Introduction
Humans react differently when presented with the problem of environmental degradation. There are those who are conservationists while other are just after reaping as much as they can from the environment regardless of the degradation that may take place. Environmental History of Latin America and Defending the land of the Jaguars both handle situations on how human beings react to the problems of environment conservation. This paper analyses the opinions provided by the two authors of the books on the reactions of humans to the problem of environmental conservation.
Environmental History of Latin America
This book generally gives a representation of the fatal historical competition between the humans and the environment in Latin America. The book backdates the history of Latin America from the time of Amerindian development to the present urban agglomerations. The author started by writing a wonderful short introduction to the environmental history of Latin America. He then swerves into provisional opinions and then offers exceptional materials that can keep the students in a healthy discussion to inform them on their consciousness of the environmental procedures and diverse issues across America. The author has managed to offer an original amalgamation of the current erudition on Latin America’s environmental history. He then squabbles that the tropical nature of Latin America played a very imperative role towards determining the historical development of Latin America. He evaluates the environmental past of Latin America to the current situation. He then makes a conclusion that seeing Latin America’s environmental past from the viewpoint of many centuries demonstrates that human civilizations, prehistoric and modern development have all been concurrently more influential and more susceptible than it was formerly thought. The author also manages to provide the readers with a wonderful view of the disorderly ecological history of Latin America. This information is presented in a very attractive and amusing manner.
Defending the land of the Jaguars
On the other hand, the author of the book, “Defending the land of the Jaguars provided us with a broad history of conservation in Mexico. The author has managed to make a difficult topic more accessible. The author gives the first panoramic history of the environmental protection in Mexico from the pre contact lines to the current Mexican environmental movement. He also discovers the genesis of the conservation and the ecological concerns in Mexico. In addition to these, the author further investigates the beliefs and the happenings of the Mexican conservationists and the ratification of significant conservation laws and programs. Lane gives an arrangement of a solid study of the diverse forms of protection and the environmental philosophies that were experienced by all the people who inhabited Mexico. Even though the utilization of the natural capital had been prevailing in Mexico, the author states that the concern for the loss of the natural capital could have also encouraged individuals to campaign for conservation. Lane mainly uses a focal point on the positive biographies of the several considerate and vigorous individuals. The final idea of the text however, is that the history of conservation in Mexico has not been passionately triumphant. The study presented here by the author is a comprehensive representation of a country’s obvious failure to prevent the unalterable dilapidation of its environment because its ever-expanding population must heavily utilize continuously decreasing natural resources not just to continue to exist but to industrialize, build up and contribute in the global economy.
Conclusion
In summary, the authors deal with the key association between Latin American environmental history and the political and social theory. They also offer great contributions to the founding of the environmental history as a vital field of knowledge. The two books and the field of environmental history have a lot of information to offer in a number of disciplines. This is made possible from the way the authors have managed to present the information in a systematic and simple manner for everyone to understand.
References
Simonian, Lane. Defending the Land of the Jaguar: A History of Conservation in Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995
Shawn William Miller, An Environmental History of Latin America Cambridge University Press, 2007
