creation and upkeep of adequate infrastructure. Now as the international community continues to place increasing emphasis on sustainable development and protection of the global environment, governments look towards the many effects of urbanization on the environment and grapple with the task of finding solutions to promote sustainable development. Focusing on Argentina, which has an astronomical 91.1% level of urbanization (United Nations Human Settlement Indicators), this essay will explore both the negative environmental effects that urbanization has wrought on the nation as well as the recent attempts of the Argentine government to militate these effects, and finally will recommend various solutions to deal with the changing relationship of people to their environment due to the process of urbanization. I. Urbanization Trends in Latin America Latin America saw a marked trend towards urbanization throughout the 20th century that continues into the present day. While today the levels of urbanization are slightly higher than those in Europe, and comparable to those measured in North America, the pace at which Latin America has achieved such a high level of urbanization—calculated at 75.3% on average for the entire region in 2000—has greatly exceeded that of Europe and North America (Cerrutti and Bertoncello). In 1925, North America had an average level of urbanization at 53.8%,
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