In some ways, the issues facing Latin American and Caribbean nations at next month’s United Nations global-warming summit in Copenhagen couldn’t be clearer. With global deforestation accounting for more greenhouse emissions than the entire world transport sector, the need to slow land clearing is urgent in these countries, which possess the earth’s greatest concentration of tropical woodlands. The region also has an acute need for programs and projects aimed at dealing with the emerging impacts of climate change. In forecasts of global-warming effects, Latin American and Caribbean countries rank among the most vulnerable to rising sea levels, drought, intensification of storms, and the loss of agricultural productivity. Disturbingly unclear, though, is how a path forward on these issues will be found at the... [Log in to read more]