IPS Correspondents

A stimulus package for Africa's schools is needed to improve the life prospects of children like these schoolgirls in Sierra Leone. Credit: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

EDUCATION-AFRICA: The Other Crisis

The World Economic Forum on Africa has just concluded in Cape Town. If government leaders and captains of industry called for an eight trillion dollar bailout for the continent’s beleaguered education system - like the one found for the world’s biggest bankers - it went unreported.

POLITICS: U.S. Supreme Court Won’t Review ‘Cuban Five’ Case

By IPS Correspondents

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied taking up an appeal of a group of Cuban intelligence agents accused of spying in the United States.

MIDEAST: Peace Talk Without Peace Vision

By IPS Correspondents

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's much anticipated policy speech about his peace intentions was suffused with peace rhetoric, but it was starkly short on a peace vision.

Sunspots

By IPS Correspondents and - -

Areas on the surface of the sun, which in periods are a little colder than the rest of the surface and appear as dark spots.

Renewable energy

By IPS Correspondents and - -

Energy production based on sources of energy that do not run out, for example wind, water and solar power.

Nitrous oxide

By IPS Correspondents and - -

A gas with the chemical formula N2O.

Greenhouse effect

By IPS Correspondents and - -

The greenhouse effect is the name given to a process occurring naturally that insulates the earth against the loss of heat into space.

Fossil fuels

By IPS Correspondents and - -

Energy sources formed in the earth’s crust from the remains (fossils) of plants and animals that lived on earth many millions of years ago.

Extreme weather

By IPS Correspondents and - -

Extreme weather can include such things as unusually violent storms; heatwaves or droughts that are longer or hotter than normal, and exceptionally violent levels of precipitation.

CO2 equivalents

By IPS Correspondents and - -

Different types of gases contribute to the greenhouse effect to a greater or lesser degree.

CO2

By IPS Correspondents and - -

CO2 is a gas, also known as carbon dioxide, which is formed by the burning of organic materials such as coal, oil, gas and wood.

CFC gases

By IPS Correspondents and - -

A group of gases – part of the group called HFC gases – that have been used a lot industrially, for example in refrigerators or in firefighting appliances.

Carbon sink

By IPS Correspondents and - -

The term used for natural mechanisms that absorb CO2 naturally.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Endangered Parrot Population On the Rise

By IPS Correspondents and - -

The population of parrots, an endemic but endangered species, has increased in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, thanks to a program where the community plays a key role.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Energy from Garbage

By IPS Correspondents and - -

A biogas plant is in the works for turning carbon dioxide and methane produced by the Gramacho garbage dump into electricity. The sanitary landfill receives 7,950 tons of waste daily from the Rio metropolitan region.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Botanical Garden Aims to Be Self-Sustaining

By IPS Correspondents and - -

The Botanical Garden of the Venezuelan capital, covering 70 hectares and home to 2,500 plant species, is seeking its own funding because the government has not provided resources for more than four years.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Natural Gas for Polluting Less

By IPS Correspondents and - -

In late June, the first tanker carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) is scheduled to arrive in Chile from Trinidad and Tobago. The shipment will be "regasified" at a plant built in Quintero, in the central region of Valparaíso.

Ecobreves – GLOBAL: Lawmakers Against Climate Change

By IPS Correspondents and - -

Some 100 lawmaker from the 13 most polluting countries of the planet gathered Jun. 12-13 in the Italian capital to pursue an effective international agreement to fight climate change.

Christina cradles one of her twins while talking to a nurse. Credit: Ruth Ayisi/IPS

HEALTH-MOZAMBIQUE: Scant Progress With Paediatric HIV

By IPS Correspondents

Christina M.* looks worried as she cradles one of her sick twin babies. The mother of five already lost twins and another baby to illness soon after childbirth a few years ago.

The Labourers and other construction unions are also looking into "green" jobs, hoping to tap into projects generated by the Barack Obama administration's stimulus plan. Credit: Peter Costantini/IPS

U.S.: Unions and Migrant Workers Coalesce from Coast to Coast

By IPS Correspondents

Up the Pacific Coast from California to Washington, through the heartland in Texas and Illinois, and over to the Atlantic Seaboard in New Jersey and New York, local trade unions and mainly immigrant workers centres are experimenting with new modes of cooperation.

MIDEAST: Israel Tightens Stranglehold in East Jerusalem

By IPS Correspondents

"What are you doing here?" The motorist in the battered white Volvo stops to ask us alongside an overflowing rubbish cart. Residents of this poor Palestinian neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem have been burning garbage in a bid to clear the uncollected mounds.