Politics, Business & Culture in the Americas

Environment & Sustainability

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How the Caribbean Can Prepare for More Violent Hurricanes

This article has been updated The hurricanes that battered the Caribbean this summer left few communities untouched. But the approximately 4.4 million people living in low-elevation coastal zones (LECZs), coastal areas less than 10 meters above sea level, paid a particularly heavy price. Hurricane Irma, for example, destroyed homes throughout the Turks and Caicos, where … Read more

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Moira Birss: Colombia’s Government Hasn’t Taken Responsibility on Deforestation

For our latest print issue on Colombia, we asked experts, executives, politicians and everyday people about the biggest issue facing Colombia’s next president. See all of their answers here. If life on our planet is to survive climate change, we must drastically and urgently slash greenhouse gas emissions and conserve forests. Colombia’s next president will face many … Read more

Uprimny_top_Credit_ Mónica Orjuela

Rodrigo Uprimny: Reviving Aerial Coca Spraying Would Be a Mistake

For our latest print issue on Colombia, we asked experts, executives, politicians and everyday people about the biggest issue facing Colombia’s next president. See all of their answers here. Colombia’s next president will have to resist internal and external pressures to reactivate aerial spraying of illicit crops. Between 2002 and 2015, some 3.8 million acres of coca … Read more

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Brazil’s Rollbacks Jeopardize the Amazon’s Future

Brazilian President Michel Temer’s June 26 indictment on corruption allegations marked a new peak in the country’s political crisis. While the charges grabbed global headlines, they also overshadowed the environmental crisis unfolding in the Brazilian Amazon, where vast tracts of protected forests and indigenous territories are under growing threat.   Brazilian forests are being felled … Read more

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Why Central America’s Drought Is Harder On Women

Over the past 18 years, Rosalita García has nursed all 10 of her children back to health after bouts of malnutrition. But her three-year-old son’s recent hospital visit in Chiquimula, Guatemala has the 37-year-old mother more worried than usual. “I was able to feed my kids better before because it rained,” García told AQ. “But … Read more

Camilo Mosquera

Threats to Environmental Activists Put Colombia’s Indigenous at Risk

While Colombia has made remarkable strides in reducing violence over the last two decades, the country remains a dangerous – and even deadly – place for environmental activists. According to a report released June 20 by the advocacy group Global Witness, at least 26 land and environmental activists were killed in the country in 2015. … Read more

Surfing El Salvador

How Surfing Helps El Salvador’s Economy

At the onset of the 1980s, surf tourism in El Salvador seemed like a fading pipe dream. The country’s fledgling industry, which had shown some potential in the 1970s, stalled as Salvadorans braced for civil war. For the next 12 years, as battles raged between the right-wing government and political dissidents of the Farabundo Martí … Read more

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Americas Quarterly (AQ) is the premier publication on politics, business, and culture in Latin America. We are an independent publication of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, based in New York City. All Rights Reserved

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