The environmental history of Latin America

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Sustainability in Latin America becomes priority
By Bjorn Stigson, Earth Times News Service, 2 January 1998. The capitalist assumptions that social wellbeing results from a downward flow of wealth and that this wealth arises from market competitiveness. Although this implies eventual destruction of the environment, author nevertheless suggests that a more efficient exploitation of the environment is the answer and that a static relation with the environment is somehow compatible with the need for economic expansion.
The Veins Opened by the North Haven't Healed
Néfer Muñoz, IPS, 24 March 2000. Latin America should charge the industrialised North compensation for the damages it has inflicted to the environment in the region. Industrialised countries have exported enormous amounts of raw materials from Latin America for many years, without compensating for the environmental costs, which exceed national indebtedness.
Liberal Reforms Give Pollution a Boost
By Gustavo Gonzálezm, IPS, 27 July 2000. Liberal economic reforms implemented throughout Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s have worsened industrial pollution in the region. Exports are a determining factor in the environmental impacts of economic reforms initiated in recent decades, which were based on trade liberalisation, floating prices and incentives for foreign investors.