Conquering Nature provides the only book-length analysis of the environmental situation in Cuba after four decades of socialist rule, based on extensive examination of secondary sources, informed by the study of development and environmental trends in former socialist countries as well as in the developing world. It approaches the issue comprehensively and from interdisciplinary, comparative, and historical perspectives. Based on the Cuban example, D\u00edaz-Briquets and P\u00e9rez-L\u00f3pez challenge the concept that environmental disruption was not supposed to occur under socialism since it was alleged that guided by scientific policies, socialism could only beget environmentally benign economic development. In reality, the socialist environmental record proved to be far different from the utopian view.
Between the early 1960s and the late 1980s the environmental situation worsened despite Cuba\u2019s achieving one of the lowest population growth rates in the world and having eliminated extreme living standard differentials in rural areas, two of the primary reasons often blamed for environmental deterioration in developing countries.

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Como citar: Díaz-Briquets, S., & Pérez-López, J. (2000). Conquering Nature: The Enviromental Legacy of Socialism in Cuba. University of Pittsburgh Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt9qh8wb