Ecobreves – CHILE: A Giant Plant Nursery for Santiago

The largest urban plant nursery in Latin America, located in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, will open its doors in mid-2008.

Government Finances Mapuche Medical Service

The residents of a region in southern Chile can choose from a menu of medical services at a state-run center, including Western medicine or indigenous medicine.

HILLARY, OBAMA SIGNS OF A CHANGE OF COURSE FOR THE US

The dynamic race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to become the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party is yet another sign of the correction of course now underway in the United States, writes Joaquin Roy, \'\'Jean Monnet\'\' professor and Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami (jroy@Miami.edu). In this analysis, Roy writes that with its image abroad in tatters, a part of the US electorate, large enough to defeat the Republicans, has decided to opt for change. Both candidacies can also be seen as opportunities to remedy the traditional pattern of who has held the highest office of the most powerful country in the world. Hillary would be the first woman and Barack the first black to serve as president in the two-hundred- plus-year history of the US. Hillary and Obama both want the benefits of being the alternative, \"for change\" candidates in order to erase the impact of the disgraced presidency of Bush, particularly the divisiveness of the country and the destruction of its image abroad. Both are trying to present themselves as \'outsiders\' opposed to \'the establishment\'. Clinton has a harder time of pulling this off, though Obama can hardly be said to be just a guy from the neighbourhood.

INTERVIEW WITH CANDIDO GRZYBOWSKI: ” THE WORLD COULD BE VERY DIFFERENT FROM HOW IT IS TODAY”

\"The World Social Forum didn't produce the progressive wave in Latin America by itself; nevertheless, it would be difficult to imagine it without the presence of the WSF\", says Cândido Grzybowski, director of Ibvase (Brazil) and member of the WSF International Committee.

ARE WE REALLY RUNNING OUT OF OIL?

Are we running short of oil? Far from it, writes Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, a fellow at the Oakland Institute, a Puerto Rican author, investigative reporter, and environmental educator. In this article, Marrero writes that new extraction technologies now make it possible to obtain oil from increasingly remote places and geological formations that were previously impenetrable. High gasoline and electricity prices have nothing to do with an alleged scarcity of crude. Rather, the \'\'peak oil\'\' thesis has caused many citizens and consumers to accept high energy prices without protesting. We cannot afford to sit around and wait for a \'\'peak oil\'\' crisis that will not come. Only activism and political action can save the planet from global warming.

Pascua Lama Mining Project On Hold

Differing tax rules in Argentina and Chile, lawsuits and other obstacles have created uncertainty for the launch of the controversial gold mining project in Pascua Lama, high in the Andes Mountains, by Barrick Gold Corporation.

Tourism at the End of the World

So-called “climate tourism” is a mix of legitimate interest in protecting nature, the desire to see rare wildlife on the verge of extinction, and, of course, the search for profit.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Call for Replacing Inefficient Lightbulbs

The environmental watchdog Greenpeace has called on the Argentine government to replace incandescent lightbulbs with low-energy bulbs in all public buildings in Buenos Aires, Rosario and Córdoba, the country’s three largest cities.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Minister Replaced After Pressure from Mining Companies

Honduran Environment Minister Mayra Mejía was removed from her post following heavy pressure from sectors of the mining industry, in the wake of the Ministry’s decision against issuing new environmental licenses for mining exploration and open pit mining operations.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Solar Energy Heats Up

This year the use of solar energy will intensify in Brazil, the result of a municipal law in Sao Paulo which requires the installation of solar water heaters in all new buildings, and which is being expanded to other cities – and while there is a construction boom in the country.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Genetically Modified Corn Grows Here

It is highly likely that unregulated genetically modified corn is being planted in Mexico, warns Greenpeace, after denouncing that it found traces of GM crops, banned by law in the states of Puebla, Tamaulipas, Chihuahua and in rural areas of the capital district.

AN OPENING OF DISCUSSION WITHIN CUBA

The speech of acting president Raul Castro on June 26 was followed by a call for open discussion, which reignited the debate over the errors of the past and reflection on how to address them, from shortages and domestic difficulties to ideas about political, economic, and social projections, writes Aurelio Alonso, a Cuban sociologist and vice director of the magazine Casa de las Americas. In this article, Alonso writes that the discussion about the socialism in this century is above all a problem for Cuba, which must determine which changes it needs to make. What is certain is that up thus far there is greater clarity about what the socialist experiment was lacking than about what would be required to remake it. What is truly important is that debate has become an everyday matter in Cuba and that it has not been obstructed - even if we cannot recognise that the true value of this opening is rooted in not seeing it as a simple concession but rather a step forward in the revolutionary political culture. e future, must be capable of developing and preserving.

WATERS ARE RISING: CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION MUST COME FAST

You can be sure that if rising sea levels forced the evacuation of the White House in Washington DC, the attitude towards global warming would be very different, writes Anote Tong, President of Kiribati since 2003. In this article, Tong writes that this is precisely what recently happened to one of the buildings of the presidential compound of Kiribati, forcing the president to move to higher ground. To the people of Kiribati, an island nation of just over 105,400 people and comprised of 33 atolls scattered in the central Pacific Ocean, global warming and the rising sea levels are very real threats. Indeed, at some point perhaps towards the end of the century, we will have to think about relocation. Water, or rather the scarcity of it, also poses one of the major challenges for several Pacific Island Countries, especially the Smaller Island States that have no river systems and have very sensitive groundwater resources typical of atoll island structures.

