In this work, the author makes it clear that there is more to Mexico’s environment than city smog. This book gives an account of the whole range of environmental problems which face Mexico’s people, from tourist development to oil spills and land exhaustion. Setting his account against the backdrop of Mexico’s history since the conquest, Joel Simon explores the connections between economic exploitation and the management of the environment. He records the results, such as Mexico City sinking as the finite water table is sucked dry, or the deforestation of the Chiapas jungle. As a combination of first-hand reporting and interviews and in-depth research, this work is a account of Mexico’s own crisis of deforestation, water pollution and desertification which also points to the broader contradiction between economic models of development and a sustainable use of resources.