Ecobreves – MEXICO: Drafting Eco-Laws for Automobiles

The Mexican government is drawing up new standards that will require automobile manufacturers to offer vehicles with low carbon dioxide emissions.

GIANT SOLUTIONS FOR GIANT PROBLEMS

The economic crisis engulfing the world is getting worse day by day and has spread to every continent. It is a truly global crisis the solution to which is clear to no one. During the years of hope in the "glorious decades" following World War II, the communists never tired of proclaiming the impending general crisis of capitalism, which would be fatal for the system, according to Marxist analysts. Although there were small crises, none was comparable to the depression of 1929, which seems the ultimate measure of failure.

BELEM VS DAVOS: ECONOMIC ESTABLISHMENT STEALS LIMELIGHT DESPITE CULPABILITY

The media gave ample coverage to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, attended since its beginning in 1971 by the same politicians and businessmen who have sustained for decades that financial capitalism was progressing towards a certain and every more generous prosperity and who now promise that they will revive it without offering any plausible explanation for the current catastrophic recession.

Tenacious Drought Puzzles Climate Experts

Climatologists and meteorologists have not yet established a reason for the lack of rainfall on the normally fertile and productive plains of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Aquaculture Awaits Its Heyday

Fish farming could fill the void left by commercial fishing as a source for human food -- and it can transform itself into a sustainable industry, say its promoters.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Partial Ban on Asbestos

Brazil's environment minister, Carlos Minc, has banned the use of asbestos in public works and in all vehicles associated with his portfolio, due to the health dangers the fire-resistant mineral poses.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Wetlands Not So Protected

Venezuela has reached the 38th anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands with mixed results.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Applause for Ozone Therapy

A million patients with chronic illnesses were treated with ozone therapy in Cuba over the past two decades. Eighty percent of the cases responded with satisfactory results.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Biosphere Destruction Denounced

Humanitarian and environmental groups have reported the continued logging in the Honduran biosphere reserve of the Plátano River, where clandestine sawmills operate.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Conflict Over Petroleum Storage Site

Residents, fishers and salmon workers, including the indigenous population of Calbuco, in the southern Chilean region of Los Lagos, have announced a mobilization against a fuel storage plant of the Chilean oil company Copec.

FROM THE JAWS OF CRISIS, BOLD EXPERIMENTATION

In May 1932, with the United States and Europe mired in a devastating depression, then-presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt counselled his countrymen not to cower in fear but to rekindle the animating myth of "the American experiment": "The country needs and demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."

PATENT COUNTS NOT A TRUE INDICATOR OF THE GEOGRAPHY OF INNOVATION

Innovation in the global marketplace is the very heartbeat of knowledge-based economies. It encompasses both the invention of products and processes and their sale and distribution, which stimulates economic growth. It involves the creation, exchange, and evolution of new ideas and their application for the success of an organisation, the vitality of a nation's economy, and the advancement of society as a whole. If we are to solve the current financial crisis, what is needed is more, not less, innovation.

Biofuels Head to Chile's Forests

Chile wants to begin distilling fuels with raw material from the forests -- a new technological area with many unresolved questions.

No End to Chagas Disease in Argentina

Non-governmental sources in Argentina report that Chagas disease is seeing an upswing.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Nanotechnology to Unblock Oil Pipelines

Mexican scientists are turning to nanotechnology for an economical and effective solution for unblocking oil pipelines -- a problem that otherwise costs companies great sums of money worldwide.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Government Aims to End Sugarcane Burnoffs

Brazil's Environment Ministry this month will launch the Agro-Ecological Zoning of Sugarcane and a new law to reduce the burnoffs applied before plantings, with the goal of ending them in 2020.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Phone the President, Demand Forest Law

The Argentine chapter of Greenpeace is urging the public to telephone President Cristina Fernández to ask for her speedy enactment of the native forests law that was passed 14 months ago.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Indians Join Organic Coffee Projects

Cultivation of organic coffee will be promoted in the Honduran municipality of La Campa, in the western department of Lempira, home to a mostly indigenous population that seeks to sell the product to Europe.

OBAMA FULL STEAM AHEAD

In office only since January 20, US President Barack Obama has jumped into action so quickly he has not given adversaries or observers the time to organise criticism or attacks. Meanwhile Europeans, and in particular their political leaders, do not seem to have grasped the "Copernican revolution" that is underway in the US and appear stunned and incapable of reacting to the new developments that are taking place each day in Washington.

OBAMA FULL STEAM AHEAD

In office only since January 20, US President Barack Obama has jumped into action so quickly he has not given adversaries or observers the time to organise criticism or attacks. Meanwhile Europeans, and in particular their political leaders, do not seem to have grasped the "Copernican revolution" that is underway in the US and appear stunned and incapable of reacting to the new developments that are taking place each day in Washington.

Parasails Can Move Ships

Wind propulsion returns to the seas as in times of yore, but don't look for the traditional mainsail.