Mexico City’s new airport will be built on a soggy former lake bed east of the city, federal officials announced this week. Environmentalists are angry about the decision, saying it will endanger the geese, ducks, and other birds that nest on the lake bed. The airport is also furthering tension between conservative President Vicente Fox, who supports it, and Mexico City’s progressive mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. “It’s absurd to construct an airport [on the lake bed], because among other things it would exacerbate uncontrolled urban sprawl in an area that doesn’t have water or infrastructure,” Lopez Obrador said. North of the border, environmentalists and government officials are squaring off over a proposed new international airport in Orange County, Calif.
