Latin America in Times of Global Environmental Change

Latin America in Times of Global Environmental Change
Author: Cristian Lorenzo
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2019-08-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030242544
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This volume discusses the challenges of Latin America in global environmental geopolitics. Written by leading experts, this book brings together Latin American research on global environmental change. They cover a range of topics such as climate change, water, forest and biodiversity conservation connected with science policies, public opinion, priorities of international funds, and international politics of Latin American countries. The book describes the discrepancy between the international priorities and the regional needs or country interests. It includes several case studies and analyses the cooperation in multilateral negotiations on climate change. It also offers a synthesis of debates around global environmental changes and Latin American politics, which the authors have previously promoted in different academic events in South America, including in Santiago de Chile in Chile, and Buenos Aires and Ushuaia in Argentina. This book assesses the environmental problems from different perspectives, highlights the scientific development in the environmental changes affecting Latin America and offers a new view on geopolitics to help face those issues. Specialist readers in international relations, political sciences, environmental sciences, geography and geopolitics will appreciate this up-to-date examination of Latin America and the global environmental change.

Industry and Environment in Latin America

Industry and Environment in Latin America
Author: Rhys Jenkins
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780415234474
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This text examines the much debated issue of the impact of globalization on the environment. Using case studies from Latin America, this book sets out these debates and presents new empirical evidence on the key questions.

Routledge Handbook of Latin America and the Environment

Routledge Handbook of Latin America and the Environment
Author: Beatriz Bustos
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 722
Release: 2023-05-31
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1000869024
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The Routledge Handbook of Latin America and the Environment provides an in-depth and accessible analysis and theorization of environmental issues in the region. It will help readers make connections between Latin American and other regions’ perspectives, experiences, and environmental concerns. Latin America has seen an acceleration of environmental degradation due to the expansion of resource extraction and urban areas. This Handbook addresses Latin America not only as an object of study, but also as a region with a long and profound history of critical thinking on these themes. Furthermore, the Handbook departs from most treatments on the topic by studying the environment as a social issue inextricably linked to politics, economy, and culture. The Handbook will be an invaluable resource for those wanting not only to understand the issues, but also to engage with ideas about environmental politics and social-ecological transformation. The Handbook covers a broad range of topics organized according to three areas: physical geography, ecology, and crucial environmental problems of the region. These are key theoretical and methodological issues used to understand Latin America’s ecosocial contexts, and institutional and grassroots practices related to more just and ecologically sustainable worlds. The Handbook will set a research agenda for the near future and provide comprehensive research on most subregions relative to environmental transformations, challenges, struggles and political processes. It stands as a fresh and much needed state of the art introduction for researchers, scholars, post-graduates and academic audiences on Latin American contributions to theorization, empirical research and environmental practices.

A Fragmented Continent

A Fragmented Continent
Author: Guy Edwards
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2015-11-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0262330164
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How Latin American countries became leading voices and innovators on addressing climate change—and what threatens their leadership. Latin American countries have increased their influence at the United Nations climate change negotiations and offered potential solutions on coping with global warming. But in the face of competing priorities, sometimes these climate policies are jettisoned, undermined, or simply ignored. A Fragmented Continent focuses on Latin America's three major blocs at the U.N. climate negotiations and how they attempt to balance climate action with building prosperity. Brazil has reduced its deforestation but continues its drive for economic growth and global recognition. A leftist group led by Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador decries the injustice of climate change but is highly dependent on the export of fossil fuels. A new group, including Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru and supported by Mexico, offers sharp reductions in their carbon emissions in return for greater action by others; these countries now have to deliver on their promises. Weaving together issues of politics and economy, trade, foreign policy, civil society, and environmental protection, A Fragmented Continent offers a long-missing perspective on one of this century's greatest challenges and neglected regions.

Low Carbon, High Growth

Low Carbon, High Growth
Author: Augusto de la Torre
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 92
Release: 2009
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0821379216
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There is an increasing consensus in the scientific community that climate change is a real and present threat. Despite the large uncertainty on the timing, magnitude and even the direction of some of the physical and economic effects of this phenomenon, it is widely accepted that the differences are regional and that developing countries as well as lower income populations tend to suffer the most. In this context, it is critical for Latin American countries to develop strategies for adapting to the various impacts of climate change, and for contributing to global efforts aimed at mitigation. Climate Change in Latin America contributes to these efforts by addressing a number of questions related to the causes and consequences of climate change in the case of Latin America. What are the likely impacts of climate change in the region? Which countries and regions will be most affected? What can governments do to tackle the challenges associated with adapting to climate change? What role can Latin America play in the area of climate change mitigation? While the book does not attempt to provide definitive answers to these questions, it contributs new information and analysis that could help to inform the public policy debate on this important issue.

