San Diego sits right on the US Mexico border…the intersection of the global North and global South, more and less “developed”. Tensions over the environment add to all the mess over migration, trade, jobs, drugs between the two countries.
The US claims that the Tijuana River carries raw sewage from Mexico into the US and then straight into the Pacific Ocean—human waste, unimaginable chemicals. Meanwhile plastic, tires, all sorts of garbage literally pile up 12-15 feet deep in places on the coastline.
Some efforts have begun (1) to contain the problem. Still, fingers point South. But right back at ya, US. The US produces 4 times as much carbon dioxide emissions as Mexico per person; 12 times as much in total. But Mexico pumps it out too; a bit more in total than the UK. That surprised me. (2)
So who’s worse? Finger pointing is pointless. International cooperation is so badly needed. So glad the US is back in the Paris Accord. Hope that COP26 (the United Nations climate change conference), starting in November, achieves some meaningful progress.
1. Https://www.cbs8.com/article/tech/science/environment/tijuana-river-trash-border/509-b87b34ad-c576-4cf8-9e43-9e940b73ce58
2. https://www.ucsusa.org/…/each-countrys-share-co2-emissions
#ccan #rockspringucc #climateride #solarvillageproject
A Climate Ride to Remember 
I’m so surprised to see these metrics, I didn’t expect the table to look quite like this – particularly Germany ranking so highly in comparison to other similar nations (~double the CO2 output of UK/France, which is ~80% the pop.). I always thought of them as a relatively “green” country in comparison!