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Environment of Latin America

Explore the main environmental issues in Mexico City, Venezuela, and Brazil, focusing on air pollution, oil production, and deforestation in the rainforests. Learn about the causes, effects, and significance of these challenges in each region.

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Environment of Latin America

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  1. Environment of Latin America What are the main concerns in Mexico City, Venezuela, and Brazil?

  2. Mexico City  Air Pollution • What is air pollution? • Air pollution is pollution of the atmosphere.

  3. What are the causes of air pollution? • In Mexico City the population is 22 million. • Mexico City is 7 times the size of Atlanta. • Multiply all the cars in Atlanta by 7…Can you imagine how many cars that is. • Why do cars contribute to air pollution? • When fuels burn gases such as carbon monoxide, ozone sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides are released.

  4. Can you see the smog????

  5. What is smog? • Smog is the visible pollution in the air.

  6. Tell me what you see.

  7. What are the effects of air pollution? • Air pollution causes lung conditions. • It effects children and the elderly in a much more severe way. • Causes asthma and allergies. • These pollutants harm eyes, lungs, and the heart.

  8. “It’s no laughing matter!” • Any primary schoolteacher knows a disturbing fact of life in Mexico’s capital: children rarely use the color blue when they paint the sky in one of the world’s most polluted cities. • Most, like 8-year-old Hiram Gonzalez at a public school in the city’s crowded center, pick colors like gray, brown or even black to depict the pall that hangs over the city of roughly 18 million people. “The sky here is yucky color", Gonzalez said to the laughs of his classmates.

  9. WOW!! Bet you didn’t think of that! • But it is no laughing matter. Mexico City has just been decorated by the U.S.-based World Resources Institute with the insalubrious award of most dangerous city in the world for children in terms of air pollution. • Several times a year, when the sky darkens with pollution, Gonzalez and his fellow students are banned from playing outside and must sit indoors until the smog emergency passes.

  10. Venezuela  OIL • What is oil? • Is it a natural resource? • What are the uses of oil? • Who has the most oil in the world? • So what is the problem….????? • Oil production results in toxic wastes, air pollution, and occasional oil spillage.

  11. More Problems: • So what was the problem…I didn’t understand!! • The people in oil-producing regions suffer from high levels of cancer, skin problems, breathing problems, and digestive tract problems. • Oil causes a lot more problems than you probably had ever thought of. • Of course when oil is burned, it contributes to air pollution.

  12. Background Info: • Perhaps the most important thing to know about Venezuela is that it is an oil exporting country, the fifth largest in the world, with the largest reserves of conventional oil in the western hemisphere and the largest reserves of non-conventional oil in the world. • This fact is of immense importance to understanding Venezuela because it has shaped practically every aspect of the country, its history, its economy, its politics, and its culture.

  13. How important is Oil to Venezuela? • Oil generates about 80 percent of the country’s total export revenue, contributes about half of the central government’s income, and is responsible for about one-third of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

  14. What is this a picture of?

  15. Venezuela flag flies next to its money maker. • Currently: there is friction between oil companies and those who are trying to stop the use of oil. • Many activists are trying to end U.S.’s dependency on oil. • What is an activist?

  16. Working hard on the rig.

  17. How has the U.S. economy effected Venezuela? • Venezuelan energy officials say they are prepared to reduce oil exports to bolster the falling price of oil worldwide. South America's leading oil producer already has decided to cut oil shipments to two U.S. refineries. • Hey did you know… Venezuela is run by a dictatorship.

  18. What is a dictatorship? • Dictatorship: a country, government, or the form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a dictator. • There is an election of sorts, but Venezuelans do not have much say in the way things are run. All oil companies are owned by the government. • What is life like for those in Venezuela?

  19. Brazil • What do you find in Brazil??? • RAINFORESTS • Why are the Rainforests in danger?

  20. Rainforests: How big is it? • Brazil holds about one-third of the world's remaining rainforests, including a majority of the Amazon rainforest. • It is also overwhelmingly the most biodiverse country on Earth, with more than 56,000 described species of plants, 1,700 species of birds, 695 amphibians, 578 mammals, and 651 reptiles.

  21. Lots of Info, So listen Up! • The bulk of Brazil's forest cover is found in the Amazon Basin. • Includes rainforests (the vast majority), seasonal forests, deciduous forests, flooded forests, and savannas. • This region has experienced an exceptional extent of forest loss —an area almost certainly exceeding 232,000 square miles • About 15% of its total surface area has been cleared since 1970. • Majority of the deforestation in the 1970s coincided with the construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway, which opened large forest areas to development by settlers and commercial interests. • In more recent years, growing populations in the Amazon region, combined with increased viability of agricultural operations, have caused a further rise in deforestation rates. • Since the close of the 1990s, deforestation rates of primary forest cover in Brazil have climbed by 35 percent.

  22. Who is affected by deforestation? • The local people are effected. • Not always in negative ways. For example, the Trans-Continental Hwy and area for farms. • The world is effected in a negative way. • The rainforest in Brazil is known as the “Lungs of the World.” • WHY???

  23. Kaiapo shaman in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil

  24. Ticuna child in a doorway of a hut

  25. THE END • Make sure that you have answered all questions thoroughly! • When you’re done with your notes, take out your choice activity packet and choose two of the following to complete about environmental issues: • Acrostic Poem (NO ONE WORD ANSWERS) • Advertisement • Concept Map (include causes, effects, solutions) • Diamante Poem • Letter of Advice • Magazine Cover • Newspaper Article • Poster • Song Rewrite

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