From 1990 to 2010 the population in Los Cabos
increased 543%, up from 43.920 to 238.487 inhabitants. In the same period,
private vehicles increased from 4.144 to 119.085 units, representing a growth
of 2,874% and a total of 0.50 vehicles per capita, above from the national rating
at 0.19. If this trend continues, within 20 years the total of private vehicles
in the city will exceed the total population even though more than 3,250 units
of existing public transport could meet efficiently through proper
redistribution of routes, the mobility requirements of the entire population.
Globally, vehicles contribute 18% of CO2
emitted into the atmosphere, which in total account for 26% of the greenhouse
effect. According to the International Council on Clean Transportation, in 2011
in Mexico the energy efficiency of motor vehicles stood at 13.1 kilometers per
liter representing approximately 3.5 tons of CO2 per year to which
we must add 28% generated during manufacturing according to unofficial data of
the automaker Toyota, which gives a total of 4.48 tons of CO2
released into the atmosphere by average unit. Should be noted that many of the
existing vehicles in Los Cabos are below the national energy efficiency because
of the age of the units, the size of them and their country of origin as American
vehicle manufacturers have less efficiencies.
As we all know, the arboreal plants help us to
mitigate CO2 and producing oxygen, which is essential to our lives,
but only 42% of their weight gained during the natural growth of the tree is
the useful part of the conversion, whereby the height and stem diameter play a
major role. Pinus pinea or Stone Pine is a species that can be planted from 0
to 600 masl finding suitable habitat in the southern United States so this
species could grow here too; get a height of 20 meters at age of 10 but continue
growing even more slowly to the 40 years, achieving a maximum size of 30 meters
with a trunk which generally ranges from 0.80 m in diameter; upon reaching 10
years each tree can weigh more than 1.25 tons and thus contain 0.525 tons of CO2.
If we plant 400 Stone Pines in a hectare, we would
achieve mitigating 210 tons of CO2 over a period of 10 years that would
represent 21 tons annually and thereby reduce the negative effect of only five
automotive vehicles. With these data, only to counteract the production of CO2
in Los Cabos with a current vehicular load estimated at 125,000 units, we would
require 25,000 hectares planted to all its capacity which is the 7.2% of the
total area of the municipality. With
the exponential growth of vehicles per capita, even in all the municipality surface,
we will not achieve fully mitigate the polluting effect of the motor vehicle in
the next years.
The ocean is also vital for the absorption of
atmospheric CO2 that focuses on the water in form of bubbles, but by
increasing the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere by the greenhouse
effect the water rises its temperature and instead of reducing the amount of
this harmful gas, the water releases more tons because of the evaporation produced
and thereby further increase both temperatures. 350.000 years ago it was
produced the largest concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere in 300
parts per million and global temperatures rose 4 degrees Celsius; today, with a
concentration of 375 parts per million, the temperature could rise in the
coming years up to 6 additional degrees to the 2 degrees that have raised until
now.
One of the biggest risks with increasing sea
surface temperature is also exponentially increase both the number of hurricanes
as the force thereof; according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric
Administration of the United States, for every degree Celsius that increases
the atmosphere temperature will increase by 31% the probability of hurricanes
in the world and that will affect us directly to Los Cabos. Undoubtedly, the
production of CO2 we send into the atmosphere becomes a domino
effect that eventually exceed our ability to control it if we do not work on
effective solutions beyond control that could be able to reduce the effects
that we all have been generated by the lack of interest of our and past
generations.
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| Damage from Hurricane Odile in San Jose del Cabo Photography: Ananí Arana https://www.facebook.com/ananiarana.prensasudcaliforniana |
Respecting the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement
promoted by the United Nations Framework on Climate Change and signed by 84
countries in order to reduce the production of CO2 and other
pollutants, in 2020 Mexico has to achieve its energy efficiency in 14.9
kilometers per liter, below the European expectations that have been set a
target of 25., efficiency, 57% higher than our country which means a
significant reduction in the production of tons of CO2.
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| Rehabilitation Project Av. Cabo San Lucas
Elimination of visual pollution, expantion of sidewalks with planters and street furniture reducing space for private vehicles, constructions modification making align to the sidewalk and parking removing are some of the strategies that would serve to make a change in land use and achieve the population, local and tourist, coexist in more comfortable, efficient and pleasant roads. |
Unfortunately the energy improvement of private
vehicles will not be enough if we are not able to make an impact that actually
reduce the negative effect that we ourselves have produced for many years. We
need a quality public transport by feeding systems and trunk routes to expand
and improve existing coverage, reducing private vehicle space for both roads
and parking lots and the implementation of parking fees on public roads, the
construction of bicycle paths and bicycle rental systems to establish a better
non-motorized mobility with more spacious and comfortable pedestrian sidewalks,
No Circula program implementation with
a high regulation of private vehicles ownership, control and reduction of
peripheral subdivisions avoiding unnecessary trips and the control of sprawling
growth... we need to do many things but we can start with a simple one: we
need to think twice if we must use our cars.
JVP
The statistical information in this article has
been taken from INEGI through its website www.inegi.org.mx. If you want to know
more about this theme, we leave the sources we consulted and some additional
pages that may be of interest:
