Mexico City Getting Warmer (4-6 degrees F. in last ten years)

Mexico City getting warmer

BY ANGÉLICA SIMÓN/EL UNIVERSAL
El Universal
Domingo 13 de mayo de 2007

Official: rising temperatures represent an unequivocal sign that global warming is a reality in the nation´s capital.


Mexico City´s temperature rose 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (4 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit) over the past 10 years, the capital´s environment secretary announced Saturday.

Martha Delgado Peralta expressed concern that higher temperatures will trigger increased consumption of water by residents who are unaccustomed to such intense heat.

This could start a vicious cycle where more energy is needed to heat or cool the extra water used, leading to further atmospheric emissions and global warming, she said.

The news comes as Mayor Marcelo Ebrard prepares to attend a summit in New York on climatic change.

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World mayors to meet over global warming

May 12, 2007 - 10:49AM

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While the leaders of countries consider whether to join international agreements on cutting emissions, cities are where many of the basic reductions are made. Cities encompass many of the systems vulnerable to climate change, such as freshwater transportation, energy and sewage lines.

"We do have the power, we are the ones that arrange public transportation and set the standards for just about everything," Fernando Menendez, senior adviser to Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, said in a telephone interview.

In the early 1990s, when Mexico City had the world's worst air pollution, Ebrard, then head of the city's interior department, helped limit car use.

Now the capital city wants to cut heat-trapping gas emissions to prevent flooding - even though, as a developing country, Mexico is not mandated by the UN's Kyoto Protocol to fight output of the gases.

Experts say climate change could lead to more rainfall in some regions and heighten the risk of floods. Menendez said flooding would overwhelm Mexico City's drainage systems and "would cost so much money it would be absurd."

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