Guantánamo's Two-Faced Climate

The fight against desertification is bearing fruit in the semiarid region of the Cuban province of Guantánamo.

Boston Residents Face to Face with Bio-War

The lab being built in Boston is one of 10 that are slated for construction by the end of the decade in the United States to research bioterrorism and biological weapons.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Activist Pressure Discourages Chevron

Civil society pressure, denunciations and legal measures are the reason the transnational oil giant Chevron backed off its plan to build a gasification plant near Mexico's Coronado Islands, say activists.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Towns Regulate Forest and Mineral Management

Three central Honduran municipalities -- San Jerónimo, Ojo de Agua and Comayagua, in Comayagua department -- approved a joint management plan to regulate and preserve forest and mineral resources.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Environmental Damage Up for Debate

Lawyers, biologists, geologists, engineers and chemists will take part in the first Interdisciplinary Meetings for the Prevention of Environmental Damage, to be held in Argentina May 17-18.

ZIMBABWE: WHAT THE SMALL ANTS CAN DO TO MOVE THE GRASSHOPPER

Africans have to stand in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe by holding their governments to the democratic principles which they profess, writes Kumi Naidoo, secretary general of CIVICUS, an international network of civil society organisations In this analysis, Naidoo writes that the myriad of problems the country faces must be addressed on several levels and, most important, these efforts should focus on the citizens of the country. Civil society organisations are integral to this equation. However, government threats against civil society are increasing and there are legal limitations on their work, particularly in organising public meetings. And there has been a frightening rise in both open and clandestine attacks against peaceful civic activists.

PORTUGAL RISING

Two years after the formation of the socialist government headed by Jose Socrates, Portugal is on the verge of overcoming the financial crisis that has beset it for six years -- and as a result, the right-wing opposition --divided and without a leader-- is furiously attacking both the government and the Socialist Party (PS), writes Mario Soares, ex-president and ex-prime minister of Portugal. In this article, Soares writes that the opposition fears that having successfully completed the unpopular but necessary task of cutting the budget deficit, the Socrates administration would move ahead with its programme of major progressive reforms designed to reduce the social inequalities that shame us and call attention to the social role of the state. Socrates passed reforms to simplify the bureaucracy and imposed profound changes in social security, health care, education, and justice. And he turned around the negative growth trend: in 2003, the last year of the conservative government that preceded Socrates\', the economy shrank by 0.5 percent. Currently it is growing at 1.3 percent.

US FARMWORKERS MOVEMENT BRINGS DOWN THE GOLDEN ARCHES

McDonald\'s set a resounding example by agreeing to abide by the international human rights principles laid out by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), writes Kerry Kennedy, author and human rights activist, and founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Centre for Human Rights. In this article, Kennedy writes that now it is time for Burger King, Subway, Walmart and others in the retail food industry to acknowledge their responsibilities and partner with the farmworkers, the victims of institutionalised human rights abuse. As Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez taught us all in America\'s first farmworkers movements, human rights enforcement cannot be left to governments and law enforcement alone. Human rights are held by all persons equally, universally, and forever. Corporations must realise these rights are indivisible and interdependent. Without these rights, slavery, poverty, and abuse will continue to taint America\'s retail food industry.

Can Capitalism Be Green?

Experts say continuous economic growth, intrinsic to capitalism, is not viable on a planet with increasingly scarce natural resources.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Indians Want Pay for Forest Care

Indigenous groups -- fisherfolk and rubber tappers in the Brazilian Amazon -- have relaunched the Aliança dos Povos da Floresta (Alliance of Forest Peoples - APF), founded in the 1980s, to demand recognition of their role in the preservation of the jungle and of the world's climate.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Criticisms for UN Appointment of Ex-President as Climate Envoy

Chilean environmentalists reject the United Nations appointment of former president Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) as one of three special envoys on climate change.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Eco-Construction Hopes for Habitat Award

A Cuban-developed method of construction with ecological materials is among the four finalist projects for the World Habitat Award, sponsored by the United Nations.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Plains Vistas in the Caracas Subway

The subway here in the Venezuelan capital caught its passengers by surprise last week at the Plaza Venezuela station, with its walls newly covered by gigantic, full-color photographs of the country's plains, teeming with plant and animal life.

Paraguayan Aquifer Wounded and Contaminated

The invasion of saltwater and sewage is contaminating the Patiño aquifer, one of Paraguay's main sources of water.

CHINDIA: EMERGENCE OF THE FUTURE WORLD POWER ?

