MEXICO

• The flow of cheap and deadly fentanyl over the border into the US has also fuelled an opioid epidemic that has killed over 1 million Americans since 2000.
• It is a dark side to the so-called “Mexican miracle” that transformed the country’s economy between the 1940s and 1970s.
• Stimulated by the Mexican and US governments’ promotion of infrastructure improvements and mass migration, the drug trade fuelled further lawful economic development throughout the country.

Cops, cartels and cash crops

• Many of Durango’s battled-scarred and poverty-stricken former miners adapted to the national and global turbulence by turning to opium poppies, a profitable (and since 1920, illegal) cash crop.
• Sap from opium poppies provides the raw material for drugs like morphine and heroin.
• In response, US officials like Harry J. Anslinger promoted a “crusade” against the drug trade on both sides of the border.
• In 1944, a joint US–Mexican expedition uncovered the largest opium plantation ever discovered in Mexico: the size of 325 football pitches.

Cold war Mexico

• As the second world war gave way to the cold war, Latin American countries (often with US financial assistance) promoted urbanisation, industrialisation, infrastructural expansion, population growth and transnational economic integration.
• Between 1950 and 1970, Mexico’s one-party state invested massively in public services and industrial and agricultural development.
• But they helped connect the poppy fields of Durango to the rest of northern Mexico and the US border too.

The ‘heroin highway’

• It consolidated Durango’s importance as a Mexican drug-production centre and transformed Chicago into the biggest heroin-trafficking hub on the continent.
• The cash that trafficking organisations earned wholesaling heroin in the US was reinvested locally in everything from cattle ranches to construction companies and even an airline.

• Instead, these were completely intertwined with the economic growth, infrastructure development and mass migration that characterised the Mexican miracle.
• The story of the modern US–Mexican drug trade is not just about brutal violence and lives cut tragically short.

Nathaniel Morris received part of the funding for this research from the Leverlhulme Trust. He is affiliated with the Mexico & Central America Program of Noria Research.

• Kelp forests help to support fisheries, draw down carbon and improve water quality — in the process contributing billions to the global economy.
• We also show that, despite recent impacts of climate change, kelp forests in some areas have remained stable, offering hope for future kelp forests and shedding light on the drivers of ecosystem resilience.

Marine forests in hot water

• Beginning in 2014, a string of marine heat waves created warmer-than-usual conditions that have wreaked havoc on a range of ocean species.
• Marine heat waves are becoming longer and more intense as greenhouse gas emissions continue.
• Together, marine heat waves and seastar declines led to devastating kelp forest losses along many parts of North America’s west coast over the past decade.

Threats to kelp in Western Canada

• Thanks to ancient glaciers that carved up and reshaped Canada’s Pacific coast, B.C.’s kelp forests inhabit a rich mosaic of environments.
• Nearly 40,000 islands and dozens of glacial fjords create diverse habitats for kelp.
• In these areas, kelp forests have experienced large losses, especially over the past decade.
• In some parts of B.C.’s central and northern coasts, some kelp forests are also in decline despite cooler waters.

Reasons for optimism

• kelp forests have remained stable.
• In fact, some of these healthy kelp forests might even be growing.
• Areas with cool water temperatures, such as the Strait of Juan de Fuca, have stable kelp forests, despite extensive losses close by.

Innovative solutions are needed to save kelp

• kelp forests are faring under intense ocean warming driven by climate change.
• Read more:
  NZ’s vital kelp forests are in peril from ocean warming – threatening the important species that rely on them

  Global and regional initiatives to protect and restore kelp forests are gaining momentum.

• This might include restoration of important predators in the ecosystem, controlling urchins so that kelp forests can flourish, or developing new techniques to restore kelp forests using strains capable of surviving warming conditions.

• He is affiliated with The Kelp Rescue Initiative, based at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, and was affiliated with the University of Victoria during this project.
• Christopher Neufeld received funding relevant to this project from the Ngan-Page Family Fund via The Kelp Rescue Initiative, based at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre.
• She is affiliated with The Kelp Rescue Initiative, based at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre.

• The patent was previously granted to the company in Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan and Mexico.
• “Allowance of this key composition-of-matter patent, covering the specific polymorph of vidofludimus calcium, provides another important layer of proprietary intellectual property protection around our lead, late-stage asset,” stated Daniel Vitt, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and President of Immunic.
• “A significant part of this patent will also cover the related method of producing material of vidofludimus calcium used in our studies.
• On top of the patent exclusivity, vidofludimus calcium, as a new chemical entity, should also benefit from regulatory data protection.

• 19th of March 2024 – ID Finance, a leading Fintech company in Spain and Mexico, has successfully obtained from certified by Bureau Veritas the carbon footprint verification for the year 2022.
• In 2022, ID Finance conducted a comprehensive greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, meticulously adhering to the ISO 14064-1:2019 standards.
• Looking ahead, ID Finance is in the process of verifying its carbon footprint for 2023.
• Furthermore, ID Finance was honored by UK magazine Capital Finance International as the 2023 global award winner for Best ESG Inclusive Finance Solutions, affirming its leadership in responsible and sustainable business practices.