Toxic pollution kills 12.6 million people every year—nearlyone-quarter of all global deaths – and 92% of these deaths occur in middle or low-income countries. Yet despite its deadliness, environmental harms are oftena slow-moving and long-standing problem, which can be difficult to detect and thus “invisible” in some ways which result in inaction and complacency.

So what can be done?  In her book “Slow Harms and Citizen Action: Environmental Degradation and Policy Change in Latin American Cities”,  Professor Veronica Herrera asks: When and how do people mobilize around slow harms?  By examining the cases of Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Lima, the book looks at how citizen movements can push the state to implement en­vironmental rights protections, and how ideas about pollution as a policy problem become institutionalized. 

This episode was hosted by Sebastián Solarte. Sebastián is a PhD Candidate at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. In his research, he uses a political ecology lens to study grassroots movements aiming to overcome energy poverty in rural Colombia. Beyond his work, he is passionate about exploring places with his bicycle and finding new food spots.

Veronica Herrera, our guest, is an Associate Professor ofUrban Planning and Political Science in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles. I study the political economy of development and environmental politics and policy, with a focus on cities, civil society, and Latin America.