scholarly journals Fire-induced loss of the world’s most biodiverse forests in Latin America

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (33) ◽  
pp. eabd3357
Author(s):  
Dolors Armenteras ◽  
Liliana M. Dávalos ◽  
Joan S. Barreto ◽  
Alejandro Miranda ◽  
Angela Hernández-Moreno ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Forest Loss ◽  
Evergreen Forests ◽  
Relative Extent ◽  
The Tropics

Fire plays a dominant role in deforestation, particularly in the tropics, but the relative extent of transformations and influence of fire frequency on eventual forest loss remain unclear. Here, we analyze the frequency of fire and its influence on postfire forest trajectories between 2001 and 2018. We account for ~1.1% of Latin American forests burnt in 2002–2003 (8,465,850 ha). Although 40.1% of forests (3,393,250 ha) burned only once, by 2018, ~48% of the evergreen forests converted to other, primarily grass-dominated uses. While greater fire frequency yielded more transformation, our results reveal the staggering impact of even a single fire. Increasing fire frequency imposes greater risks of irreversible forest loss, transforming forests into ecosystems increasingly vulnerable to degradation. Reversing this trend is indispensable to both mitigate and adapt to climate change globally. As climate change transforms fire regimes across the region, key actions are needed to conserve Latin American forests.

US election will roil Latin American outlook

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Central America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Trade Barriers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Weak Support ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Us

Subject The US election impact in Latin America. Significance Donald Trump's victory in the US elections was received with concern in Latin America, where most governments informally supported Hillary Clinton's campaign and were expecting continuity in US foreign policy. Trump's positions on migration are particularly worrying for Mexico and Central America. His agenda in other areas is not clear: during the campaign, he made few statements about the region and maintained some contradictory positions on several issues, including relations with Cuba. Impacts Trump's victory will have an impact on domestic policy debates in many countries. Backpedalling on climate change would represent a major regional concern. Already weak support for economic orthodoxy and reduced trade barriers will decline further.

The Decline of US Military Influence in Latin America

1993 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Samuel Fitch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Aid ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
Military Relations

The US military presence in Latin America has declined significantly over the last two decades, particularly in the major countries of the region. Despite the determined efforts of the Reagan administration to reverse that trend, with few exceptions the present ability of the United States to influence the Latin American militaries is far removed from the dominant role it played in the 1950s and 1960s. Given the pressures in Washington for further cuts in military aid programs, the trend toward declining US influence and increasingly divergent US-Latin American military interests is likely to continue in the 1990s. Although the United States will continue to be a major force in the region, the primary instruments of US influence are likely to be economic, rather than military-to-military relations.

scholarly journals The distribution of biodiversity richness in the tropics

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (37) ◽  
pp. eabc6228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter H. Raven ◽  
Roy E. Gereau ◽  
Peter B. Phillipson ◽  
Cyrille Chatelain ◽  
Clinton N. Jenkins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Vascular Plant ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
Tropical Asia ◽  
Latin American Region ◽  
Afrotropical Region ◽  
Tropical Areas ◽  
Global Biodiversity ◽  
The Tropics

We compare the numbers of vascular plant species in the three major tropical areas. The Afrotropical Region (Africa south of the Sahara Desert plus Madagascar), roughly equal in size to the Latin American Region (Mexico southward), has only 56,451 recorded species (about 170 being added annually), as compared with 118,308 recorded species (about 750 being added annually) in Latin America. Southeast Asia, only a quarter the size of the other two tropical areas, has approximately 50,000 recorded species, with an average of 364 being added annually. Thus, Tropical Asia is likely to be proportionately richest in plant diversity, and for biodiversity in general, for its size. In the animal groups we reviewed, the patterns of species diversity were mostly similar except for mammals and butterflies. Judged from these relationships, Latin America may be home to at least a third of global biodiversity.

scholarly journals Pensar el pasado para adaptarse al cambio climático. El aporte necesario de la historia ambiental latinoamericana/ Thinking about the past in order to adapt to climate change. The necessary contribution from Latin American environmental history