Reducing Poverty, Protecting Livelihoods, and Building Assets in a Changing Climate

Reducing Poverty, Protecting Livelihoods, and Building Assets in a Changing Climate
Author: Dorte Verner
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 460
Release: 2010-06-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0821383787
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Climate change is the defining development challenge of our time. More than a global environmental issue, climate change and variability threaten to reverse recent progress in poverty reduction and economic growth. Both now and over the long run, climate change and variability threatens human and social development by restricting the fulfillment of human potential and by disempowering people and communities in reducing their livelihoods options. Communities across Latin America and the Caribbean are already experiencing adverse consequences from climate change and variability. Precipitation has increased in the southeastern part of South America, and now often comes in the form of sudden deluges, leading to flooding and soil erosion that endanger people s lives and livelihoods. Southwestern parts of South America and western Central America are seeing a decrease in precipitation and an increase in droughts. Increasing heat and drought in Northeast Brazil threaten the livelihoods of already-marginal smallholders, and may turn parts of the eastern Amazon rainforest into savannah. The Andean inter-tropical glaciers are shrinking and expected to disappear altogether within the next 20-40 years, with significant consequences for water availability. These environmental changes will impact local livelihoods in unprecedented ways. Poverty, inequality, water access, health, and migration are and will be measurably affected by climate change. Using an innovative research methodology, this study finds quantitative evidence of large variations in impacts across regions. Many already poor regions are becoming poorer; traditional livelihoods are being challenged in unprecedented ways; water scarcity is increasing, particularly in poor arid areas; human health is deteriorating; and climate-induced migration is already taking place and may increase. Successfully reducing social vulnerability to climate change and variability requires action and commitment at multiple levels. This volume offers key operational recommendations at the government, community, and household levels with particular emphasis placed on enhancing good governance and technical capacity in the public sector, building social capital in local communities, and protecting the asset base of poor households.

Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change in Latin America and the Caribbean

Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change in Latin America and the Caribbean
Author: Jakob Kronik
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2010-06-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0821383817
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This book addresses the social implications of climate change and climatic variability on indigenous peoples and communities living in the highlands, lowlands, and coastal areas of Latin America and the Caribbean. Across the region, indigenous people already perceive and experience negative effects of climate change and variability. Many indigenous communities find it difficult to adapt in a culturally sustainable manner. In fact, indigenous peoples often blame themselves for the changes they observe in nature, despite their limited emission of green house gasses. Not only is the viability of their livelihoods threatened, resulting in food insecurity and poor health, but also their cultural integrity is being challenged, eroding the confidence in solutions provided by traditional institutions and authorities. The book is based on field research among indigenous communities in three major eco-geographical regions: the Amazon; the Andes and Sub-Andes; and the Caribbean and Mesoamerica. It finds major inter-regional differences in the impacts observed between areas prone to rapid- and slow-onset natural hazards. In Mesoamerican and the Caribbean, increasingly severe storms and hurricanes damage infrastructure and property, and even cause loss of land, reducing access to livelihood resources. In the Columbian Amazon, changes in precipitation and seasonality have direct immediate effects on livelihoods and health, as crops often fail and the reproduction of fish stock is threatened by changes in the river ebb and flow. In the Andean region, water scarcity for crops and livestock, erosion of ecosystems and changes in biodiversity threatens food security, both within indigenous villages and among populations who depend on indigenous agriculture, causing widespread migration to already crowded urban areas. The study aims to increase understanding on the complexity of how indigenous communities are impacted by climate change and the options for improving their resilience and adaptability to these phenomena. The goal is to improve indigenous peoples rights and opportunities in climate change adaptation, and guide efforts to design effective and sustainable adaptation initiatives.

Environmental Governance in Latin America

Environmental Governance in Latin America
Author: Fabio De Castro
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2016-03-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137505729
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This book is open access under a CC-BY license. The multiple purposes of nature – livelihood for communities, revenues for states, commodities for companies, and biodiversity for conservationists – have turned environmental governance in Latin America into a highly contested arena. In such a resource-rich region, unequal power relations, conflicting priorities, and trade-offs among multiple goals have led to a myriad of contrasting initiatives that are reshaping social relations and rural territories. This edited collection addresses these tensions by unpacking environmental governance as a complex process of formulating and contesting values, procedures and practices shaping the access, control and use of natural resources. Contributors from various fields address the challenges, limitations, and possibilities for a more sustainable, equal, and fair development. In this book, environmental governance is seen as an overarching concept defining the dynamic and multi-layered repertoire of society-nature interactions, where images of nature and discourses on the use of natural resources are mediated by contextual processes at multiple scales.

Low-carbon Development

Low-carbon Development
Author: Augusto de la Torre
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821380818
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Governments and civil society in Latin America and the Caribbean should be well informed about the potential costs and benefits of combating climate change, their policy options over the next decades, and the global context for these policy decisions. At the same time, the global community needs to be better informed about the unique perspective of the Latin American and Caribbean region: problems the region will face, its potential contributions toward combating global warming, and how to maximize this potential while continuing to maintain growth and reduce poverty. This book, a companion volume to Low Carbon, High Growth: Latin American Responses to Climate Change, seeks to help fill both these needs.