Chapter 8
From the origins to the boom, the bust to the revolution, we have made it through the environmental revolutions of Ecuador. Its complex and troubled past made it difficult for Ecuador to find its place in the context of an ever-changing world. Valuable natural resources and biodiversity pulled the state in many different directions, but it ultimately found its way to the side of conservation (thankfully for us).
Any number of people would have turned Yasuni National park over to the oil industry. Since enough people cared enough to actually recognize its value beyond the oil, the beautiful and diverse landscapes were saved. That doesn’t mean they’ll be safe forever.
If you study Ecuador, you can learn many things, depending on what your focus is. For a developing country, you can see how much transnational funding really affects your areas of concern. So in Ecuador, since people were most concerned about conserving their unique landscape, foreign funding came from environmentalists. They held a lot of power in the country during that time in Ecuador’s history.
Another important thing we, as Americans, can take away from our study of Ecuador is how our involvement in other country’s affairs really affects that particular country. We have a tendency to put our nose in business that doesn’t necessarily have to be our business, and which can be good or bad depending on the scenario. In the particular case of Ecuador, I believe our assistance in their affairs was what ultimately lifted them out of poverty and allowed them to truly develop into their own independent state. Even if things aren’t perfect yet, they have the experience needed to carry on on their own. Sometimes things don’t turn out so well when we try to help other nations. With Ecuador, we only lost their support with President Correa. This doesn’t mean that we are on bad terms with them, so in this case, it turned out alright.
The book overall was very thorough in providing the information needed to understand how Ecuador became what it is today. We discussed many of the social, economic, and environmental issues †hat faced the country, how they overcame them, and the problems they still struggle with today. While the majority was centered around the politics involved in environmental protection, much of the background information provided was needed to understand the origins and history of the issues at hand.
The concept of sustainability was another very important topic discussed. This idea applies to so much more than just our study. We can apply sustainability and systems thinking to everything we do. It is a valuable thing to realize how everything is connected in one way or another and what we can do to intervene in these cycles to fix human-caused harm.
I look forward to learning more about the country through our additional readings, but I’m glad we read this to get a better understanding of the current state of Ecuador. I felt that the topics were a bit hard to follow at times, but overall, this was very important information.
Any number of people would have turned Yasuni National park over to the oil industry. Since enough people cared enough to actually recognize its value beyond the oil, the beautiful and diverse landscapes were saved. That doesn’t mean they’ll be safe forever.
If you study Ecuador, you can learn many things, depending on what your focus is. For a developing country, you can see how much transnational funding really affects your areas of concern. So in Ecuador, since people were most concerned about conserving their unique landscape, foreign funding came from environmentalists. They held a lot of power in the country during that time in Ecuador’s history.
Another important thing we, as Americans, can take away from our study of Ecuador is how our involvement in other country’s affairs really affects that particular country. We have a tendency to put our nose in business that doesn’t necessarily have to be our business, and which can be good or bad depending on the scenario. In the particular case of Ecuador, I believe our assistance in their affairs was what ultimately lifted them out of poverty and allowed them to truly develop into their own independent state. Even if things aren’t perfect yet, they have the experience needed to carry on on their own. Sometimes things don’t turn out so well when we try to help other nations. With Ecuador, we only lost their support with President Correa. This doesn’t mean that we are on bad terms with them, so in this case, it turned out alright.
The book overall was very thorough in providing the information needed to understand how Ecuador became what it is today. We discussed many of the social, economic, and environmental issues †hat faced the country, how they overcame them, and the problems they still struggle with today. While the majority was centered around the politics involved in environmental protection, much of the background information provided was needed to understand the origins and history of the issues at hand.
The concept of sustainability was another very important topic discussed. This idea applies to so much more than just our study. We can apply sustainability and systems thinking to everything we do. It is a valuable thing to realize how everything is connected in one way or another and what we can do to intervene in these cycles to fix human-caused harm.
I look forward to learning more about the country through our additional readings, but I’m glad we read this to get a better understanding of the current state of Ecuador. I felt that the topics were a bit hard to follow at times, but overall, this was very important information.