2018 ◽  
pp. 8-26
Author(s):  
Katherinne Giselle Mora Pacheco
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Academic World ◽  
America Latina ◽  
The Relationship

Este artículo resalta la necesidad de involucrar a la historia en la construcción de estrategias adaptativas para el presente y el futuro. También presenta un balance sobre algunas de las reflexiones sobre la adaptación frente al cambio climático en perspectiva histórica, principalmente desde el mundo anglosajón, pero con trabajos pioneros para América Latina. El texto invita a ir más allá de las historias de coyunturas y fracasos, para reconstruir visiones de mediano y largo plazo sobre la relación clima-sociedad, que incluyan los casos en los cuales el resultado no fue fatídico. Por último, señala algunas tareas y metodologías que los historiadores ambientales latinoamericanos pueden incluir en sus agendas investigativas. Abstract This article highlights how important is the participation of history in the design of adaptive strategies for the present and future. Also, it does a balance about some reflections on adaptation to climate change in historical perspective, mainly from the Anglo-Saxon academic world, but with some exceptions from Latin America. The article is an invitation to go beyond the stories of conjuncture and failures, to reconstruct medium and long-term visions about the relationship between climate and society, which include the cases in which the result was not fateful. Finally, it indicates some tasks and methodologies for research agendas of environmental historians in Latin America.

scholarly journals Art for a Future Planet

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-180
Author(s):  
Joanna Page
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Valuable Contribution ◽  
Science Projects ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Climate Crisis

Abstract Joanna Zylinska proposes a “feminist counterapocalypse,” which would resist the anthropocentric, technicist perspectives that shape apocalyptic narratives of climate crisis. Like Anna Tsing’s exploration of collaborative survival, Zylinska’s counterapocalypse is founded on the notion of precarity as a shared condition of life in the postindustrial world. This article focuses on art-science projects by Joaquín Fargas (Argentina) and Paul Rosero Contreras (Ecuador) that imagine environmental futures. In contrasting their projects the author asks how they endorse or subvert the anthropocentrism that often motivates the representation of climate change as reversible (humans save the planet) or, indeed, as irreversible (humans destroy the planet). Drawing on the work of Andreas Weber and several Latin American scholars, including Eduardo Gudynas and Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, the author suggests ways in which biosemiotic and biocentric perspectives may make a valuable contribution to the counterapocalypse Zylinska proposes. The analysis of Rosero’s work in particular opens up ways in which one might consider other paradigms rather than precarity as the basis for a postanthropocentric counterapocalypse, including abundance, reciprocity, collaboration, and coevolution. These are found everywhere in complex ecosystems and relate closely to the principles on which theories and practices of the commons are founded, both in Latin America and beyond.

Climate agenda on the eve of COP-26: experience of Latin America

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikhail G. Troyansky ◽  
Oleg G. Karpovich ◽  
Alina V. Davydova
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Early Warning Systems ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Climate Agreements ◽  
International Climate Agreements ◽  
International Climate

The newest world history has been marked by economic crises, environmental disasters an increase in intrastate and interstate armed conflicts, as well as an escalating confrontation in the field of energy resources. Among these risks, environmental problems such as global warming, sea level rise, soil erosion and shortages of food and fossil fuels have become unprecedentedly visible. This article focuses on a new climate agenda in the light of COP-26, taking place in Glasgow, and the regional experience of Latin America in confronting climate threats and adapting to climate changes since the ratification of the 2015 Paris Agreement. The authors consider the main international climate instruments, as well as those achievements on the way to greening national economies, which were undertaken by the LAC states within the mechanisms of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Since the ratification of the Paris Agreement, every Latin American state has made progress in implementing the environmental agenda and developing legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change. The conclusion highlights the need for broad state participation on the base of proven instruments for solving major environmental problems, further developing early warning systems and consistent implementation of the planned action plans to reduce the risk of disasters and their consequences. Primary importance is attached to interstate dialogue to tackle the environmental challenges, commitment to the responsible fulfillment of international climate agreements and further development of international framework in the field of environmental law. Joint initiatives among the states of the region are expected to have significant effect on reducing emissions of these gases. Moreover, the market-based instruments proposed by the Paris Agreement are known to be an important complement to the ongoing efforts to comply with the overall UNFCCC climate agenda.

