WORLD AT A CROSSROADS

As the new Executive Director of Greenpeace International I am often asked what changes I plan to make for the organisation. The response I give is one which I believe applies to Civil Society as a whole: I would like us to become even more inclusive in our membership, even more united with other groups in our work, even more determined in talking truth to power, and even more active all around the globe.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Naturally Protected Foods

A natural film has many advantages over plastic sheets that it can replace in protecting food, especially fruit. The film is made of edible material, from proteins extracted from maize, wheat and other plants.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Organics at a Global Fair

Seven companies, most of them consisting of peasant and indigenous farmers, will represent Honduras at BioFach 2010, an international fair of organic products taking place Feb. 17-20 in Nuremberg, Germany.

The Two Faces of Agriculture

"Farmers can be excellent managers of natural resources and ecosystems," says the UNEP executive director in this exclusive Tierramérica interview.

Pro-Forest Measures Anger Guyana's Miners

The Guyanese government and miners are at loggerheads, with the Amazon forest - and its wealth in minerals and its role in fighting climate change - at the center of the dispute.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Promoting Bicycle Use

Fans of cycling are applauding the launch on Feb. 15 of a program to promote bicycle use in one area of the Mexican capital, but they are asking the city government for more support for this transportation alternative.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Buenos Aires 'Lung' Threatened

Without management or a budget, the most important public park in the Argentine capital is falling apart, due to the increase in its commercial use.

UNIFIED APPROACH NEEDED FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

The only viable normative approach regarding nuclear weapons is their total and universal elimination under strict verification. This cannot be achieved by incremental steps but only by the negotiation of a Nuclear Weapons Convention as advocated by the UN Secretary-General.

U.S. CONGRESS: THE BEST MONEY CAN BUY

The radical decision of the US Supreme Court on January 21, 2010, allows companies to spend unlimited money in politics. Overturning 100 years of restraint on corporate spending, the two newest justices, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, appointed by former President George W. Bush, have turned the court into an ally of big corporations. The fanciful view of this highest US Court holds that money is equivalent to free speech under the First Amendment and that corporations are "persons" equivalent to real human beings. The unreality of this view also equates corporations with trade unions without recognizing that unions represent real people whereas corporations are legal entities for the purpose of making money for their shareholders.

The Amazon Is Not Eternal

The Amazonian apocalypse is just around the corner, according to scientists gathered at the conference launching the International Year of Biodiversity.

Planting the Future Forest

The urgent need to reforest its national territory has led German officials to search around the world - including the Bolivian Andes - for tree species that are resistant to climate change.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Solar Field in the Desert

More than 130,000 solar panels will make up the first photovoltaic plant in the middle of Chile's Atacama Desert. Construction is to begin in the coming months.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Protests Against Landfill

Mayor Rosiris Orozco and residents of La Concepción, a municipality near Maracaibo, 500 km west of Caracas, have asked Venezuela's Environment Ministry to shut down La Ciénaga sanitary landfill, which receives 100 trucks filled with garbage each day.

Ecobreves – CUBA: More Trees in Havana

The Cuban capital benefited in 2009 from the planting of more than 33,000 trees. But government officials and ecologists point to the low survival rate of the new trees.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: New Photovoltaic Technology

Researchers at the Pontificate Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul have developed a technique - which until now Brazil had to import - for transforming solar energy into electricity.

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES NEW TOOL AGAINST POVERTY

In many respects, the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) continues to be a great development success story. Over the past four years we have witnessed dramatic growth in the use of various ICT applications, notably mobile phones. Developing-country populations now account for more than half of all Internet users. Improved connectivity has also enabled more firms to gain access to critical information, finance and knowledge -all key factors for enhancing competitiveness.

Rage and the Economics of the Environment

"The continued pursuit of growth endangers the ecosystems on which we depend for long-term survival," says the British economist, ferocious critic of the Copenhagen Accord on climate change.

Zeolite, Mineral of a Thousand Uses

The versatility, abundance and low cost of zeolite make it a valuable tool for agriculture and other economic sectors in Cuba.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Biodiesel Beats Goal by Three Years

Diesel fuel used in Brazil is a five-percent mix of biofuel as of January 1 this year, reaching the goal set by the National Biofuel Program, begun in 2005, three years ahead of time. Until now, the mix was three percent.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: A Biodegradable Future

As they become more widely produced, biodegradable plastics will replace synthetic polymers, Angel Romo, researcher at the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM), told Tierramérica.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Coral in Danger

Increasing acidity in the waters off the Caribbean coast - an effect of global warming - is hurting the coral reefs of the Islas de la Bahía, report officials from the Honduran Secretariat of Environment.