The increase in the observational network and data assimilation, linked with advancements in the computational area in recent years, has led to important new findings in the meteorology and climatology of South America. Hence, here is presented a literature review that begins describing the various annual cycles of precipitation and air temperature observed across South America, highlighting two contrasting areas: the Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, and western Colombia, one of the wettest regions in the world. Next, we present the low- and upper-level atmospheric circulation patterns that control the continent’s diverse climates, with an emphasis on the development of the South American Monsoon System. The review also covers the major atmospheric systems affecting the continent at different temporal and spatial scales, such as the Intertropical Convergence Zone, the South Atlantic Convergence Zone, low-level jets, fronts, synoptic-scale cyclones, and mesoscale convective systems. In addition, the climate variability and main teleconnection patterns that affect South America, as well as the climate models’ present-day performance and their future climate projections for the end of the century, are addressed. We conclude by identifying some of the current gaps and discussing future research challenges within the context of South American weather and climate.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of the main features of the general circulation and climate dynamics of the Southern Hemisphere troposphere, including the role of weather systems. The aim of the chapter is to explain, in broad terms, the physical mechanisms shaping Southern Hemisphere tropospheric climate. Many treatments of the atmospheric general circulation place a strong emphasis on the governing equations, as expressed in terms of budgets and fluxes, which invariably leads to an emphasis on the zonal mean. Chapter 1 takes a complementary and more phenomenological perspective starting from regional climatic features. This aligns with the current interest in understanding regional aspects of climate change and provides a foundation for other chapters in the monograph. The chapter begins by describing these regional climatic features through spatial maps of key dynamical fields. It then explains those features in terms of phenomena anchored in dynamical theory, such as monsoon circulations and storm tracks, including their zonal asymmetries. The discussion covers tropical, subtropical, and extratropical tropospheric phenomena and the connections between them. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of how the regional phenomena discussed here are expected to respond to climate change.

The entangled relations of humanity’s natural and digital ecosystems are discussed in terms of the risk-uncertainty conundrum. The discussion focuses on global warming from the perspective of the small world of geoengineering, with a particular focus on geothermal energy, marine geoengineering, and the political economy of mitigation and adaptation (section 1). It inquires into the large world of the biosphere, Anthropocene, and uncertainties created by the overlay of human and geological time (section 2). And it scrutinizes the technosphere, consciousness, and language as humanity’s arguably most important cultural technology (section 3).

In an era of interconnected crises – from climate change to biodiversity loss – transformative solutions require collaboration at scale. This chapter explores how public-private-philanthropic partnerships (4Ps) can unlock new funding models, amplify impact, and drive systemic change. It introduces pooled funds as a game-changing approach, demonstrating how aggregating resources across sectors can mobilize capital for high-impact initiatives.

Through compelling case studies, the chapter illustrates how aligned interests between businesses, governments, and philanthropy can catalyze sustainable development – from empowering smallholder farmers to financing global land restoration efforts. It also confronts the challenges hindering 4Ps from reaching their full potential and offers actionable strategies for overcoming them.

The world is racing against time to finance the transition to a low-carbon economy, yet less than 2% of global philanthropic capital is directed toward climate solutions. Meanwhile, institutional investors control trillions in assets but hesitate to fund green infrastructure in emerging markets, citing high risks and fragmented markets.

This chapter presents the Green Development and Investment Accelerator (GDIA) – a bold new mechanism that leverages philanthropy to de-risk investment opportunities, lower capital costs, and mobilize large-scale private finance for climate action. By integrating philanthropy into a structured five-step de-risking process, GDIA aims to align policies, optimize sectoral coordination, and scale investible projects for institutional investors. A call to action for foundations, policymakers, and private investors, this chapter argues that philanthropy’s greatest impact lies not just in grants, but in unlocking billions for climate finance.

Water security in Latin America is at a tipping point – despite holding 30% of the world’s freshwater, millions lack access to safe drinking water. Enter the Latin American Water Funds Partnership (LAWFP), a groundbreaking model of radical collaboration that unites governments, businesses, nonprofits, and philanthropy to drive systemic change in water security.

