Mega Cities Could Trigger Water Shortages and Social Unrest

The rapid growth of urban population - described as one of the world’s major demographic trends - has triggered an explosion of "mega cities" in Asia, Latin America and Africa, causing a breakdown in basic services, including water supplies and sanitation facilities.

THE ISLAMIC WORLD: STRENGTH THROUGH UNITY

Before Islam, Arabia lived for centuries under various forms of "asabiya", variously defined as Arabism, tribalism, or clanism, which led to many long wars. But in 610, Prophet Muhammad, at the age of 40, received the first verses of Al-Quran, challenging the traditional social and political order. Asabiya yielded to brotherhood-sisterhood in a community of values, the Umma, from Umm, mother. Arabs engaged with enthusiasm in this new social order based on the Islamic religion which held that "there is no difference between an Arab and a non-Arab, or between a white and a black, except in degree of piety". Distinctions based on race, ethnic group, colour, gender, etc., disappeared in favour of unity, freedom, justice, and above all rahma (true love).

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Wastewater Treatment Residue Used in Concrete

A technique that uses the residue left over from wastewater treatment in the production of concrete has been developed by the São Carlos School of Engineering at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Film Fest Aims to Raise Environmental Awareness

A short film competition will kick off the second Buenos Aires Green Film Fest, a showcase for international cinema on environmental themes, beginning this Aug. 25.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Public Consultation on Hotel Project Demanded

The Mexican Environmental Law Center (CEMDA) and Los Cabos Coastkeeper have called on the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources to hold a public consultation on the construction of a tourism complex in the northwestern state of Baja California Sur.

Keystone XL: A Pipeline to Europe?

The proposed Keystone XL Canada-U.S. oil pipeline could play a key role in exporting Canadian tar sands crude to Europe.

A PLAN OF ACTION FOR EUROPEAN POLITICS

Before anything else what we need today is a paradigm to diagnose and address the many grave global problems that face us all but are experienced differently in the various regions of the world. Because in Europe the crisis is more evident and is causing the suffering of tens of millions of people, the young especially, we must take it as reality.

Climate Change Is Affecting Traditional Knowledge

Colombia has no system for monitoring biodiversity to determine how it could be affected by global warming, Brigitte Baptiste of the Humboldt Institute, a Colombian government institution devoted to biodiversity, reports in this exclusive interview.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Despite Forest Management, Logging Leads to Financial Losses

Even when sustainable management regulations and logging cycles established by the law are strictly followed, logging causes irreversible losses in the productive value of Amazon forests, according to a study by the Luiz de Queiroz Higher School of Agriculture at the University of São Paulo.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Used Batteries Collected on Margarita Island

An environmental group from Margarita Island, located in the Caribbean Sea off the northeast coast of Venezuela, has launched a campaign to collect used batteries from the island’s 400,000 inhabitants and the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit every year.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Firefighters Plant Trees in the Capital

A contingent of 25 members of the Tegucigalpa Fire Department has joined the government initiative to plant 200,000 trees in the Honduran capital and three neighboring municipalities over the next six months.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Zeolites Increase Agricultural Yields

The use of natural zeolites in agriculture increases crop yields while minimizing environmental impacts, new Cuban research has found.

UGANDA: Post War Reconstruction Ignores Victims of Sexual Violence

Ester Abeja has experienced both physical and emotional atrocities. She was captured by Uganda's feared rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and was forced to join them. But not before the soldiers made her kill her one-year- old baby girl, by smashing her skull in, and then gang raped her.

KENYA: Post Election Violence Victims Still Suffer

The Mawingu camp for internally displaced persons affected by Kenya’s 2007- 2008 post-election violence is a desolate place. Located in the Rift Valley, the camp is a collection of tattered, sagging and forlorn tents.

CUBA FIVE YEARS LATER

Five years have passed since the announcement by Fidel Castro that because of health problems he was "provisionally" delegating his responsibilities in the Cuban government to a group of five officials headed by his brother Raul until he was well enough to return to office. It would soon become evident that this return was not imminent, and before long Castro announced his withdrawal from active political life, though not from politics.

AFTER PEAK OIL, PEAK GLOBALISATION

For decades the world economy has been on a path towards globalisation. The drive to achieve ever larger economies of scale at ever lower marginal costs pushed manufacturing to standardise, slashing expenses by outsourcing and supply chain management, consolidating suppliers, eliminating unnecessary in-house middle management, pushing for mergers and acquisitions, purging excess to deliver better returns to investors and ever lower prices to customers, thus strengthening their purchasing power and bringing more citizens into the sought-after middle class.

Petrochemical Complex Poses Major Environmental Challenge

Cuba is preparing a series of environmental measures to protect the Bay of Cienfuegos from the upcoming expansion of its oil refinery.

After Peak Oil, Peak Globalization

The reality of a globalized economy seems to be that poverty is its only sustainable phenomenon, says entrepreneur Gunter Pauli in this column.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Relocation of Electric Power Substation Demanded

Environmental and social organizations in the Argentine city of Berazategui are calling for the relocation of an electric power substation to a less populated area and legislation on the placement of these facilities.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Anti-Transgenic Food Campaign

Greenpeace Mexico has a launched a computer application called "Clean Out Your Cupboards" to help consumers avoid industrially processed and genetically modified foods.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Logging Threatens 7,000 Square Kilometers in the Amazon

The Amazon could lose another 7,000 square kilometers of forests by July 2012, according to a report on the risk of deforestation released by the Amazon Institute of People and the Environment (Imazon).