Mystery of the Dead Whales

Poisoning from the red tide may have been the cause of the high rates of death among southern right whales along Argentina’s Atlantic coast.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Paying for Not Using Water

The Chilean government’s Directorate General for Water (DGA) this year will charge 28 million dollars to companies and individuals who do not utilize their consumptive and non-consumptive rights to water.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Biodiesel Mixing Begins

As of Jan. 1 it is obligatory in Brazil to mix two percent biodiesel into gasoline derived from petroleum.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Bamboo for Green Construction

A Cuban program to expand bamboo plantations to an rea of 30,000 hectares will have a strong environmental impact in capturing climate changing gases and recuperating degraded soils, say experts.

EU – TIGHTER EMISSIONS FOR TRANSPORT A CLEAR WIN-WIN STRATEGY

Strong environmental policies in transport will enable European firms to take the lead in technology development and help address many of today\'s geopolitical tensions, writes Jos Dings, director of the European Federation for Transport and Environment. In this analysis, Dings writes that today the transport sector is not moving in a sustainable direction: CO2 emissions and oil use are up 32 percent since 1990, cancelling out the progress made in other sectors. Policy should be focused on energy efficiency, not finding replacement energy sources to guzzle. Rather than set targets for production of specific alternative fuels, we need targets for reducing the \'\'carbon footprint\'\' of transport fuels, which would let the fuel industry find the most cost effective way of reducing emissions while rewarding the biofuel industry for delivering carbon savings. Whether you believe in helping the environment or restoring the balance of power in the global energy market, more sustainable transport, less energy consumption, and lower CO2 emissions is a win-win strategy.

CHICAGO BOYS, GO HOME!

The multi-trillion dollar \"losses\" on Wall Street are simply cancelling out their illusory \"gains\". No amount of federal bailing and money printing can fill the black hole of unrealistic expectations created by faulty economics, writes Hazel Henderson, author of Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy (2007), president of Ethical Markets Media LLC, USA, and co-creator of the Calvert Henderson Quality of Life Indicators regularly updated at www.calvert-henderson.com. In this analysis, Henderson writes that Wall Street became a parasite on the real economy of Main Street and has spread its contagion around the world. The lesson is that financial markets must shrink; the non-bank investment firms\' business model is broken. The task now is to manage the downsizing of Wall Street and the global financial casino and redesign regulatory systems and markets to restore their useful but limited role in facilitating the production of useful, ecologically-benign goods and services in the growing green economies of the Solar Age. The truth is now in plain sight: there was no invisible hand! Markets and money are both shaped by legislation, central bankers, tax policies, subsidies, lobbying special interests and cronyism. Economics has always been politics in disguise. Money was confused with real wealth: educated healthy citizens and the basic productive eco-systems of our planet.

EUROPE: THE WORLD FINANCIAL CRISIS AND THE DECLINE OF THE LEFT

The neo-liberal system is broken. Capitalism must be moved past this phase of speculation and \"casino economy\" to a form of ethical capitalism that respects the environment and the concerns of society, writes Mario Soares, ex-president and ex-prime minister of Portugal. In this article, Soares calls for a reclaiming of the ethics which were always the hallmark of the left. Civic participation must be increased to counter the weakness of the state, bolster social justice, and oppose the commercialisation of society, corruption, and influence peddling. The activists must resume the fight for peace and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, for social integration, and against inequality and environmental degradation. Most clearly put, the present crisis, which has discredited politics as a whole, was caused by the dealings of economic pressure groups, the immorality of the banking and business elite, and influence peddling by political leaders -in short, by the promiscuous intermingling of politics and business. The conclusion to be drawn in inescapable: the system is corrupt and must be changed, This is the great task facing the European left.

SILENCE FROM THE NEOLIBERAL CHOIR

Where have all the neoliberals gone? A few months ago they were clamouring relentlessly for \"less government\"and \"more privatisation\", no government intervention, no ethical rules, and even fewer public services. For them the paramount goals were cutting taxes and letting the market work its magic without interference of any kind, writes Mario Soares, ex-president and ex-prime minister of Portugal. In this analysis, the author writes that American capitalism in its financial-speculative phase, guided by neoliberal ideology and fortified by the collapse of the communist regimes, carried the US up to the gates of financial catastrophe and economic recession. Now its negative effects have spread across Europe and are beginning to poison the rest of the planet. Will the US Treasury plan stabilise the American economy or only provide short-term relief? The means adopted by various countries and the subsequent reactions of the economic actors have generated little more than violent fluctuations and instability, and thus it is not yet possible to answer this question. However, there can be no doubt that a long-term solution would have to go much farther, beginning with reform of the financial-speculative sector through regulation and controls, a crackdown on tax havens, the introduction of strict ethical norms and social and environmental goals, and finally, as French president Sarkozy said, \"Those responsible for causing this crisis should be put in jail\".