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.