Book contents
- Fueling Mexico
- Studies in Environment and History
- Fueling Mexico
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Energy, Environment, and History
- Chapter 1 1850s: Solar Society
- Chapter 2 The Nature of Capitalist Growth
- Chapter 3 Searching for Rocks
- Chapter 4 The Other Revolution
- Chapter 5 1950s: Fossil-Fueled Society
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 5 - 1950s: Fossil-Fueled Society
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 June 2021
- Fueling Mexico
- Studies in Environment and History
- Fueling Mexico
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Energy, Environment, and History
- Chapter 1 1850s: Solar Society
- Chapter 2 The Nature of Capitalist Growth
- Chapter 3 Searching for Rocks
- Chapter 4 The Other Revolution
- Chapter 5 1950s: Fossil-Fueled Society
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 5 tells the story of how, with the full support of the state and amidst a new push to further industrialize, fossil fuels powered virtually every aspect of life in Mexico by the 1950s. Transport systems became increasingly energy intensive. Vehicles with internal combustion engines drove down asphalt roads. Cars reshaped Mexico’s culture, class and gender divisions, and the way people experienced the nation’s territory and environments. Mexican cities entered a period of exponential physical and demographic growth, their layouts rapidly reorganized to accommodate increasing numbers of motorized vehicles. Industrial manufacturing and electricity generation used fossil fuels at virtually every stage of production and distribution, while the Mexican food system underwent a Green Revolution featuring fossil-fueled agriculture. Mexico had become a fossil-fueled society.
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- Fueling MexicoEnergy and Environment, 1850–1950, pp. 176 - 220Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021