The Riviera Maya seems to be buzzing again with the idea of a better transport system for us all. Pushed on by the politicians, backed by the Spanish all-inclusive hotels who have bitten off more than 80% of our coastline to date, the idea, started back in 2004, was a mammoth project called, the Tulum International Airport. This scheme was to use more than 500 hectares (1 hectare = approx. 2½ acres), with a landing strip to start the project off of 450 meters, which is roughly half of one kilometer. The package would be bundled up to include not only this land, but also the scores of surrounding lands … for commercial use, of course. All lands in the great surrounding area of Tulum, other than the beach zone, would have to contend with the unique and fragile subterranean river system, cenotes, and collapses.
(Wikipedia, collapses: Structural failures refers to loss of the load-carrying capacity of a component or member within a structure or of the structure itself. Structural failure is initiated when the material is stressed to its strength limit, thus causing fracture or excessive deformations.)
With the amount of land the project would consume … danger for everything, including the most dangerous of all, the land collapsing!! But everything also includes the migrating birds of the Biosphere (not so non-dangerous if they get sucked into one of the jet engines on your flight or of someone you love, or anyone for sure! … high danger in this synopsis) or the animals (animals on a runway) or the chemical runoffs that airports all tend to leak into the environment—pollutants generated by everyday operation of the airport, including: trash, litter and debris; petroleum products that might leak from aircraft and motor vehicles; heavy metals potentially contained in the dust from brake pads, rubber tires, engine exhaust; and the fertilizers and pesticides used to maintain the airport's landscape and facilities ….all in all, not such a fabulous package for Tulum.
Because of the many flaws in this project, the Federal Government has deemed it unsafe and has revoked all plans for this airport's construction. For this, the environmentalists, the scuba diving world, the indigenous protectors of their lands … the Maya World, are all pleased. Our future tourists would be too, if they knew.
In January of this year, a new project was approved by the Federal Government, called a Fast Train. This project is starting right now with the first of three legs—first leg Playa del Carmen to Mérida, the second leg Playa del Carmen to Cancún, and the third leg Playa del Carmen to Tulum—all planned to be finished in the next six years.
This sounds better than an airport but let's also take some notes and figure out what this could produce. Fact: Train travel is one of the lowest-impact travel ways to get from point to point short of walking, jogging or bicycling. By building a high-speed rail we would see fewer vehicle trips, saving gallons and gallons of gas, perhaps millions of pounds of carbon dioxide emissions—the result of removing cars from the road.
But the train itself would make somewhat of a carbon footprint and disrupt local ecosystems in irreparable ways. A train traveling through a rural area can interrupt migration patterns, destroy habitat, and kill and/or maim for life animals attempting to cross the tracks. Railways are often built with little or no consideration of the local flora and fauna and the effect that pollution and habitat destruction will have on ecosystems.
Noise Pollution is another issue to consider. Trains produce a tremendous amount of noise, often reaching dangerously high decibel ranges. This can be stressful and irritating not only to human beings living near railways, but also to local wildlife. Prolonged exposure to the kind of loud noise produced by trains can cause permanent hearing loss in mammals, which in turn disrupts the delicate balance of predator and prey in nature.
A solution??
• A solar powered high-speed railway would be the answer for the perfect non-polluting train, and with such respect to the naturaleza which is the only commodity that the Rivera Maya has to sell.
• For the animals? Up on rails, perfect!!! Higher than ground level, would work.
• For noise … we may just have to live with this one …. but for the animals???
Please note that the Cancun International Airport has just rebuilt their complex with a second runway and up-to-date amenities, and is now set up and organized to land more than double the tourists to their Cancun and Riviera Maya destinations. In my opinion, let's not have any change. The sacrifice for people's haste means a sacrifice for the environment and beauty, the reason that we attract the tourists that plan their time off on this coastline. Is it worth it? For an HOUR's ride??? One has to wait at a foreign airport for two hours at least. What’s the hurry when you're in paradise?
NANCY DEROSA, Directora de SAVE, A.C.
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