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In Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, a hidden underground world is under threat by the Maya Train

Rays of sunlight slice through pools of crystal water as clusters of fish cast shadows on the limestone below. Arching over the emerald basin are walls of stalactites dripping down the cavern ceiling, which opens to a dense jungle.

These glowing sinkhole lakes — known as cenotes — are a part of one of Mexico’s natural wonders: A fragile system of an estimated 10,000 subterranean caverns, rivers and lakes that wind almost surreptitiously beneath Mexico’s southern Yucatan peninsula.

Now, construction of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s crown jewel project — the Maya Train — is rapidly destroying part of that hidden underground world, already under threat by development and mass tourism. As the caverns are thrust into the spotlight in the lead-up to the country’s presidential elections, scientists and environmentalists warn that the train will mean long-term environmental ruin.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

That is a real quandary, because we need more trains in this world and fewer cars, but the Yucatan, as we now know with Lidar studies, was pretty densely populated. It’s sort of a case of no matter where you put it, you’re going to damage possibly essential archaeology and there isn’t a reasonable enough amount of time to excavate it all before putting a rail line through.

That said, from the sound of things, they’re just moving forward at breakneck speed and filling cenotes instead of building bridges, so this could be done with a lot less damage.

LibertyLizard ,

I’m normally in favor of these types of projects but I’ve heard the local people are opposed. I’d like to know why but I haven’t found that information, maybe because indigenous voices are deeply repressed in Mexico.

catloaf ,

Because it will destroy the natural environment.

LibertyLizard ,

But will it destroy the environment more than the status quo of driving and flying everywhere? I mean probably there are fewer such trips in Mexico than in richer countries but still quite a few.

catloaf ,

Yes. The roads are already built. While a train would take cars off the roads, the destruction is primarily caused by the construction, not ongoing use.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

The roads are not the issue. The cars are the issue.

catloaf ,

Yes, obviously burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change, but the construction has a more direct and immediate impact on the local environment.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Climate change has a bigger long-term effect. The local environment will be destroyed anyway if we keep burning fossil fuels.

catloaf ,

That’s not a good reason to cause extra destruction right now. We should not clear-cut the rainforest and fill cenotes with cement and stop burning fossil fuels.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Like I said, they’re not doing it the way they should be doing it.

LibertyLizard ,

Roads are much more easily used for illegal logging, hunting, etc. than train lines. Not sure if that’s an issue in Mexico but it for sure is elsewhere.

autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Now, construction of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s crown jewel project — the Maya Train — is rapidly destroying part of that hidden underground world, already under threat by development and mass tourism.

When it’s completed, it’ll connect tourist hubs like Cancun and Playa del Carmen to dense jungle, remote communities and archaeological sites, drawing development and money into long-neglected rural swathes of the country.

It produced the open-face freshwater caverns, “cenotes,” and underground rivers that are in equal parts awe-inspiring and delicate, explained Emiliano Monroy-Ríos, a geologist at Northwestern University studying the region.

But the populist leader was met with an uproar in late January when environmentalists and scientists posted videos showing government drills carving tunnels into the tops of caverns, implanting rows of 6-foot-wide (2-meter-wide) steel pillars.

Maria Norma de los Angeles and her family have long lived off a modest flow of tourists in their community of Jacinto Pat, tucked in a stretch of jungle in the southern coastal state, Quintana Roo.

Last year, the environmental organization Va Por La Tierra estimated that approximately 95% of the cenotes in Yucatan state — where the Maya Train cuts through — were already contaminated due to the lack of a sufficient sewage system.

The original article contains 2,649 words, the summary contains 204 words. Saved 92%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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