How have certain nations become overly dependent on foreign investors and external economic forces? Why have they sacrificed self-reliance, and control over their own destinies? The problems of poverty and underdevelopment provide a central, unifying theme for the text Defending the Land of Four Quarters: Globalization, Environment, and Sustainable Development in the Americas.
The book explores and reviews a set of themes associated with the transformation of social and physical environments, and reviews important streams of knowledge about sustainable development using specific examples from Mexico and South America. Topics covered include:

• Rethinking Development
• Sustainability, Nature, and Local Culture
• Nature and Cities
• Globalization, Design, and the Environmental Impacts of Tourism
• Sustainability and Regional Development: The Case of Peru
• Sustainable Cities
• Sustainable Policy-Making

The selected readings discuss models for moving past poverty, dependence, and exploitation, and explore pathways to sustainable development—economic and social growth that respects local and regional culture.

Thoughtful and insightful, Defending the Land of Four Quarters can be used in courses on economic development, Latin American Studies, and sustainability.