José Saramago:Trees can be revived, the dead cannot”

The anti-war spirit of Portuguese writer José Saramago, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature, has scandalized the public more than once. He has called for silencing the drums of war in the Mexican state of Chiapas and in Palestine, the latter of which he compared to Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp where Jews were exterminated during the Holocaust.

Hybrids Could Provide Way Out of Banana Crisis

Banana varieties obtained by Honduran scientists could be the answer to the biological threat looming over this fruit's Cavendish family, the most exported banana type in the world.

Organic Farming Takes Off in Cuba

Organic tomatoes, ginger, broccoli, oregano and other produce and spices are readily available today in Cuba's free farmers' markets, thanks to the country's urban gardening programme

Plagas del banano

El banano es una fruta crucial para la humanidad. Pero la producción de este alimento que es esencial para cientos de millones de personas enfrenta el peligro de las plagas, especialmente de la sigatoka negra y la Enfermedad o Mal de Panamá.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Hunting Ban in Santiago Andino

Chilean officials have implemented a 30-year ban on the hunting and trapping of wild mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds in the central area of Santiago Andino, one of the 25 sites worldwide for which the World Bank is urging protection of biodiversity.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Accord to Improve City Park

Municipal authorities, businesses, museums and even religious communities of Caracas have agreed to clean up and improve Los Caobos Park, a 22-hectare area serving as an important "lung" for the Venezuelan capital.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Testing Genetic Vaccine against Dengue

A DNA vaccine against dengue type 2 was successful in tests using mice in experiments conducted by the Rio-based Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Sugar Mills Pollute River

Two sugar mills in the southeastern province of Guantánamo dumped industrial waste into the Guaso River, causing serious ecological damage and economic losses for the region.

Ecobreves – NICARAGUA: New Mollusk Species Discovered

Eight new mollusk species have been identified after 11 years of research by two experts at the Central American University's school of science, technology and environment.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Protection for Cayos Cochinos Demanded

Environmental groups from Honduras and abroad are lobbying the national Congress to declare the northern bay of Cayos Cochinos, on the Caribbean coast, a natural marine monument.

Ecobreves – CENTRAL AMERICA: Free Trade, But Not in Pesticides

The project to establish a customs union in Central America could open borders to harmful pesticides, undermining efforts to reduce their use in the region, warn environmental activists of El Salvador.

José Saramago:

The anti-war spirit of Portuguese writer José Saramago, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature, has scandalized the public more than once. He has called for silencing the drums of war in the Mexican state of Chiapas and in Palestine, the latter of which he compared to Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp where Jews were exterminated during the Holocaust.

Banana Diseases

The banana is a crucial fruit for human beings. But the production of this food -- essential for hundreds of millions of people around the world -- is faced with the serious threat of plagues, particularly the black sigatoka fungus and Panama disease.

WANTED: THREE MILLION PEOPLE ALIVE

World Water Day -- celebrated each year on 22 March -- provides us with an opportunity to recognise the centrality of water to our daily lives, to poverty reduction, to our environment, and to the sustainable development of nations, writes Sir Richard Jolly, chair of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC). In this article for IPS, Jolly writes that top-down, supply-driven approaches to provide water and sanitation services have not worked, while treating water as a free good to be delivered weakens good water management including cost recovery and water conservation. Present levels of international aid going to water, sanitation, and hygiene are estimated at about five billion dollars per year. Yet Third World governments are spending roughly the same again. The author calls for a doubling of this level of investment and raising the share of national and international resources going to services in slums and urban shanty-towns and in rural areas. Better water, sanitation, and hygiene were and are the basis of better health in the industrialised nations. Without them, no amount of drugs, doctors, or hospitals will lift public health onto an equivalent level in the developing world.

A DARK MOMENT

It is difficult not to feel despair and powerlessness at this awful juncture, write Archbishop Desmond Tutu, recipient of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, and Ian Urbina, associate editor at the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) in Washington DC. In this article for IPS, the authors write that millions in the world fought with all their hearts and minds to avoid the violence ensuing in Iraq. Never in history has there been such an outpouring of resistance before a war had even begun. This doctrine of moral and popular preemption must be sustained. This is the beginning not the end of heightened vigilance. With war, domestic civil liberties face their greatest threat. We must not squelch the right to protest under the pressures of patriotism. World attention has for the last months fixated on the desire for a diplomatic and United Nations solution. If we want lasting peace and security in the Middle East, if we want international law to hold any meaning, we must begin to require that UN resoltions are applied uniformly across all countries. In Iraq, we must watch to see that the promises for a truly functioning democracy are honoured, that the long-term commitment for rebuilding is provided.

US WAR A GREAT STEP BACKWARDS FOR HUMANITY

The war US President Bush is waging against Iraq is the most senseless and illegitimate war in recent history, not only because none of the arguments presented as justification are valid but also because it is a violation of the law and of the consensus of the majority of the peoples and governments of the world, writes Rigoberta Menchu, 1992 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. The offensive now destroying Iraq places the United States, its top government officials, and their allies in the dock for violation of international law. The United Nations should defend not only its code of law, tainted by the capriciousness and arrogance of the US; it must also take concrete steps to translate the universal condemnation into an exemplary moral and political sanction. With the world dominated by the hegemonic muscle-flexing of a government that has proclaimed itself the sole Global Power, it is necessary that people unify and mobilise to oppose the New Imperial Disorder with a new order of harmony, understanding, and intercultural respect. And we must hope that the world\'s democratic governments restore the validity and authority of the multilateral institutions, which have been gravely damaged by the unilateral declaration of war by the Bush administration.

INTERVIEW WITH FERNANDO SAVATER: ‘BUSH IS NOT ON THE SIDE OF CIVILISATION’

The current war is not a response to either an invasion or to a United Nations decision but rather a long-term geopolitical strategy of the United States, states the writer and philosophy professor Fernando Savater, a leader of the Basta Ya movement, which represents the victims of terrorism in the Basque Country. In this interview for IPS, Savater argues, \'\'the rule of international law, however precarious, must be respected for political, not ethical, reasons. The war against Iraq has nothing to do with terrorism. No one could believe such an improbable and unsubstantiated linkage.\'\' \'\'The major political challenge of the 21st century is to establish international organisations for governance, education, justice, cooperation, etc., on a planetary scale. Today the dividing line between civilisation and technologised barbarism lies in this effort. I fear that Bush, disgracefully, is not on the side of civilisation.\'\'

Are Climate Change Measurements Wrong?

There is a stir in the scientific community as two experts challenge the widely accepted climate change reports issued by an intergovernmental panel. One of the critics, David Henderson, explained their doubts in a conversation with Tierramérica.

The Banana Wars against Fungus

Researchers are trying to protect the banana from its numerous enemies, and one of the tools they could use is to develop genetically modified varieties that are more resistant to pests. In Brazil, the greatest threat is black sigatoka fungus.

Deepak Chopra:”Arrogant unilateralism will create further resentment”

The current U.S.-Iraq crisis is an opportunity to look at the real issues of our time, Deepak Chopra says in this dialogue with Tierramérica. He warns that war is not compatible with sustainable development and suggests that the world needs to find more creative solutions to its problems.

Espíritu Santo Out to Conquer Eco-Tourism

This beautiful Mexican island, a protected area for more than a quarter century, is being promoted as an international model for ecological tourism.