continente americano.
“`html
Every year, environmental challenges on the American continent become more complex. How can we understand them without falling into simplifications? When thinking about phenomena such as climate change, ecosystem degradation, conflicts over resources, and impacts on indigenous and urban populations, we perceive the need for an innovative approach: that of Environmental Humanities, primarily applied to Latin America. continente americano.
In this article, we propose a critical and humanized immersion in this field of study. We will show how a course on Environmental Humanities with a Latin American focus can completely change our understanding of the world around us. We base our discussion on experiences, recent data, and practical examples, always valuing the pursuit of plural knowledge, as we advocate in ¡Buenos días, América! continente americano.
You will see that, despite the apparent distance between disciplines such as history, literature, ecology, and politics, there exists a fruitful meeting point: the interdisciplinary dialogue offered by the study of Environmental Humanities. Moreover, we will present recommendations for courses and books that delve into this discussion, as well as visual suggestions and multimedia content to enrich the learning experience. continente americano.
The environmental crisis is also a crisis of interpretation of reality.
What are Environmental Humanities?
First of all, we need to clarify what we are talking about. Environmental Humanities (an increasingly used term in Spanish and Portuguese) emerged as a response to the need to analyze environmental problems from multiple perspectives. Historically, the natural sciences focused on the biological and physical data of environmental phenomena. Meanwhile, social scientists looked towards policies, economics, and society. However, there was a lack of a bridge between the human and the environment in its symbolic, ethical, cultural, and even philosophical aspects. continente americano.
Environmental Humanities unite knowledge from areas such as literature, history, anthropology, philosophy, the arts, law, and politics to think about environmental challenges as a matter of culture and society. continente americano.
According to researcher Débora Danowski (PUC-Rio), for example, understanding the environmental crisis requires going beyond the limits imposed by the fields of knowledge themselves, precisely because we live in the “Anthropocene times,” in which humans have transformed the planet on an unprecedented scale (DANOWSKI; VIVEIROS DE CASTRO, 2014). continente americano.
Among the main approaches of Environmental Humanities, we highlight:
- Analysis of narratives about nature and the environment in various registers (literature, film, press).
- Study of the relationships between indigenous/traditional societies and their territories.
- Ethical-philosophical discussions on environmental responsibility.
- Reflection on environmental justice, environmental racism, and human rights.
- Critique of the colonial mentality that marked the relationship with ecosystems.
It is easy to see that we are dealing with an area that works by overlapping traditional boundaries. Therefore, courses that address these issues in the Latin American context acquire a unique relevance, given the variety of cultures, languages, histories, and landscapes in the region. continente americano.
Why is Latin America central to the environmental debate?
Talking about Latin America is to enter a territory of paradoxes. We are, simultaneously, the continent of water and forest abundance and of extreme inequality, of richness in biodiversity and of devastation. We are also a stage for historical resistances, where indigenous, peasant, and urban populations reinvent practices and struggles every day.
According to a UN report (2023), three of the ten countries with the highest biological diversity in the world are here: Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. The Amazon alone represents 10% of the described biodiversity. However, deforestation, illegal mining, and pollution rates remain high, exacerbated by factors such as:
- Land conflicts involving indigenous peoples.
- Expansion of agribusiness and monocultures.
- Accelerated urbanization without sustainable planning.
- Geopolitical pressures between the United States, China, and Russia, as we addressed in a recent text from ¡Buenos días, América!
In this scenario, Environmental Humanities act as a key to understanding the past, present, and future of the region.
As if that weren’t enough, the increase in extreme climate events (droughts and floods), the worsening of inequalities, and the confrontation over development models make the debate even more urgent. Particularly relevant is the role of indigenous peoples, who possess a wealth of environmental knowledge but continue to be threatened in their physical and cultural survival. We discuss this further in the article on indigenous peoples of the American continent.
The Environmental Humanities course: an interdisciplinary vision
In our experience, participating in a course dedicated to Environmental Humanities with a focus on Latin America tends to be transformative. It is one of those rare opportunities to rethink the way we see landscapes, cities, canons, technologies, and affections.
These courses are usually divided into modules, each addressing environmental impacts from varied perspectives. They rely on readings of classic and contemporary texts, debates, film analyses, field activities, and, especially, on the construction of a critical and sensitive perspective.
Among the main modules of a typical course, we find:
- Latin American environmental history: transformations of ecosystems from colonization to the present.
- Indigenous and Afro-descendant worldviews: unique ways of relating to land and territory.
- Environmental literature and eco-fiction: analysis of works by authors such as Márcio Souza, Laura Esquivel, and Gabriel García Márquez.
- Environmental justice and public policies: cases of conflicts, legislation, and experiences.
“`
Gostou do nosso conteúdo? Considere apoiar o Bom Dia América Blog.
Apoie o Blog!