Twenty years from now will we say we are in the Asian, and not the American or European, Century? The debate now underway is whether the future world power will be China or India, writes Roberto Savio, founder and president emeritus of IPS and a member of the World Social Forum International Committee. In this article, Savio writes that the only time Chinese president Hu Jintao has spoken of multipolarity and democracy in international relations was in reference to the common interests of China and India. Might we then be witnessing the beginning of a new geopolitical entity of unprecedented size: \'\'Chindia\'\', with a population of almost 2 billion? Why fight each other, or others, when by allying themselves they make the rest of the world irrelevant? In any case we will face a different sort of hegemony than that of the US, which is based on the affirmation of values and life styles. It does not seem at all possible that China would want to impose its own political model, or cuisine or music or way of dressing, on the rest of the world. We would face a gigantic trade empire, where it is likely Chinese interests would be placed before all others, with a complete lack of interest in international social justice or the fate of the weakest.

COLUMN RELATED TO THE INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT DAY, JUNE 5: WHAT IS ART FOR?

Art has the great and very useful ability to synthesise reality and fix it within permanent codes which have the ability to make us see human behaviour and society, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes is a Cuban writer and journalist whose most recent work won the Hammett Prize for the best detective novel in Spanish for 2005. In this analysis, the author writes that today when there is so much talk of climate change and its catastrophic effects on the planet, it is fair to say that never before have so many people beheld the same vision -- one which, not by chance, happened to be generated from a work of art. The futuristic vision of Ridley Scott in his classic film Blade Runner has become, thanks to human indolence and the lure of money, a sort of nightmare that we see coming increasingly true around us. That which was conceived of 25 years ago as a metaphor has come true in the form of disasters already suffered through, hair-raising omens, and above all, a shared awareness awakened by the clearest image of what the world could be in a few decades if today, right now, (and we are already behind) if we don\'t do everything possible to slow the economic and even quotidian activities that are stoking climate change.

TAKEOVER AT UN: HUMANITARIAN ADVOCACY, A CARDINAL PRIORITY, NOW TAKES ON A LOW-KEY HUE

In the end, Sir John Holmes could not contain his exasperation at last week\'s press conference in Nairobi . \"You don\'t seem to be interested in the humanitarian situation in Somalia,\" he told journalists. The United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator had just flown in from Mogadishu, the first high-level UN official to visit the city in 14 years. But the journalists were treated to an astonishingly bland and low-key presentation of the fraught humanitarian challenges faced by the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have been prevented by the authorities from receiving desperately-needed assistance, writes Salim Lone, a columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya, the Guardian (UK), BBC and Al Jazeera Holmes\' presentation did not contain any criticism of the Ethiopian army and the Transitional Federal Government which are the principal perpetrators of atrocities against civilians, some of which have been committed by the insurgents as well. Even more amazing was his decision not to meet with the Ethiopians who run the show in Somalia or even the elders of clans whose civilians have suffered so heavily. One would never have guessed Holmes was arriving from a city that was gripped by unspeakable carnage and had been leveled like Grozny by bombs and heavy artillery raining on densely-populated civilian areas, and that victims of the war were still dying primarily because of restrictions placed on humanitarian access by the authorities. No wonder he was not peppered with questions about the humanitarian crisis.

A BAN ON CLUSTER BOMBS

According to a new report from Handicap International an estimated 400 million people in 25 countries are directly or indirectly affected by unexploded cluster munitions, writes Jonas Gahr Store, Foreign Minister of Norway. In this article, the author writes that wars and conflicts always hit civilian populations hardest. Certain types of weapons, such as landmines and cluster munitions, affect civilians particularly severely. While an international ban on landmines has been introduced, there is as yet no corresponding ban on cluster munitions. This we need to change, because unexploded munitions from cluster bombs is really anti-personnel landmines in disguise. According to the United Nations Development Programme, 27 countries are currently affected by cluster munitions. Such munitions create severe humanitarian and development problems, besides maiming and killing civilians: agricultural areas cannot be cultivated without risk to life and health, and refugees are unable to return to the homes from which they fled. As a first step towards an international ban on cluster munitions, Norway hosted an international conference in Oslo on 22 and 23 February 2007. A total of 46 of the 49 participating countries endorsed the Oslo Declaration on cluster munitions, which advocates a ban on cluster munitions by the end of 2008.

Fair Trade Begins to Bear Fruit

Fair trade is fast becoming an option for thousands of poor farmers in Guatemala, with thousands leaving behind the distortions of the international market.

Ecobreves – GLOBAL: Investigating and Punishing Harm to Coral Reefs

International experts will test new protocols in Barbados in May to investigate damage to coral reefs, an ecosystem that is home to a quarter of all marine life, and to bring to justice those responsible for the harm.

Jaguars on the Run

The majestic jaguar that once reigned in Argentina has seen its numbers reduced to just 300 animals, which are living in increasing isolation.