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Thursday, August 20, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
ENVIRONMENT: Violent Backlash Against Climate Scientists
Climate change science has come under full-scale attack in a last-ditch effort to delay or prevent action by the U.S. government against global warming, experts warn.
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.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Arctic Shelf Leaking Potent Greenhouse Gas
The frozen cap trapping billions of tonnes of methane under the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean is leaking and venting the powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, new research shows.
ENVIRONMENT: Tsunami of E-Waste Could Swamp Developing Countries
The mighty mountains of hazardous electronic waste are growing by about 40 million tonnes a year globally. In China, India and South Africa, those mountains are expected to grow 200 to 500 percent in the next decade, a new report warns.
POLITICS: U.N. Climate Chief Quits Post
Countries have largely failed to endorse the Copenhagen Climate accord by the Jan. 31 deadline. On Thursday, the key official in the United Nations climate treaty process announced his resignation.
POLITICS: U.N. Climate Chief Quits Post
Countries have largely failed to endorse the Copenhagen Climate accord by the Jan. 31 deadline. On Thursday, the key official in the United Nations climate treaty process announced his resignation.
BIODIVERSITY: Companies Push Hard to Halt Tuna Collapse
In the Seychelles' only cannery, the din of thousands of empty tuna cans rattling on narrow metal troughs is incredible as they bustle along, soon to be filled with Skipjack tuna that only days ago were swimming freely in the inky blue Indian Ocean.ENVIRONMENT: Keeping Wetlands from Becoming Wastelands
Swamps, marshes and other wetlands are beginning to be recognised as a country's 'green jewels', even in a tropical paradise like Mahé Island here in the Seychelles, with its stunning beaches and dramatic granite outcrops.
BIODIVERSITY: The Amazon Is Not Eternal
The Amazon jungle "is very close to a tipping point," and if destruction continues, it could shrink to one third of its original size in just 65 years, warns Thomas Lovejoy, world-renowned tropical biologist.BIODIVERSITY: Northern “Biopirates” Gobbling up Resources
Rich countries are like biopirates, looting far-away lands for food, raw materials and cheap labour. They're plundering other richer ecosystems because they've largely destroyed their own. And they're blocking global efforts to create an independent scientific assessment panel that is likely point the finger at the real reason species are going extinct at 1,000 times their natural pace, experts say.
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.
Q&A: Rage and the Economics of the Environment
"Rage is sometimes the appropriate response" to the failure of the world's leaders to craft a new climate treaty at the Copenhagen summit, says British economist Tim Jackson.BIODIVERSITY: Words Are Not Enough
Words are not enough to stop the rapidly unraveling web of life, agreed heads of state and international conservation organisations at a high-level meeting that ended here last Friday.
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.BIODIVERSITY: A Tipping Point on Species Loss?
Humanity is destroying the network of living things that comprise our life support system. While this sawing-through-the-branch-we're-perched-on is largely unintentional, world leaders can't say they didn't know what's going on: 123 countries promised to take urgent action in 2003 but have done little to stem the rising tide of extinctions in what's known as the extinction or biodiversity crisis.
No Real Deal, and No Exit
Coral reefs are dying, glaciers are melting and rising sea levels threaten the homes of millions. The effects of climate change will continue and there is little room for optimism as the Copenhagen summit has come came to an end with disappointing results.
CLIMATE CHANGE: History Was Not Made
There is no Copenhagen climate treaty. History was not made here and no deal was sealed.
CLIMATE CHANGE: No Real Deal, and No Exit
The roof of our house is on fire but our leaders, our economic system and we ourselves are ignoring the alarms and continuing to add more fuel. There are no exit doors in our house; there is nowhere else to go.
CLIMATE CHANGE: “Canada Is the Dinosaur”
Canada bears a large share of responsibility for any failure to make a breakthrough in reducing greenhouse gas emissions here in Copenhagen, say participants and civil society activists.
CLIMATE CHANGE: No Water in Copenhagen Talks
In the last two years, the conclusion among decision-makers has been that the only way to solve the climate crisis is to turn carbon into a commodity and privatise the atmosphere.
No Water in Copenhagen Climate Talks
The climate change summit in Copenhagen has ignored the world's water problems, which will only worsen with global warming, say experts.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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