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Thursday, September 3, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
CLIMATE CHANGE-BRAZIL: Towards Carbon-Free Chimneys
Scientists in Brazil are developing a technique for absorbing industry-produced carbon dioxide before it ever reaches the atmosphere. The secret lies in half-centimetre ceramic spheres.
BRAZIL: Leading Ladies Give Gender Slant to Campaign
With the possible participation of three high-profile women candidates in Brazil's 2010 presidential elections, the irruption of gender issues in the campaign in Latin America's largest democracy seems inevitable.
Towards Carbon-Free Chimneys
An invention by Brazilian chemists that absorbs greenhouse gases reverses the predominating approaches to carbon dioxide reduction. Instead of attempting to sequester carbon from the atmosphere, it prevents emissions at the site of origin: the industrial chimney.
BRAZIL: Five-Star Garbage
For the past 43 years, biologists Edna and Luiz Toledo have not waited for the garbage truck to collect their trash. Their three-storey house is in fact made out of "garbage", from the floor to the roof. Items that others would see as worthless are, in their eyes, valuable raw material.BRAZIL: Drugs, Guns, Gangs and Police – a Violent Mix in the ‘Favelas’
Janaína*, who lives in Jacarezinho, one of the most violent "favelas" or shantytowns in this Brazilian city, describes the control that the "movement" – the local drug mafia – exercises over the neighbourhood and local residents.
Five-Star Garbage
Decades ago, a Brazilian biologist couple put into practice the principle of using for their own construction materials what others throw away.ENERGY-BRAZIL: Putting (Human) Waste to Work
Biodigester technology, which originated in Asia as a natural process for treating sewage waste, is reemerging in Latin America as an integrated system providing cheap energy, improved sanitation, and even attractive landscaping.BRAZIL: Agribusiness Driving Land Concentration
The growth of agribusiness in Brazil, with its vast monocultures of soybean or sugarcane, is responsible for the expansion of large estates belonging to fewer and fewer landowners, according to small farmers' organisations and agricultural experts.BRAZIL: Getting Beyond the Taboo to Fight STDs
Although Brazil has the reputation of being more sexually liberal than its Spanish-speaking neighbours, Brazilians suffer their own fears of stigma when it comes to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) – the target of a new public health campaign.MUSIC: Afro-Brazilians Priced Out of Back2Black Concert
On stage, singer-songwriter Gilberto Gil highlighted Brazil's "genetic and cultural" connection to "Mother Africa," to applause from a predominantly light-skinned audience at a concert that black people generally could not afford - symbolic of the country's "veiled racism" at an international festival organised to combat it.BRAZIL: Green Challenges Posed by Black Gold
Brazil's discovery of vast offshore oil and natural gas reserves raises the question of how to tap the newfound wealth without causing severe environmental impacts and without leaving aside the development of clean energy alternatives.BRAZIL: Military Deal with France Strengthens Multipolar Focus
With the announcement of a multi-billion-dollar military technology-sharing deal with France, Brazil is projecting itself as a future regional military supplier, while sending out a clear signal about the multipolar focus of its foreign policy.BRAZIL: More Growth, Less Carbon
Achieving sustainable growth is one of the major challenges facing Brazil, an emerging power and the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. To do this it will have to curb emissions, 30 percent of which are caused by industry and power generation.DEVELOPMENT: Brazil, India, South Africa to Broaden “Voice of the South”
The sixth ministerial meeting of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) forum agreed Tuesday in Brasilia to strengthen the dialogue between the three emerging powers in order to establish common positions on regional and international matters and boost South-South cooperation.BRAZIL: New Law Would Put Oil Revenue into Development
On what he referred to as "a new independence day for Brazil," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced Monday proposed new legislation that would increase state control over the management of the country's enormous offshore oil finds, with the aim of channeling much of the state's oil revenue into a national social fund.BRAZIL: Former Environment Minister Shakes Up Political Scene
A likely presidential bid by former Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva, who quit the ruling Workers Party (PT) this week, has shaken up the political scene ahead of the 2010 elections.BRAZIL-MEXICO: Free Trade to Reduce Dependence
Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Felipe Calderón of Mexico agreed Monday to explore the possibility of a free trade agreement as part of a strategy to reduce their dependence on the industrialised world.BRAZIL: Marching for Real Land Reform
After 10 years of waiting for secure title to the land they occupy and farm, 35 families in Resende, in the southeastern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, have joined a huge march organised by the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brasilia to demand effective agrarian reform.RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Controversy Surrounds Army Search for Guerrilla Remains
The armed forces of Brazil will begin to search for the remains of guerrilla fighters who were forcibly disappeared in Araguaia, a remote area in the northern jungle state of Pará during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, reviving an old debate on the role played by the army in that area.ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Take the Squeaky Clean Hydro Bus
The government of the state of Sao Paulo in southern Brazil has launched the first hydrogen-fuelled bus in Latin America - the first step towards environmentally sustainable public transport of the future.BRAZIL: Electoral Reform “Just a Sop” to Women
The Brazilian government is congratulating itself on the first-stage approval of a draft electoral law that increases women's participation in party politics. However, the women's movement says it introduces no changes to a power structure that excludes women from politics.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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