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Wednesday, September 2, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
ENVIRONMENT: Record Financing For Biofuels, Not Food
Biofuels have quickly turned from environmental saviour to just another mega-scale get-rich quick scheme. Countries and regions without their own oil reserves to tap now see their farms, peatlands and forests as potential "oil fields" - shallow but renewable lakes of green oil.US-MEXICO: Border Wall Condemns Jaguars to Extinction
Jaguars have no place in the United States, although a handful still roam the southwest. Environmentalists suspect the real reason U.S. officials are allowing the jaguar to become extinct is the "security" wall being built along the Mexican border.CLIMATE CHANGE: Africa, South Asia Could Face Famines
Climate change will cause major disruptions in the global food system, and adaptation to those changes needs to begin immediately, experts say.
Border Wall Condemns Jaguars to Extinction
In announcing that they are giving up efforts to help the jaguar population recover, U.S. authorities have handed a death sentence to the big cat that was once plentiful along the border with Mexico.DEVELOPMENT: Biofuels a Lose-Lose Strategy, Critics Say
U.S. biofuels production is driving up food prices around the world, giving billions of poor people a very good reason to hate U.S. policy, say environmentalists.CLIMATE CHANGE: Big Business Ponders a Low-Carbon Diet
With a tax on carbon emissions appearing to be inevitable, some of the world's largest corporations will be asking their suppliers to report on their carbon emissions as part of future reduction efforts.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Tourism at the End of the World
Hurry! Hurry! See the polar bears, penguins, Arctic glaciers, small pacific islands before they disappear forever due to global warming.DEVELOPMENT: “Plan B” Urges 80 Percent CO2 Cuts
Imagine it's a glorious new era and everything you'll do as part of your normal day helps to stabilise the climate and the global population, eradicate poverty, and restore the earth's damaged ecosystems.
Tourism at the End of the World
So-called “climate tourism” is a mix of legitimate interest in protecting nature, the desire to see rare wildlife on the verge of extinction, and, of course, the search for profit.ENVIRONMENT: Report Finds Rising Tide of Green Financing
There appears to be hope for the planet yet.SCIENCE: Experimental Drugs Flourish in China
China's booming medical biotechnology industry is producing controversial drugs and gene therapy treatment programmes for domestic use, as well as to treat critically ill foreigners seeking potential cures unavailable elsewhere.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Northward Ho?
Dan Bloom thinks it's time to figure out how to build self-sustaining cities in the polar regions because climate change will eventually make most of Earth uninhabitable.CLIMATE CHANGE: Measuring Bali by a Scientific Yardstick
A tiny step was taken Saturday in meeting the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced.BIODIVERSITY: Fish Farms Pushing Wild Salmon to Extinction
Vast populations of pink salmon on Canada's west coast will be extinct in four years due to infestations of parasites from open ocean salmon farms, scientists reported Friday in the prestigious journal Science.ENVIRONMENT: For Troubled Fishing Industry, Less Is More
Catch less fish. Make more money. Could this be the solution to the global overfishing crisis?CLIMATE CHANGE: Who Should Pay the Carbon Bill?
The family has just finished up an expensive seven-course restaurant meal, and the late-arriving cousins can only snack on bread sticks. When the bill arrives, the truculent, rich uncles - Canada, Japan and the United States - insist that the cousins, although poor and still very hungry, ought to pay a full share.CLIMATE CHANGE: Forests Could Cool or Cook the Planet
A two-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures could flip the Amazon forest from being the Earth's vital air conditioner to a flamethrower that cooks the planet, warns a new report released at the climate talks in Bali, Indonesia Friday.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Forests, the Great Green Hope?
Expanding European forests absorbed 126 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from 1990 to 2005 - equivalent to 11 percent of European Union emissions from human activities - while a U.N. target to plant one billion trees mainly in Africa has been surpassed.
ENVIRONMENT: Planetary Check-Up Starts With the Oceans
If continents are the Earth's sturdy bones and the atmosphere its thin skin, then the oceans are its heart, circulatory system and blood. And despite the crucial role played by the oceans in the health of the planet, and to our own health and well-being, there is little monitoring of ocean health.
HEALTH: Developing World Bears Brunt of "Lifestyle Diseases"
Chronic, non-infectious diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes kill more than twice as many people than HIV/AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis, experts warn.CLIMATE CHANGE: Kyoto on Track, Despite Some Slackers
Total greenhouse gas emissions of 40 industrialised countries rose to a near all-time high in 2005, but the Kyoto Protocol will still exceed its reduction targets, a United Nations agency said two weeks before political leaders meet in Bali, Indonesia to begin negotiations on a new and more aggressive treaty to battle climate change.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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