Curitiba is an important cultural, political, and economic center in Latin America and hosts the Federal University of Paraná, established in 1912. In the 1700s Curitiba’s favorable location between cattle-breeding countryside and marketplaces led to a successful cattle trade and the city’s first major expansion.

A municipal shepherd and a flock of sheep are employed to mow the grass in the parks. Instead of a cost, the grass becomes a resource, providing meat and wool, which is sold to fund social programmes. In Curitiba, everything is recycled, even the buildings and the buses!

Recycling: Curitiba recycles around 70 percent of its garbage thanks to a program that allows for the exchange of bus tokens, notebooks and food in return for recycling. Not only does this protect the environment, but it also boosts education, increases food access and facilitates transport for the city’s poor.

The top three environmental issues in Mexico are air pollution, lack of clean water, and deforestation.

Mexico City is vulnerable to severe air pollution problems due to its altitude, its being surrounded by mountains and the winds patterns of the area. The altitude, with its low oxygen levels, makes for poor combustion of fossil fuels leading to unsafe levels of nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide.

the Aztec

The Aztecs were newcoming aliens in the Valley of Mexico. About 1000 CE some tribes of these Athabascans started a migration south beyond the east side of the Rocky Mountains which ended in the settlement of the ancestors of the Apaches and Navajos in southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico.

When used to describe ethnic groups, the term “Aztec” refers to several Nahuatl-speaking peoples of central Mexico in the postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology, especially the Mexica, the ethnic group that had a leading role in establishing the hegemonic empire based at Tenochtitlan.

The legendary origin of the Aztec people has them migrating from a homeland called Aztlan to what would become modern-day Mexico. While it is not clear where Aztlan was, a number of scholars believe that the Mexica—as the Aztec referred to themselves—migrated south to central Mexico in the 13th century.

Mexico

Isabel Moctezuma

In pre-Hispanic times, when the Aztec empire ruled Mexico, a Tlaxcala warrior fell in love with his princess, a maiden of incredible beauty. His name was Popocatépetl, hers was Iztaccíhuatl; Popo and Izta for short.

The conquered regions paid tribute to the emperor and the Aztec citizenry paid taxes (with the exception of priests, nobles, minors, orphans, invalids, and beggars). Researchers have observed that tribute payments were generally reasonable, and were only increased if a region reneged on its tribute obligations.

Popocatepetl is one of Mexico’s most active volcanoes and also part of an Aztec legend, a warrior who fell in love with a young woman (Iztaccihuatl) who died while he was away in battle. He is said to be still mourning for her.

In contrast to Popocatepetl’s well-defined symmetrical cone, Iztaccíhuatl is formed from several overlapping smaller cones that trend north-northwest to south-southeast.

Iztaccíhuatl volcano (also spelled Ixtaccíhuatl) is a massive andesitic stratovolcano next to the famous neighbor Popocatépetl volcano. Geologically, it is the predecessor volcano of Popocatépetl and now in its final stages of infrequent activity, with some activity sometime less than 11,000 years ago.

According Mexican legend, Ixta—Ixtacihuátl—was an Aztec princess who fell in love with Popo—Popocatépetl—a low-born warrior from a rival tribe. To win Ixta’s hand in marriage, Popo goes off to battle to prove his valor. Ixta receives erroneous reports of his death in battle and kills herself.

3 April 2016: Popocatépetl erupted, spewing lava, ash and rock. August 2016: Eruptions continued, with four discrete blasts on August 17.

Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl refers to the volcanoes Popocatépetl (“the Smoking Mountain”) and Iztaccíhuatl (“white woman” in Nahuatl, sometimes called the Mujer Dormida “sleeping woman” in Spanish) in Izta-Popo Zoquiapan National Park, which overlook the Valley of Mexico and the various myths explaining their …

5,426 m

The Popocatepetl volcano south of Mexico City sent a column of ash into the sky, capping an intense period of seismic activity including two powerful tremors this month that have killed more than 400 people and caused damage of up to $8 billion.

The most active volcanoes of the country are Popocatepetl, Colima and El Chichon, which had a major eruption in 1982 that cooled the world’s climate in the following year. All active volcanoes of Mexico are listed. Try our free app!

Popocatepetl and Iztaccíhuatl As part of the “Ring of Fire” stretching around the Pacific, Mexico hosts several of the world’s most continually active volcanoes, including the massive Popocatepetl (Aztec for “smoking mountain”) at left.

Mexico is on the edge of two the world’s largest – the North American and Pacific plates – as well as the smaller Cocos plate. It also falls on the ‘Ring of Fire’, a horseshoe shaped area around the edges of the Pacific Ocean, from Australia to the Andes, along which 90% of all earthquakes occur.

Here are the 20 volcanoes that post the biggest risk:

• 8: Akutan Island, Alaska.
• 7: Three Sisters, Oregon.
• 6: Mount Hood, Oregon.
• 5: Mount Shasta, California.
• 4: Redoubt volcano, Alaska.
• 3: Mount Rainer, Washington. Threat Score: 203.
• 2: Mount St. Helens, Washington.
• 1: Kilauea volcano, Hawaii. Threat Score: 263.

Mount Tambora

Pūhāhonu

Tambora