内容摘要：A supporter of Yasmin Esquivel, who is running for election for the Mexican Supreme Court, holds a campaign pamphlet at her closing campaign rally in Mexico City, Wednesday, May 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

A supporter of Yasmin Esquivel, who is running for election for the Mexican Supreme Court, holds a campaign pamphlet at her closing campaign rally in Mexico City, Wednesday, May 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Depending on the species, color and size, Axolotl’s prices at— where Vergara works — start at 200 pesos ($10 US). Specimens are available for sale when they reach four inches in length and are easy pets to look after, Vergara said.

“While they regularly have a 15-years life span (in captivity), we’ve had animals that have lived up to 20,” he added. “They are very long-lived, though in their natural habitat they probably wouldn’t last more than three or four years.”The species on display at the museum — one of 17 known varieties in Mexico — is endemic to lakes and canals that are currently polluted. A healthy population of axolotl would likely struggle to feed or reproduce.“Just imagine the bottom of a canal in areas like Xochimilco, Tlahuac, Chalco, where there’s an enormous quantity of microbes,” Vergara said.

Under ideal conditions, an axolotl could heal itself from snake or heron biting and survive the dry season buried in the mud. But a proper aquatic environment is needed for that to happen.“Efforts to preserve axolotl go hand in hand with preserving the chinampas,” Cruz said at the museum, next to a display featuring salamander-shaped dolls. “We work closely with the community to convince them that this is an important space.”

Ancestral floating gardens are visible next to new soccer fields on Xochimilco Lake in Mexico City, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez, File)

Ancestral floating gardens are visible next to new soccer fields on Xochimilco Lake in Mexico City, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez, File)And just off U.S. 191 in southeastern Utah is a hub of the industry, Uranium Fuels’ White Mesa mill, the country’s only uranium mill still in operation.

These days, Moab is a desert tourism hot spot bustling with outdoor enthusiasts. But the town of 5,200 has a deeper history with uranium. Nods to Moab’s post-World War II mining heyday can been spotted around town — the Atomic Hair Salon isn’t just named for its blowout hairstyles.The biggest reminder is the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action project, a 480-acre (194-hectare) site just outside town. The decades-long, $1 billion U.S. Department of Energy effort to haul off toxic tailings that were leaching into the Colorado River upstream from the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead should wrap up within five more years.

That mill’s polluting legacy makes some Moab residents wary of restarting uranium mining and processing, especially after the Trump administration cut short their ability to weigh in on the Velvet-Wood mine plans.“This was a process I would have been involved in,” said Sarah Fields, director of the local group Uranium Watch. “They provided no opportunity for the public to say, ‘You need to look at this, you need to look at that.’”