In ecological matters, we must not succumb to democratic demands

A brief essay on human irrationality

Abstract

This short text attempts to begin a multidisciplinary analysis of the actual environmental situation in Latin American countries and its close relationship with the normative goals of development in that area. The accelerated modernization (with its components: urbanization, industrialization, high living level, massive consumption) builds the normative goal, which till today shapes the prevailing Latin American mentality. This normative goal is an imitation of that which Western civilization has achieved. The lack of a critical vision concerning the environmental situation and demographic phenomena avoids an effective protection of the endangered environmental systems.