scholarly journals Temperature-controlled tundra fire severity and frequency during the last millennium in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska

The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 1223-1233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarunetr Sae-Lim ◽  
James M Russell ◽  
Richard S Vachula ◽  
Robert M Holmes ◽  
Paul J Mann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Temperature Reconstruction ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Last Millennium ◽  
Lake Sediment Core ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Tundra Ecosystems

Wildfire is an important disturbance to Arctic tundra ecosystems. In the coming decades, tundra fire frequency, intensity, and extent are projected to increase because of anthropogenic climate change. To more accurately predict the effects of climate change on tundra fire regimes, it is critical to have detailed knowledge of the natural frequency and extent of past wildfires and how they responded to past climate variability. We present analyses of fire frequency and temperature from a lake sediment core from the Yukon-Kuskokwim (YK) Delta. Our ca. 1000 macroscopic charcoal record shows more frequent but possibly less severe tundra fires during the first half of the last millennium, whereas less frequent, possibly more severe fires characterize the latter half. Our temperature reconstruction, based on distributional changes of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs), shows slightly warmer conditions from ca. AD 1000 to 1500, and cooler conditions thereafter (ca. AD 1500 to 2000), suggesting that fire frequency increases when climate is relatively warmer in this region. When wildfires occur more frequently, fire severity may decrease because of limited biomass (fuel source) accumulating between fires. The data suggest that tundra ecosystems are highly sensitive to climate change, and that a warmer climate, which is predicted to develop in the near future, will result in more frequent tundra wildfires.

scholarly journals POLITICS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POLITICAL PARTIES AND CLIMATE ISSUES IN LATIN AMERICA

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL RYAN
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political System ◽  
Relevant Issue ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Climate Problem

Abstract This article explores the politicization of climate issues in the Latin American context. In other words, to what extent climate change is a relevant issue for political parties and coalitions. This is a key aspect to analyze in order to have a better understanding of the opportunities and obstacles that affect the development of the climate agenda in a given political system. Specifically, the article addresses three key issues. First, it analyses the patterns of politicization of the climate problem prevailing among mainstream political parties and coalitions in countries of the region. Second, it addresses what factors influence the level of politicization of the climate agenda in Latin America. Finally, it explores the consequences of a greater or lesser level of politicization.

Climate Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean: Success Stories and Challenges in the Fight against Climate Change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio Cárdenas ◽  
Juan Pablo Bonilla ◽  
Federico Brusa
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Success Stories ◽  
Adoption And Implementation ◽  
The Caribbean

This work is aimed at nontraditional climate policy actors such as the finance and planning ministries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The objective is to provide a glimpse into the existing, limited, regional examples of how effective climate policy may be achieved while also contributing to sustainable economic and social development. The objectives of this work are multiple: (i) identify regional, tested, growth-spurring policy options that also contribute to sustainable development; (ii) present public and private financial solutions that may enable a just transition; (iii) offer considerations on regionally relevant green recovery packages; (iv) frame these elements within the existing regional political economya necessary condition for effective implementation; and (v) identify existing knowledge gaps while suggesting research avenues to further support the adoption of relevant measures. The Latin American and Caribbean region is highly vulnerable to climate change. Historically, the region has adopted an “adaptation first” posture. The regions early adoption and implementation of the Paris Agreements Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) framework also led to some ambitious decarbonization plans, as well as to considerable advances in the energy and transportation sectors. As countries submit the second iteration of their NDCs, some coordinated whole-of-government approaches emerge. Notwithstanding some positive signs, plenty remains to be done in sectors such as agriculture. From an implementation perspective, the challenge remains the same: to transform ambitious objectives into measurable results.

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