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Monday, August 17, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Brazil Cannot Swim Against the Climate Current
With no meaningful proposals, and in the face of internal setbacks and an adverse international context, Brazil is largely unprepared to assume the leadership role expected of an environmental power at the Durban climate change conference.
Belo Monte Dam and Hunters Endanger Amazon Turtles
Luiz Cardoso da Costa was horrified as he watched the Amazonian manatee, a large docile beast, bleeding out from the knife wound he had dealt it, yet greedily gulping down grasses as if eating could somehow stave off death.
Brazil’s Health System Inspires Abroad, Frustrates at Home
News that the government of South Africa was inspired by Brazil's health system in setting up its own universal coverage scheme might meet with scepticism in this South American country.LATIN AMERICA: Public Media Expanding
The public media are growing in Latin America, with a new focus that puts an emphasis on independence from the state and the backlash from the private media, said journalists, academics and officials meeting in the Paraguayan capital.
BRAZIL: Costly Water for the Poor Northeast
The visual impact is harsh: flattened hills, valleys full of mud, and kilometres and kilometres of bulldozed land - the modification of nature in Brazil's semiarid Northeast region is disturbing due to the enormous dimensions involved.
BRAZIL: Shark Attacks Attest to Environmental Sins of Suape Port
The Suape port complex may be eternally absolved of its environmental sins for ushering in unprecedented prosperity in the impoverished northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco, and for having been built before stricter requirements were introduced.
Shark Attacks Attest to Environmental Sins of Suape Port
If the Suape port project in northeastern Brazil were initiated today, instead of the 1970s, it would be subject to much stricter environmental standards.
BRAZIL: Suape Port Complex, the Locomotive of the Northeast
Silvio Leimig was 18 years old and had just earned his driver's licence when he visited Suape, a port 40 km from his home in Recife, the capital of the state of Pernambuco in Brazil's Northeast region, in the early 1980s.BRAZIL: Undersea Oil Revives Shipbuilding Industry
So far in Brazil, the "curse of oil" is only apparent in the political sphere, where Congress is divided about how to distribute the country's increasingly large oil earnings. But in the meantime the recent discoveries of offshore reserves in the Atlantic ocean are breathing new life into the shipbuilding industry.
BRAZIL: Logistics Drives Tardy Industrialisation in Northeast
The steel and oil industries are still finding new frontiers for expansion. In Brazil's impoverished semiarid Northeast the key is not, like in China, cheap labour power or abundant raw materials, but logistical advantages.
BRAZIL: Every Raindrop Counts
Brazil is considered a country rich in water resources, with its enormous underground aquifers and mighty rivers. But recognition of the vital importance of rainwater begins where it is most scarce: in the semiarid interior of the northeast.
Every Raindrop Counts
Techniques for making optimal use of the scarce rainfall in northeastern Brazil are aimed at a shift in focus from fighting drought to learning to coexist with the semiarid climate.
BRAZIL: Beating Drought in Semiarid Northeast
Violent clashes looked inevitable when some 1,500 desperately hungry peasants poured into this small Brazilian town. Riot police were staked out to prevent looting. It was the year 1993, and millions of people in Brazil's impoverished semiarid Northeast had been forced to the brink of starvation by three years of drought.
BRAZIL: Industrial-Port Complex Fuels Growth in Desolate Northeast
The port of Pecém in Brazil's impoverished Northeast region received a large order to unload and store cement factory equipment imported from China. The port authorities were unable to accept the original order, as the cargo would have occupied 40,000 square metres of storage space, nearly half the total available.
BRAZIL: Biofuel Production – Local Development or Social Breakdown?
Biofuels are an alternative energy source that can drive local development by generating jobs, know-how and technology. But they can also cause social damage, as locals fear in the case of industrial-scale exploitation of babassu palm trees, which grow abundantly in the wild in central and northern Brazil.
BRAZIL: Soy Boom Drives Westward Expansion of Railroads
Despite challenges like high interest rates and high household electricity tariffs, the Brazilian economy has been growing at the highest rates seen in decades. Another problem that, although it has not stood in the way of growth, must be overcome is the costly use of roads for transporting farm products – an issue that is being addressed by the expansion of railway networks.
South America Unites Against “Irresponsible Debtors” in the North
Default, insolvency, fiscal irresponsibility, debt crisis and similar terms form part of the vocabulary used to describe countries in the developing South in the 1980s and 1990s. A decade later, the world seems to have turned upside down.
BRAZIL: Family Farms Fight for Survival in Sea of Soy
A bullet to his shoulder forced him to spend seven days in the hospital. In another attempt on his life, he was shot at three times, but miraculously escaped unscathed. "I will never sit next to a window again," says Brazilian rural activist Walter Moura.BRAZIL: Lax Limits on Agrotoxics in Drinking Water
Brazil sets acceptable drinking water limits for 22 different types of pesticides and fertilisers, 13 heavy metals, 13 solvents and six disinfectants. However, these are sometimes exceeded for economic reasons or due to inadequate monitoring.
ENERGY-BRAZIL: Small Dams, Big Problems
Several rivers in the western Brazilian state of Mato Grosso are likely to become chains of artificial reservoirs feeding small hydroelectric plants (SHP), sometimes with larger power stations in between.
BRAZIL: Rainbow of Colours and Gender Equality at Innovative School
In the last three years there have been no teen pregnancies among the youngsters at Casa do Zezinho, an extracurricular educational and cultural facility in Brazil attended by 1,500 children and young people from favelas or shantytowns on the south side of São Paulo.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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