Since the 1890s, over half of Guatemala's forests have been destroyed. In the 90s, the nation has obtained 90% of its energy from wood, losing 40,000 to 60,000 hectares of forest per year, according to the Nations Encyclopedia.
"At the end of the 1980s, when this zone was not yet a national park, Basic Petroleum obtained an oil exploration concession in the Laguna del Tigre area, in the heart of the forest," said Marco Cerezo, a Guatemalan environmentalist who founded FundaEco, a leading NGO dedicated to nature conservation and development to The Huffington Post "Later, the oil companies asked for, and obtained, permission to build a road to their oil wells. And that is where the land clearing started, all along that road. Now approximately 40% of the national park has been cleared."
According to the U.N. F.A.O., Between 1990 and 2010, Guatemala lost an average of 54,550 ha or 1.15% per year. In total, between 1990 and 2010, Guatemala lost 23.0% of its forest cover, or around 1,091,000 ha.
 |
| Deforestation is the biggest environmental issue in Guatemala. This image from NASA showed clearly the serious situation between 1975 and 2007. (Credit: NASA) |
Guatemala is home to 1,246 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles, and 8,681 species of plants, of which 13.5 percent are endemic. Today forest covers between a quarter and a third of the country, but this is fast disappearing. Between 1990 and 2005, Guatemala lost 17 percent of its total forest cover and deforestation rates have increased by nearly 13 percent since the close of the 1990s, according to mongabay.com.
Other than deforestation, water pollution is also one of the main environmental issues in Guatemala. The water supply for Guatemala is at risk dues to industrial and agricultural toxins.
Human rights are also affect by climate change. According to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) report, nine activists have been killed since the beginning of 2015 in Guatemala, mainly in indigenous communities opposed to infrastructure and mining projects.
 | |||
| Indigenous communities protecting their rights turning to international treaties. (Credit: dw.com) |
According to the article on DW, the lack of government accountability can be traced back to a lack of will to prosecute violence against activists.
The FIDH report also pointed out that another 337 attacks against human rights and environmental activists in Guatemala were also reported for 2015. The report indicated that especially since ex-military Otto Perez came into power in 2012, more violence has been registered against such activists.
Farish Noor talked about going beyond eurocentrism in his book. He mentioned that the world is not only “familiar with Baywatch, American fast food restaurants, and Coca-Cola” but also that the world knows about these things proves an acceptance of Western culture itself. This knowledge of the norms of the Western culture has lead to the misunderstanding of Westerners believing their values are global and universal.
I cannot help but think that this is an accurate theory. I think that the world is so big that we only know so little about other places in the world. But one thing I noticed when I first came to America is that people are very centered on its own little ideas. I think that some people here in America has take the freedom that they have for granted. By saying this, I meant that the ability to reach out for more information was neglected. It is a privilege, since a lot of places in the world do not have access to the internet and get information. I think that Americans should treasure and take this privilege as an opportunity to get hungry and reach out for more information.
No comments:
Post a Comment