Today, the UN Environment Program releases an atlas of the future of the environment in Latin America and the Caribbean. This is the latest in a series on atlases on changing environments that uses satellite images to highlight such issues as growing urbanization, land degradation, mining impacts, deforestation, availability of fresh water, coastal development, shrinking glaciers, agricultural change, and the impact of natural disasters. This big-picture regional approach is meant to open the eyes of both policy makers and the public to large-scale changes that will impact quality of life, hoping to guide the discourse and take action, and it’s working.
The Africa atlas that was released in June of 2008 has resulted in tangible projects on the ground. In Mali, the impact of losing Lake Faguibine was highlighted, and now there are restoration projects to bring that lake back. It is hoped that this latest Atlas will have a similar effect on a region with great environmental richness, but also profound development pressures.
The Atlas provides both regional information as well as relevant environmental issues in each country, with 65 specific national cases. The more than 200 satellite images, maps and graphs provide a clear sense of the rapid urbanization that has taken place, often without adequate planning.
The effects of climate change are evident in satellite images of glaciers in Chilean and Argentine Patagonia. Deforestation can be seen in countries such as Brazil, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Mexico, Guatemala and Haiti. The impact of mining is illustrated through pictures of La Guajira (Colombia) and Cerro de Pasco (Peru), while high-resolution images show the impact of the natural disasters that struck Haiti in January 2010. Other environmental problems highlighted by the Atlas include changes in land use, loss of biodiversity and degradation of coastal areas.
Given the broad diversity of environments and ecosystems, and the seeming abundance, it’s easy to see how a feeling of limitless resources could pervade in Latin America, particularly in areas of sparser population. Hopefully this big-picture approach will cue reasonable curbs on development that have both long-term and long-lasting effects.