This chapter explores how Water Funds pool financial and technical resources, implement nature-based solutions, and foster cross-sector partnerships to deliver long-term, scalable impact. With over 26 Water Funds engaging 340+ organizations, LAWFP has protected over 565,000 hectares of watersheds, improved water access, and strengthened community resilience. A compelling case study in multi-sector cooperation, this chapter demonstrates how philanthropic capital can act as a catalyst for innovation, unlocking sustainable financing to combat climate change and transform water security.

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) hold one-third of the world’s biodiversity, yet climate change and deforestation threaten this vital ecological powerhouse. Despite the urgency, nature-based solutions (NBS) receive a fraction of global climate finance, while billions flow into environmentally harmful subsidies.

This chapter explores how philanthropy can help bridge the gap and reshape conservation finance by funding high-impact, scalable solutions that protect ecosystems, empower communities, and drive economic transformation. Through case studies of leading philanthropic initiatives – Arapyaú Institute in Brazil, Moisés Bertoni Foundation in Paraguay, and Grupo Argos in Colombia – it demonstrates how strategic investments in forest restoration, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable land use can accelerate climate mitigation and adaptation.

Lukács engaged in a series of exchanges with his contemporaries on the Left, including Bloch and Brecht, in which he defended realism as the only valid form of the novel, and they promoted modernism. This debate helps us to see the value and the limitations of the realist form and the need for other forms of fictional narrative. The representation of the future under climate change would seem to be something beyond realism’s grasp because such a radically different world is by definition far outside the quotidian. And yet, climate change is itself a reality that fiction would seem to be obliged to address. in The Great Derangement (2016), Amitav Ghosh tries to explain why fiction has failed to address the problem of climate change, and he blames the novel as a form. Ghosh wants fiction that embodies a posthumanist perspective, but the novel form is dependent on human agency. A variety of novels address climate change, and most combine realism with other narrative modes. Realism is needed in order to make these novels persuasive, though it is unlikely, given the current reach of print fiction, that a climate novel will have the inpact that Uncle Tom’s Cabin once did.

Climate change is an important existential issue for our time. This book is an anthology of readings about climate change science. The rationale for writing this book is that some universities are now beginning to require all undergraduate students to take an approved climate change course. The book is for students who may lack strong mathematical backgrounds or may not have taken some science courses. It also for the general reader who wants to understand climate change science. The book has no equations and no technical jargon and no complex charts or graphs. Anyone who can read a newspaper can read this book. The book explains how the climate change issue has developed over many decades, how the science has progressed, how diplomacy has proven unable to find a means of limiting global emissions of heat-trapping substances such as carbon dioxide created by burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), and how the forecast of the resulting climate change has become more worrisome.

The urgency of acting to limit climate change has nothing to do with politics or economics. Instead, it arises directly from the physics and chemistry of the climate system. Carbon dioxide, once it is added to the atmosphere, will remain there a long time. Some of it will remain in the atmosphere for centuries until natural processes remove it. Thus, it will be there essentially forever, if we think in terms of the implications on human time scales. The only known way to prevent atmospheric carbon dioxide amounts from increasing further is simply to cease emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That is why acting swiftly to make large reductions in global emissions, in order to limit climate change, is urgent. Yet very little significant progress has occurred toward actually making the large cuts in global emissions of heat-trapping gases that would be needed to stabilize climate. Without drastic and rapid cuts in emissions, our children and their descendants, and ultimately all living things, will be faced with the consequences of more severe climate disruption.

Chapter 4 provides an environmental interpretation of Kant’s aesthetic and teleological theory as developed in the Critique of the Power of Judgment. To put Kant’s insights in dialogue with new contributions in climate aesthetics, I begin with Kant’s theory of the sublime. I claim that Kant’s account of the dynamical sublime has important moral and political relevance for climate philosophy despite its human-centered focus. Next, I look into Kant’s account of natural beauty, which I suggest justifies duties against environmental degradation. I also touch on Kant’s duties to love nature’s harmony and purposes in light of ecological stewardship. The chapter concludes with a look into Kantian teleology from the Critique of Judgment. I propose that teleological judgment can be used to motivate protection of non-beautiful aspects of ecosystems, especially in light of climate-related biodiversity loss.