Mexico has been hit by many earthquakes throughout the past years. The strongest to hit the country was on September 8, 2017. My hometown Huamuxtitlan Guerrero is located in the south eastern part of Mexico, and like many parts of Mexico it is a very poor town. The earthquake destroyed many houses, particularly where very poor people lived. These houses were very old and the material used to build them is called “adobe” which is a very soft clay-like material used by many people used to build their house because it’s cheap.
When the earthquake hit Mexico, it created a world of chaos. This earthquake struck in the morning when kids were at school and people were working. When the earthquake reached the 8.1 magnitude everybody started running and going to the schools to look for their children. In my hometown, 9 houses were destroyed by the earthquake. The government promised to send help, but the help never arrived. The food and materials to help the people also never arrived. Millions of people across the entire world sent money to help the Mexican people, but sadly the money never arrived. People are living under very bad conditions because they lost their house. They don’t have money to rebuild a new one because the economy is bad and the Mexican government is corrupt. Many people not only lost their homes, but they lost their loved ones as well. Thank God nobody died in my town, but in the town where the epicenter was located, the earthquake killed many people.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/08/mexico-earthquake-magnitude-8-tremor-rattles-buildings-capital/
I know that all these earthquakes are happening in every single part of the world and that they are natural, but if we are being more conscious about taking care of our mother earth, we will reduce the magnitude of these disasters and their frequency. In my town, the elderly think that if we throw garbage on the roads and burn our garbage, it doesn’t affect the earth, but the truth is all the plastic and aluminum that is being burned in the landfills is actually causing the earth to increase the magnitude of these earthquakes. I try to tell people that we must use less plastic and at least try to recycle all the metals and plastic that they throw in the landfill. Some people are conscious and pay attention, while others ignore me and continue to burn their trash. I believe that by educating people and letting them see how every bad thing that we do to our mother earth actually comes back to us as natural disasters. I hope that one day the authorities in Mexico will be more conscious and spend money on educating people. Teaching them how to handle and take better care of the trash in each town.
Some see an indirect link to natural disasters such as the earthquake in Mexico and climate change. In his book Waking the Giant, Bill McGuire talks about the science behind climate change and how it creates ideal conditions for tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. We do many things to this earth that further the unstable fault lines, like the ones we have in Mexico. We need to examine what we do that might be making it easier for earthquakes to happen and when they do, to be more of a devastating effect
