A heat dome has settled above Mexico according to reports resulting in temperatures which have surpassed 45°C (113°F) in some places.
There has been underinvestment in infrastructure which includes the generation of power with demand potentially exceeding supply. On May 27, The Christian Science Monitor reports Mexico consumed 51,595 MW of electricity across the country. There had been outages and hotter days are forecast. Water shortages and electricity shortages are foreseeable major problems looking ahead.
These problems will be a big headache for the next president.
Mexico’s electricity is generated by a state-owned utility, Federal Electricity Commission which is a near monopoly producing 99.47% of the country’s electricity. The facilities are ageing and they need modernising.
Demand has been growing for years whereas investment into infrastructure has not been increased. This isn’t about average demand it’s about spiked demand due to extreme environmental conditions as is the case currently.
Ironically, Mexico is ideally positioned to become a clean energy powerhouse because of it’s sunny weather. It appears to be ideally placed to create electricity through solar panels added to which there could be wind generators and the use of geothermal sources.
But Mexico relied on fossil fuels for 77% of its electricity last year. Clean electricity from solar energy accounted for 6% of the total.
Animals are suffering in the heat. I recently wrote an article about howler monkeys dropping out of trees like coconuts. Just dying where they sat. Since mid-May environmentalist reported that 138 how ler monkeys have been found dead in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco where temperatures have climbed mercilessly. On May 26th, the Environment Department reported the number of howler monkey deaths had risen to 157.
An environmentalist attributed the debts to a synergy of factors including the extreme heat, drought, logging depriving the monkeys water, shade and the fruit which they eat, together with forest fires. All of them of course are human generated.
And in the northern state of San Luis Potosi, the director of the Selva Teenek eco-park in an interview with The Associated Press on May 27 said that her facility was overwhelmed as toucans, bats and parrots had died due to the extreme heat. Ena Buenfil said that the extreme heat began in mid-May. Their clinic to help the animals quickly filled up with sick birds. They’ve received many reports of dead or suffering birds.
She said that they die of dehydration in the heat. They are badly affected because they don’t have anywhere to store water. The bats become dehydrated when they sleep in the afternoon heat. She wants locals to put out water for the animals.
Almost all the country is suffering from below-average rainfall in 2024. The dams and lakes are drying up. Water supplies are running out. The local authorities have been trucking in water supplies to hospitals and firefighting teams. There have been power blackouts due to low levels in hydroelectric dams.
This is the face of global warming. It appears that humankind is unable to tackle it properly and we prefer to simply go on struggling under these intolerable conditions.
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