Ecobreves – MEXICO: Water Without Salt

- Scientists at the public Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) are developing a megaproject to desalinize sea water, using renewable energy in an effort to provide the essential resource to urban centers in the country's desert northwest.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Controversial Tires

On Sept. 4 will be the second hearing of the World Trade Organization (WTO) for debate on the restrictions of imports of recycled tires in Brazil.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Stop Atomic Credits

- Environmental, civil society and neighborhood organizations in the central Argentine province of Córdoba are calling on the World Bank to halt credits to the National Atomic Energy Commission, CNEA.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Traditionals to Have Own Policies

A national proposal that would benefit the 4.5 million members of Brazil's traditional peoples and communities will be drafted by a commission of 15 of their representatives and 15 government delegates by the end of August.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Innovative Hydrogen Buses

Five buses fueled by hydrogen will circulate in Sao Paulo and four neighboring cities beginning in 2007, with innovations similar to those in industrialized countries.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Love for the Mangrove

The exposition "For Love of the Mangrove", organized by the National Center for Improvement of Science Education, will run through August at the Lía Bermúdez Art Center in the western Venezuelan city of Maracaibo.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Clean Release of the Last Oil-Contaminated Penguins

The Chilean government's National Forest Corporation (CONAF) has completed the recovery project for penguins contaminated with petroleum, rescuing 54 of these birds living in the extreme southern region of Magallanes, 3,000 km south of the capital.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Organic Tilapia for Export

- The private company Aquafinca Saint Peter Fish, established in northern Honduras, will export to the United States more than 11,000 kg monthly of organic tilapia fish filets beginning in August.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Summertime Accidents

The intense summer heat, vacations and the need to get into the Caribbean water wherever and however has sounded the alarm in Cuba, where drowning is the third leading cause of accidental death.

Gold Fever Strikes Again in Central America

Multinational corporations are interested in developing more than 250 projects in the region. The affected communities are mobilizing and demanding their right to information.

Italian Eco-Friendly Valley Is Model for Europe

In the last 14 years, the residents of Varese Ligure have brought into practice an ingenious way of life and development based on respect for the environment.

CUBA: NOW WHAT?

The moment may have come for the moderate sectors of the Cuban exile community to convince the rest of them, and the US Congress, to suspend the trade embargo against Cuba and wisely bring about those conditions necessary for a transition, writes Joaquin Roy, the Jean Monnet Professor and Director of the Centre for the European Union at the University of Miami. In this article, Roy writes that it is not clear whether the Bush administration is capable of an intelligent response to the current situation or what movement the various exile groups might be able to generate. Washington might take advantage of an extension of Castro\'s absence beyond what is reasonable given the medical emergency to make Raul a spectacular offer: unconditionally lifting the embargo. Raul Castro would have to choose between two alternatives: reject all offers, or collaborate pragmatically. The advantage that Raul has at the moment is that he controls the armed forces and the state companies, which are managed by recycled military personnel. The question is whether this group actually has the energy and the means to fill the vacuum. At present, therefore, Washington\'s strategy is to place more trust in the \'\'known evil\'\' (the military) than in an as-yet unknown good, especially because it cannot be ruled out that Cuba will be swept by social upheaval and conflict as it begins to make the transition into a \'\'normal\'\' country.

THE LEAD LIFESAVER

Uruguay is becoming a world centre of cellulose production, writes Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and journalist and author of \'\'The Open Veins of Latin America\'\' and \'\'Memories of Fire\'\'. In this article, Galeano writes that it is a case of export monoculture in the purest colonial tradition: immense artificial plantations that call themselves forests and generate cellulose in an industrial process that floods the rivers with poisons and makes the air unbreathable. As usual, the blessings of nature become the curses of history. Our eucalyptus grows ten times faster than that of Finland, which means that the industrial plantations will be ten times as devastating. At the rate things are going, a large part of the country\'s land will be squeezed until the last drop of water is extracted. It is a tragic paradox: this was the only country in the world that submitted the ownership of water to a plebiscite. An overwhelming majority of Uruguayans decided in 2004 that water was public property. Is there no way to avoid this hijacking of the popular will?

SUICIDE: THE NEW HARVEST OF GM COTTON

Evidence from the fields shows Monsanto\'s claims about its Bt cotton variety to be spurious, writes Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute (www.oaklandinstitute.org), a policy thinktank dedicated to creating a space for public participation and democratic debate on key social, economic, environmental and foreign policy issues. In this article, Mittal cites a new study by Cornell University researchers, the first to look at longer-term economic impact of Bt cotton. The study of 481 Chinese farmers in five major cotton-producing provinces found that after seven years of cultivation they had to spray up to 20 times in a growing season to deal with secondary insects, which resulted in a net average income of 8 percent less than conventional cotton farmers. Failure of Bt cotton crops in India resulted in the suicides of an estimated 700 farmers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, between June 1, 2005 and August 9, 2006, to escape debt incurred by buying the expensive GM seed. As Bt cotton continues to jostle for public acceptance, Bt crops have been attacked by \'\'Lalya\'\' or \'\'reddening\'\' as well, a disease unseen before which affected Bt more than the non-Bt cotton crop, resulting in 60 percent of farmers in Maharashtra failing to recover costs from their first GM harvest. Genetic engineering and Bt cotton will neither revolutionise the countryside in the developing countries nor improve food security, but a new farm economy based on the principle of food sovereignty and farmers\' rights as the centrepiece of the country\'s economic development model will.

Ecobreves – MEXICO:: Marine Fauna Contaminated

- The international environmental watchdog Greenpeace has asked Mexico's health authorities to respond to the contamination of marine fauna that poses a threat for human consumption.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Demands for Ecological Integration

Argentine environmentalists have proposed that the countries of Mercosur (Southern Common Market) take a regional focus for drafting policies that involve their shared natural resources.

Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Mangroves in Danger

Five-hundred hectares of mangroves are destroyed each year in Guatemala, which could devastate 40 percent of the country's mangrove ecosystems, says Carlos Albacete, of the organization Trópico Verde (Green Tropics).

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Copaíba as Anti-Inflammatory

A study conducted by University of Sao Paulo's Ribeirao Preto science department has certified the anti-inflammatory properties of the copaíba plant (Copaifera officinalis).

Argentine Water Supply Faces Uranium Threat

Water intended for human consumption may have been contaminated by the Ezeiza Atomic Center. Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Health Organization and local authorities will conduct a new assessment.

Caribbean Beaches and Marine Ecosystems in Danger

Stricter laws are needed to protect beaches and prevent the degradation process. There is an imbalance in investment in the tourism industry and the national programs for sustainable tourism.

Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: Border Closed to Toxic Waste

Colombia will not import toxic or nuclear waste, according to a resolution by the Environment Ministry.