[HN Gopher] Restoring an ancient lake from the rubble of an airp... ___________________________________________________________________ Restoring an ancient lake from the rubble of an airport in Mexico City Author : Thevet Score : 45 points Date : 2023-02-25 05:04 UTC (1 days ago) (HTM) web link (www.technologyreview.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.technologyreview.com) | richardfey wrote: | I think the biggest risk is not that the successor of Echeverria | brings back the airport project, but rather that the restoration | project becomes commercialised in a way that leaves little or | nothing of the original ecosystem restoration agenda. | benatkin wrote: | This is certainly a political issue. AMLO is the first president | in his party and they're trying to lay down roots. | toomuchtodo wrote: | Is it a good idea regardless of the political merits? | rippercushions wrote: | That's quite debatable. What is clear, though, is that the | city's current airport is bursting at the seams. | [deleted] | eschulz wrote: | It's a good idea for Mexico City to substantially increase | green space. However, it's also a good idea for the city to | augment its air transport infrastructure. The AMLO government | has made a bold decision, and time will tell how it works | out. | B1FF_PSUVM wrote: | _the steel columns bordering the main terminal were sold as scrap | to recoup a fraction of the $5 billion spent on the airport's | construction._ | | Cue 'sunk cost' arguments. | photochemsyn wrote: | This is interesting: | | > "Echeverria's vision for the park is part of a wave of projects | that have upended the traditional goal of ecosystem restoration: | returning ecosystems to the state they were in before humans | damaged them. Instead of seeking to roll back the clock, | Echeverria is creating an artificial wetland that aims to | transform the future of the entire Valley region, drawing lessons | from both Tenochtitlan and modern Mexico City on how thriving | cities can coexist with flourishing ecosystems. " | | Part of the justification for this approach is the relatively new | recognition of the large ecological footprint of pre-European | peoples, and their extensive manipulation of the natural | environment, e.g. the use of controlled burns in grassland areas, | etc. "Pristine" environments were often not-so-pristine, so a new | managed system is not any different from an old managed system, | although you'd ideally want similar levels of ecological | productivity and diversity. | | Another is that climatic effects are going to be significant, | e.g. in the long run the only way to save some species, such as | California redwoods, may be to plant new stands in Oregon, | Washington and Canada. This would be 'managed ecological | migration'. | csours wrote: | People want to live next to green spaces. What if our developed | areas had boulevards of trees (or other native plants)? You may | have to sell fewer units or (shudder) increase density, but | then people would have access to the kind of environment they | want. | [deleted] | zh3 wrote: | > ...for example, chinampas--the lake system's artificial | islands, built from reeds--created small canals where species | like the axolotl thrived. | | That's an interesting - and potentially misleading - take on | Axolotls and their habitat [ref. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axolotl] ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-02-26 23:00 UTC)