THE RESCUE OF KARL MARX

In Europe summer is usually the time when publishers release forgotten books, biographies, and travel writing, and major magazines put out special editions on a past subject of current interest.

OVERUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS IN MEAT PRODUCTION THREATENS PUBLIC HEALTH

We Americans like our meat. In the course of a year, on average we eat more than 220 pounds of chicken, beef, and pork. But some are starting to pause at the meat counter as they hear about incidents of contamination and compromised food safety, the breeding of drug-resistant super-bugs and the inhumane conditions endured by animals raised in extreme confinement.

Houses Put to Flood and Hurricane Test

Over a span of eight years, a Mexican engineer visited areas thrashed by hurricanes. His goal was to design a home capable of withstanding nature's worst.

Releasing Clean Energy from Manure

Manure, Argentina's leading source of climate-changing emissions is beginning to be used as raw material for clean energy.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Sounding the Alarm for Shrinking Glaciers

The Argentine chapter of the environmental group Greenpeace called on governments to fight global warming, which is melting South America's glaciers.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Government Lists High Andes Wetlands

The Chilean Agriculture Ministry's center for natural resources information is putting together the first information system on High Andes wetlands in the three regions of the country's north.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: War Against Plastic Bags Expands to All Trash

The ban on shops providing non-biodegradable plastic bags for their clients' purchases is in force in the Mexican capital, but is not enough to get solid waste management under control, say environmentalists.

PRIVATISATION IS THE ENEMY OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

The privatisation of the earth's resources is a recipe for famine and desertification, violence against women, hunger, and, as happens in India, the suicide of farmers.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Art Emerges from Garbage

The Ecological Processing Center for Urban Waste (CEPRU), in the far eastern Cuban city of Guantánamo, will open the doors before year's end on its open-air art gallery. The premise? Garbage also holds cultural riches.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Incentives for Organic Farming

The Honduran Secretariat (ministry) of Agriculture and Livestock is using a new regulation to promote organic crops among some 60 non-governmental organizations that group 1,800 small and medium farmers.

Biological Remedy for Sickened Soil

Biological remediation costs 80 to 150 dollars per cubic meter of soil in Mexico, where such methods are increasingly studied and applied to clean up contaminated land.

El Niño Taming the Hurricanes

The arrival of El Niño is good news -- for now -- in the countries of the Americas located in the hurricane zone, including Cuba.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Biodiesel from Soy Dregs

Soybean oil dregs can be turned into a useful biofuel, according to research going on at Brazil's University of São Paulo.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Ecologists Celebrate Center for Renewable Energies

The Chilean government of Michelle Bachelet last week inaugurated the Center for Renewable Energies (CER), specializing in research, development and promotion of unconventional sources, like solar, wind, geothermal and wave motion.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Crops Grow in Former Garbage Dump

Community groups and Venezuela's Ministry of Environment planted 4,000 vetiver grass shoots (Vetiveria zizanioides) on the slopes of the Ojo de Agua terraces, a former sanitary landfill west of the capital.

THE SUDDEN DEMISE OF NEO-LIBERAL ECONOMICS

The Washington Consensus, the neo-liberal economic prescription presumed to be universally and permanently valid, was broadsided by the current world recession together with other "one size fits all" formulas.

New Maritime Rules Target Oil Spills in Antarctica

A new international regulation aims to prevent oil spills in Antarctic waters from causing environmental disasters.

The Environmental Fight Starts in Your Neighborhood

Chilean neighborhoods are making progress - on a human scale and at a human pace - towards environmentally sustainable communities.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Fruitful Irrigation with Sewer Water

Urban household sewer water, processed to remove solid waste and some of the organic matter, is being used in Brazil as a fertilizer that boost sugarcane yields 50 percent.

Ecobreves – GLOBAL: Mammals in Danger

Twenty-five percent of the world's mammal species are in danger as a result of agricultural expansion, hunting and the introduction of exotic species, according to a meeting of experts from 50 countries last week in Argentina.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Dredging to Fight Floods

The municipal government of Tegucigalpa last week launched an intense campaign to dredge rivers and ravines and to clean up the city - all to reduce vulnerability to flooding in some 135 neighborhoods considered at risk.