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Wednesday, September 2, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
CLIMATE CHANGE: Latin America Wants Rich Nations to Foot the Bill
Latin American governments will call for greater commitments from industrialised countries to curb climate change and to provide financial support for developing countries to deal with its effects.
Nascent Biofuel Market Has Congenital Defects
It will take a long time to root out the distortions caused by economic and political interests in the budding market for biofuels, say experts.BRAZIL: Awash With Oil – Good for Revenues, Bad for Climate Change?
The discovery of a huge oilfield 250 kilometres off the southeastern coast of Brazil will not have an immediate effect on world crude markets, but it opens up future prospects of a new oil frontier in the South Atlantic which may deter the pursuit of clean energy sources, experts say.ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Clean-up Efforts, a Drop in the Ocean
The contrasts are striking, and are plain to visitors from the moment they arrive in Rio. From the plane they can see the sparkling jewel of Guanabara bay, as they land on its largest island, but then they have to drive past the fetid waters of a sluggish channel and a number of "favelas" or shanty towns to get to the city centre and tourist areas.COMMUNICATIONS: Internet – Ruled by the Many, or by Special Interests?
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) being held in Rio de Janeiro Monday through Thursday, with more than 1,500 people attending, is discussing issues that are not yet a concern for the majority of users, but are already having a major impact on their lives.
BRAZIL: Biofuel Revolution Reaches Airline Industry
Biokerosene has the potential to take off on the international market faster than other alternative fuels, even though it is among the newest and faces stricter quality standards because it is to be used in aviation.AGRICULTURE: Costly Prosperity
Many of the people who are now complaining that biofuels are driving up agricultural prices fought in the past against the "deterioration of the terms of exchange," or the devaluation of commodities with respect to manufactured goods, as a key factor in underdevelopment.
Biofuel Revolution Reaches Aviation
An alternative fuel for aviation should be shared internationally and free of protectionism, says the Brazilian inventor of biokerosene and biodiesel.WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Highlighting the Amazon’s Diversity
The international council of the World Social Forum met this week in the northern Brazilian city of Belem to plan the next steps to be taken by global activists, including the eighth edition of the WSF, to be held in January 2009 in Brazil’s Amazon region.ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: New Ice Cream Flavours to Save the Cerrado
A chain of ice cream shops in the capital of the central Brazilian state of Goiás is not only tempting tourists with unique native fruit flavours, but is also promoting the endangered biodiversity of the Cerrado savannah ecosystem.DEVELOPMENT: Farming Faces Phosphate Shortfall
Scarcity of phosphate, an indispensable crop fertiliser, is worrying soil experts, given the voracious plans of Brazil and many other countries in the race for biofuel leadership.
Farming Faces Phosphate Shortfall
Global reserves of phosphorous, essential for agriculture, could run out in 60 to 100 years, warn experts.ENERGY-BRAZIL: Elephant Grass for Biomass
Sugarcane is gradually being edged out of pole position for biofuel efficiency, as studies by the Agrobiology Centre at the state Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) are finding that elephant grass has even greater potential.
BRAZIL: Community Action Beats Back Adversity
When the town of Pintadas dared elect a mayor from the leftist Workers Party (PT) in 1996, the retaliation was immediate: the conservative government of the state of Bahia closed the only bank in this small, impoverished town in northeastern Brazil.BRAZIL: Warning – These Computers Come With Strings Attached
The declaration the Dell computer maker is requiring its Brazilian customers to sign, promising their computers will not be exported to the "axis of evil" or used for weapons development, according to reports, highlights the difficulties faced by scientific research due to U.S. geopolitical considerations.
AGRICULTURE-BRAZIL: Using Alternative Methods to Adapt to Drought
"It is painful to think that global warming will further aggravate the lack of rainfall" in Brazil’s semiarid northeast, said Luiz Tomacheski, who was stunned to see firsthand the dry landscape of twisted thorny shrubs and patches of brown grass in this region.
AGRICULTURE-BRAZIL: Green Revolution on the Savannah
Joao Venancio Soares is a living example of the prosperity of this town in west-central Brazil and the process that turned this country into an agricultural powerhouse over the last three decades.
BRAZIL: Ethanol Divides Agribusiness
The expansion of sugarcane farming to produce more ethanol in Brazil has run into unexpected resistance in Rio Verde, a prosperous town in the central state of Goiás, and it is coming from agribusiness leaders.
BRAZIL: Bittersweet Sugarcane
The sugarcane workers in this small Brazilian town ate at least 200 of the little roasted wild birds. But they had not hunted them. They merely collected the roasted bodies of the birds that died in the controlled fire set in the cane field.
Brazilian Ethanol Divides Agro-Industry
The "green tsunami" must be stopped, say leaders in Brazil's agribusiness sector, worried by the advance of sugarcane plantations to feed the demand for fuel alcohol.BRAZIL: City Residents Want to Know ‘How Are We Doing?’
A civil society movement in Bogotá, Colombia has become a model for Brazilians who want to restore quality of life in the country’s two largest cities, by changing the political practices of city governments through mechanisms for communication and citizen oversight.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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