – referring to the battle he has fought for decades now, and which he sees reaching its final stages – for Mexico’s natural and cultural heritage.

His war is fought for the survival of such menaced species as the unique richness of butterflies in her forests, turtles along her coastlines, whales in her waters.

Such matters, however urgent, were “outrageously absent” from debate or discourse before or after the election, thunders Aridjis in conversation – the man who, more than any other person in Mexico, is responsible for the continued existence of these still threatened, marvellous creatures, and many others. “I don’t know whether it is indolence or ignorance among those who govern us,” he told El Universal, “but it is a grave act of moral corruption.”

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/23/the-man-who-would-save-mexicos-natural-wonders