Corals Fight for Survival

Delegates from 175 countries discuss listing endangered plant and animal species to protect them from unregulated trade. For corals it's a lost opportunity.

IRAN: THEOCRATIC REGIME SURVIVES THROUGH REPRESSION

The latest report of Hands Off Cain (1) documents no fewer than 346 executions in Iran in 2008, a figure far exceeded by the total for 2009. Iran's theocratic regime is second only to China in its implementation of the death penalty.

Cracks in the Readiness Plan of the 'Chilean Miracle'

Chile still lacks experts capable of operating new anti-seismic technologies and the ability to disseminate emergency information among officials and the population.

Latin America Builds Another Energy Capital

Generating electricity from the sun and from the wind is taking off with Latin American projects that include the region's own technology and manufacturing.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Promoting Quake-Resistant Construction

Honduran lawmakers, entrepreneurs and the government's emergency commission, COPECO, are promoting new regulations to ensure construction of earthquake-resistant buildings.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Drought Hurts Tourism Marvels

The Catatumbo lightning, an electrical storm that produces 1.6 million bolts each year in northwest Venezuela, disappeared in January as a result of the intense drought that the country continues to suffer.

Ecobreves – CHILE: New Clean Air Standards

Chile's National Environmental Commission approved on Mar. 9 a new standard for environmental quality for particulate matter of less than 2.5 microns, the size that is most harmful to human health when inhaled.

A WIN-WIN PLAN FOR ICELAND, BRITAIN AND THE NETHERLANDS

Icelanders, on March 6, 2010, rejected by 90% the referendum on paying $5.3 billion (45% of national output in 2009) of odious debt incurred by their privatized bank Icesave. This opens the way for a plan proposed by Dutch businessman/philanthropist Gijs Graafland's Planck Foundation. This ingenious, well-researched Energy for Debt plan invites private and public investors to develop Iceland's boundless geothermal energy and send its electricity to Britain and the Netherlands via a high-voltage DC transmission line. Graafland, an energy and financial expert, points out that Iceland, situated between two of Earth's tectonic plates, has unlimited geothermal energy from the planet's core near the surface –rather than miles deeper as elsewhere. "Iceland can become the Saudi Arabia of the North in geothermal energy", says Graafland.

THE DECLINE OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY

Ideas die too. The cemetery of political parties overflows with the remains of organisations that at one time ignited passions and roused multitudes but are now relegated to oblivion. Who in Europe today agrees with Radicalism, though it was one of the most important political forces (centre-left) of the second half of the 19th century? Or Anarchism? Or Stalinist Communism? What happened to these formidable mass movements that in their day could mobilise millions of workers and peasant farmers? Were they just passing fashions?

Violent Backlash Against Climate Scientists

From death threats to aggressive discrediting in the press, disaster has hit the IPCC, the global scientific panel dedicated to studying climate change - and it is now finding ways to regroup and respond.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Accelerated Deforestation in Northeast

The Caatinga, the only biome that is exclusively Brazilian and vulnerable due to its arid climate, lost 26,576 square kilometers of forest from 2002 to 2008, with just 53.6 percent of its original forest intact.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Forest Authority Powerless Against Fires

Officials from the government's Forest Conservation Institute (ICF) declared themselves incapable of controlling forest fires in Honduras, due to lack of human and logistical resources.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Movement of Toxic Waste Denounced

The Argentine Environmental Defense Foundation issued an alert about the removal of toxic materials from an abandoned vegetable oil production plant in the central province of Córdoba.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Festival to Promote Green Commerce

A hundred sustainable producers will gather Mar. 13 at Ecofest, the first eco-festival in the Mexican capital, with the goal of promoting consumption of ecological products.

THE EU MUST ACT NOW ON GLOBAL CRISIS

There is lively debate in the European Union about the global recession and the economic crisis in member countries, but relatively little discussion about the future of the Old Continent.

Scientists Reinvent the Corn Tortilla

Mexican scientists are working to make "nixtamalization," the ancestral technique for preparing maize to be made into tortillas, a more environmentally sustainable process.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Machine for Separating Garbage

A machine invented by students at SENAI, an industrial training center in Concordia, in southern Brazil, can separate out garbage by type, replacing what can be dangerous manual work.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: A Frog for Al Gore

A frog that measures less than two centimeters long, discovered in the western Venezuelan state of Táchira, was named Allobates algorei in honor of the former U.S. vice-president Al Gore (1993-2001), co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace prize.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Environmentalists Wary of New Government

Chilean environmentalists are concerned about the possible measures to be taken by the incoming environment minister María Ignacia Benítez, given her work as a private projects solicitor before the Environmental Impact Assessment System, some of which came under fire from citizen groups.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Demanding an End to Illegal Logging

Civil society organizations are demanding that Honduran President Porfirio Lobo declare a total ban on lumber activities, in order to halt illegal logging of the nation's forests.

The Thirsty Caribbean

The countries of the Caribbean, facing the worst drought in decades, are adopting strict rationing rules, with jail time for those who violate them.