Mexico City has a really nice weather on average. The weather is calm, it rarely rains, the temperature is always between 5 °C in the early morning, and 25 °C in the afternoon.

Two weeks ago the weather went bonkers. The wind became so strong that it caused windows to break, trees and billboards to fall. They canceled classes in most of the schools in fear things could fall on people. The picture below is an image of a broken window, the wind caused, at the University I’m exchanging from.

Not only that, but it snowed in the country! I had never seen snow until I came to Canada, because it never snows there. The weather caused records of cold and snow in parts of central and northern Mexico and more than a foot of rain in the Southeast.

The crazy weather is affecting species in the country. For example, monarch butterflies, who in the winter fly to Mexico for the warm weather, and in the summer fly to Canada. The snow froze some of them and a huge investment is being made to save the ones that remain.

In addition, this week, for the first time in 14 years Mexico city has declared a state of emergency as a result of the air contamination. Phase 1 of Atmospheric Environmental Contingency was activated in the Valley of Mexico, where temporary tactics were put into place. In Mexico, 9300 deaths a year are associated with air contamination. From January 2010 to 2013, poor air quality caused 19 242 premature deaths, 53 191 hospitalizations and more than 3 million medical consultations.

Air contamination is causing people to miss school, work, and worst of all, people and species are dying. The crazy thing though, is that somehow some people don’t attribute this drastic change in weather to global warming. All the evidence is there, we are actually living through a change in weather that is scary and dangerous.

The weather change is having an economical impact on the country. Investment in sustainability can actually profit the city on the long run to a great extent. However the initial investment would be difficult to obtain. Issues such as income inequality, the distribution of education, among others, will have to be addressed first in order to make a sustainable change in the country. I just hope we can do it before it’s too late.