Latin America and the environmental health movement

Author(s):  
Ana Faggi ◽  
Sylvie Nail ◽  
Carolina C. Sgobaro Zanette ◽  
Germán Tovar Corzo

Although Latin American cities, on the whole, suffer from haphazard urbanism and environmental inequalities, concern around public health and nature has begun to emerge. Different ongoing initiatives relating to the ecosystem services of urban green attempt, among other things, to mitigate the effects of air pollution on respiratory problems. Green infrastructure across the subcontinent today offers opportunities—and represents challenges—for the implementation of policies promoting health and well-being which are emblematic of the urban revitalization process. This chapter shows some ongoing trends from Bogotá, Buenos Aires, and Curitiba, three representative cities in the region, that reflect the role of green spaces for the health and well-being of urban-dwellers in Latin American cities.

Much literature on environmental health has described threats from the environment. The Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health: The Role of Nature in Improving the Health of a Population focuses on the role of nature for our health and well-being by demonstrating how we can gain multiple health benefits from nature, and how much we risk losing by destroying our surrounding natural environment. Providing a broad and inclusive picture of the multifaceted relation between human health and natural environments, the books covers all aspects of this relationship ranging from disease prevention; through physical activity in green spaces, to ecosystem services like climate change adaptation by urban trees preventing heat stress in hot climates. Nature’s potential hazardous consequences are also discussed including natural disasters, vector-borne pathogens, and allergies.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pricila Mullachery ◽  
Daniel A. Rodriguez ◽  
J. Jaime Miranda ◽  
Nancy Lopez-Olmedo ◽  
Kevin Martinez-Folgar ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Elizabeth Dettori ◽  
Geeta Rao Gupta

This chapter identifies some of the most stubborn gender-based risks and vulnerabilities girls face as a cohort from preadolescence through late adolescence across the domains of personal capabilities, security, safety, economic resources, and opportunities. It reviews progress made during the Millennium Development Goal era in improving girls’ health and well-being and looks to the role of adolescent girls in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. The chapter concludes by recommending an approach for global partnership that is linked to national and local actions and that is centered on priority interventions that can catalyze change, at scale, for adolescent girls.


1962 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard M. Morse

This essay will advance two interrelated hypotheses about the Latin American city. The first of them has to do with the role of the city in the settlement of the New World. The second suggests certain characteristics of the modern Latin American metropolis.


Author(s):  
Ieva Ančevska

The article examines the depiction of gratitude and related events in Latvian folklore through comparative evaluation. Gratitude is considered in a psychological context, comparing the attitude expressed in folklore with the findings of modern scientific research. Gratitude is a concept that is usually associated with a relationship or a benefit, it is most often aimed outwards, dedicated to someone else, but at the same time, it creates a pleasant feeling within the person. In modern psychology, gratitude is receiving more and more attention from researchers because its manifestations stimulate the formation of positive emotions and contribute to the improvement of the person’s overall well-being. Research and clinical studies in psychotherapy confirm that gratitude plays an important role in improving mental health and reducing depressive, destructive feelings. In turn, neuroscience research shows the potential of a grateful and positive attitude in strengthening psycho-emotional health and well-being in general. In Latvian folklore, gratitude is depicted as an important part of ritual events, which helps to ensure a positive, balanced connection with the forces of nature, gods, and society. In folklore, the importance of gratitude is emphasised more when building family relationships or accepting various situations and occurrences in life. In both psychological research and the practice of systemic therapy, as well as in folklore, gratitude appears as one of the most important values of interpersonal connection, which promotes the formation of harmonious relationships. Similar to the opinions of psychology, the folk world views emphasise the motivational role of gratitude in improving the quality of human life and health in general.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Marcelo Korc ◽  
Fred Hauchman

This paper highlights the important leadership role of the public health sector, working with other governmental sectors and nongovernmental entities, to advance environmental public health in Latin America and the Caribbean toward the achievement of 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 3: Health and Well-Being. The most pressing current and future environmental public health threats are discussed, followed by a brief review of major historical and current international and regional efforts to address these concerns. The paper concludes with a discussion of three major components of a regional environmental public health agenda that responsible parties can undertake to make significant progress toward ensuring the health and well-being of all people throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.


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