necessary, the raw materials produced by less developed countries, to produce new products by chemical and/or molecular manipulation.
     Consumers worldwide, including LAC consumers, are on the alert to prevent any environmental threats, because there are a few severe natural disasters that occur about midway through the period that cause devastation in various parts of the globe. Thus consumers value any products made with a concern for environmental and ecosystem conservation, whether it has to do with the production processes used or the fact that the systems producing such goods offer environmental services. But consumers also demand new and original types of foods, while at the same time they are attentive to issues related to health and contamination, and issues involving new genetic or molecular manipulation.

Thanks to the implementation of prevention and monitoring technologies and more sustainable practices, epidemics caused by known agents are more controlled and the time between successive outbreaks is longer. However, epidemics caused by unknown vectors are particularly intensive and difficult to control, although technological development as a rule allows for a prompt solution to these pests as well.
     The status of climate change is worrisome until the end of the period, when the rate of increase in temperatures begins to decline. This reverse is the result of a major effort to develop sustainable technologies that are intensively used by production sectors in countries.
     In most countries, governance is nearly optimal, with stability and consistence in policies, regardless of the government in power.      The concern over environmental services and the environment and its protection leads many countries to issue laws to guarantee an economic return for entities that can prove that they provide a specific environmental service to the country and the world. In addition to environmental protection, these laws provide work for many unemployed workers, who would otherwise move to the cities.
     When LAC governments observe this unforeseen consequence of their environmental protection policies, they pass laws to allocate land for the sole purpose of environmental preservation and ecosystems. These lands, owned by the government, are managed by persons selected from the poor, based on proposals that these managers make for the sustainable use of these properties.
     In LAC, there are policies to encourage tourism that promise a return to nature, with farms that function in the same way as they did in the mid 1900s and that resemble large entertainment parks, where tourists interact with persons and not machines. Activities involving visual arts or the culture of body aesthetics are also strongly promoted, as an ideal way to prevent the deterioration of health or to reduce the mortality rate.
     The economic return on investment in R&D is guaranteed by sustainable policies for protection of knowledge and by good management of these policies. Education is increasingly guaranteed and valued. It is offered partly by the state and partly by corporations that employ highly qualified professionals. They must have increasingly complex advanced degrees to meet the performance standards required by systems that apply knowledge at increasing rates of intensity.

     Improvements in regulations and standards and their enforcement are completed.
     Unemployment grows as a result of the intensive incorporation of technology in all activities. However, this growth is offset to some extent by policies providing incentives for new economic pursuits. Large properties are taxed heavily,
     so that governments will have the resources to establish and maintain unemployment insurance for those out of work in such a technified world. There are also incentives to discourage corporations from laying off employees as a result of the incorporation or modification of technology.
     R&D provides the basis for the valuation of environmental services based on research that uses biotechnology and nanotechnology. Public institutions in some LAC countries participate in this research.
     There are enormous advances in virtually all areas of application of biology—animal and plant production, processing of quality, healthy foods, biomanufacturers of industrial raw materials, the environment, production and use of the biomass, and new nonfood products—and also of nanotechnology—animal and plant monitoring and therapies, monitoring of food processing, detection of pathogens, virus, GMOs in raw materials and processed goods, identity preservation systems, and environmental treatment and monitoring systems.
     Biotechnology, nanotechnology, and soil science are integrated and produce spectacular results in the area of environmental remediation.
     Varieties and strains adapted to hostile environmental conditions, such as plants resistant to drought and salinity, are developed for agriculture by genetic manipulation. These are a few examples of the advances that take place in LAC.
     Concern over the handling of environmental services increases in all countries, and gradually leads to an enhanced appreciation for traditional and local knowledge. To better guarantee the continuity of these services, many practices of indigenous and traditional communities are appropriated. Many of these communities receive economic benefits from this knowledge, because there are stronger laws that guarantee this. Conservation of biodiversity is also regarded as an environmental service. It includes preservation of river basins and the reduction of environmental contamination, because the importance of living in harmony with different animal and plant species for the preservation of many ecosystems is a matter of common knowledge. In various LAC countries traditional knowledge is also highly relevant, especially in relation to its interaction with formal science, to enhance the understanding of biodiversity and its uses.
     Enormous advances in science once again bring out global fears regarding the ethical limits of scientific activity and technological innovation. Innovation of products and processes generates a debate among various social groups regarding the use of nature, as known and appreciated. Advances in science and its applications also give rise to more practical problems, because the latest technology is almost completely autonomous and no longer requires as much labor as before, especially relatively unskilled labor. During this period, however, the average skill level is high at the level of
secondary education. Thus there is social pressure to reduce
the pace of scientific development, and LAC is not exempt.