The Environment is Central to Medellin...

DRAFT... Air pollution here is not the worst.  Neither is it the best.  Days are sometimes marred by industrial pollution, pollution from buses and cars. 

 Improvements have been made, and MANY are online.  All in all, I have experienced much worse in most US cities I have visited. 

 But one expects paradise to be paradisaical.  This is NOT paradise even though many expats use that word to describe living here.  The key is livability and progress. 

In a country modernizing and advancing by leaps and bounds, coming out of a centuries' long nightmare, Medellin is doing very well. 

 But remember, when it comes to the environment, there is no free lunch. 

The water is very good, as good as San Francisco or NYC. 

Few insects, the problem being mitigated by our altitude.  We live open to the sky, a small price of which is maybe one mosquito bite per week. No tropical diseases. 

Remembering that we are at 4500 feet in a mountain valley there are trapping inversions, but the wind is always blowing, usually gently, sometimes whipping it up. 

Medellin Colombia is going to all electric buses... and we are "Third World"... There are also charging stations at the malls for private vehicles. Natural gas is available at many gas stations. We are building massive hydroelectric projects and cutting domestic use of coal is a goal  even though we are a large exporter.

Colombia has no atomic energy plants. We are just starting to frack- a good thing since it replaces coal... but large swathes of the country are off limits to fracking as well as any development incl areas not in National Parks

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We are adding many hectares annually to our national parks. Solar and wind are in their infancy. My brother-in-law is head of the large dept of Environmental Engineering at the University of Antioquia. ALL students at every level are thoroughly schooled in environmental studies.. Looking up down here.

Goldilocks weather. 

Two hundred and forty-five km of new bike lanes, building parks over undergrounded expressways, free bike rental stations all over, immaculate Metro at less than a buck per ride connecting free to buses with dedicated lanes, Metrocables, Tranvia lite rail, future circum city monorail along the current circum city gardens, nature walks through all areas, free wifi in all the parks.. and yesterday a day without cars...Un Dia Sin Carros,  only taxis and buses throughout the metroplex in honor of Earth Day.  

A pico y placa system limits vehicular traffic based on license plates in the center of the city.

Lots of trees, lots and lots of trees... lots of trees!

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