News stories by Verónica Díaz Favela* - IPS/IFEJ

The Mexican company BioFields will begin production in 2014 of an algae-based biofuel at a site 300 kilometres from its border with the United States, which is likely to be its biggest customer.

Four sculptures in human forms, made of concrete, will be submerged in November in the Mexican Caribbean - the first of 400 figures that will comprise the world's largest underwater museum.

Federico Martínez was born in a land of hurricanes. As a young boy in Mexico he saw the wind uproot trees and roll wooden houses 'as if they were shoe boxes.' As an adult, he developed a house that can withstand winds up to 300 kilometres per hour and floods three metres deep.

In the last two years a Mexico City hospital, kindergarten and municipal government office building have experimented with plant-covered rooftops. Today, workers and visitors are enjoying the benefits.

Graciela González answers phone calls, organises meetings and gives interviews as part of her work to save a river from ecological disaster. Thousands of kilometres away, farmer Gonzalo Rodríguez helps take air samples in a region polluted by petrochemicals.

Many solutions for sustainable development in Mexico lie in the scientific and technological training of its younger generations, say academics. But students in this country, where everyone wants to be a doctor or accountant, are ignoring those fields.

Antonio Moreno is the banquet manager of a four star hotel in the south-eastern Mexican resort city of Cancún, but for more than a year his duties have included digging through the trash.