Formula E: Cleaning up the world's most pulluted city. Mexico City was famously labeled the most polluted city on the planet by the United Nations during the early 1990s but, more than two decades on, efforts to improve the air quality for its 20 million inhabitants are advancing. In recent years, the capital has successfully implemented a range of measures to combat pollution which, according to a 2013 study by the Mexican Competitiveness Institute, likely causes around 1,700 deaths per year in the city. Mexico City's minister for environment, Tanya Muller Garcia, has been leading efforts to make the streets less congested, less polluted and more pedestrian friendly. During this month's Formula E race in the Mexican capital, CNN Supercharged presenter Nicki Shields met up with Muller to discuss how the city is slowly cleaning up its act.
Nicki Shields: You have set an ambitious target of a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. We have also increased our bike structure. NS: We are walking around Chapultepec park. What ancient treasures did ISIS destroy in Palmyra? And as the UNESCO world heritage site comes once again under the control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, eyes turn to the vandalism wrought on its ancient treasures by the brutal, unbending jihadist group, which sees ancient artifacts as un-Islamic and ripe for destruction. UNESCO says it plans to evaluate the extent of the damage soon. But images taken in the aftermath of Syrian troops' regaining of the city show many of the structures -- which date from the first and second centuries and marry Greco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences -- remain in place, bolstering hopes that ISIS didn't completely raze the ancient site.
Photos of the National Museum in Palmyra, obtained by the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Monuments, show statues with faces chipped off -- in keeping with strict Sharia interpretations of the depiction of human forms -- and statues smashed on the floor. International support, reconstruction Destruction of history.
History/Social Studies. Old Maps Online. Library of Congress Home | Library of Congress. Smithsonian. Awesome Stories. UH - Digital History. EyeWitness to History - history through the eyes of those who lived it. Browser | Smithsonian X 3D. History Net: Where History Comes Alive - World & US History Online. National Archives and Records Administration. Smithsonian for Educators. Dipity - Find, Create, and Embed Interactive Timelines. U.S. European. HeritageQuest Online™ Opposing Viewpoints in Context - Home. Databases.