Stephen Leahy

Stories written by Stephen Leahy
Stephen Leahy is the lead international science and environment correspondent at IPS, where he writes about climate change, energy, water, biodiversity, development and native peoples. Based in Uxbridge, Canada, near Toronto, Steve has covered environmental issues for nearly two decades for publications around the world. He is a professional member of the International Federation of Journalists, the Society of Environmental Journalists and the International League of Conservation Writers. He also pioneered Community Supported Environmental Journalism to ensure important environmental issues continue to be covered. | Web | Twitter |

ENVIRONMENT: U.S. Cod Stocks Down 96 Percent

By Stephen Leahy

Historical records reveal that scientifically managed cod stocks off the northeast coast of the United States have been nearly fished to extinction.

CORRECTION*/ENVIRONMENT-CANADA: Kyoto vs. NAFTA?

By Stephen Leahy

Closing North America's biggest coal-fired power plants is a key part of Canada's plan to meet its Kyoto Protocol obligations, but experts warn that U.S. coal companies could claim such a move violates international trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

ENVIRONMENT-RIGHTS: Inuit to Charge U.S. for Climate Change

By Stephen Leahy

The Inuit people of the Arctic regions are preparing to charge the United States with human rights violations, saying that country is the leading culprit behind climate change, which threatens their way of life - and their very survival.

Inuit to Charge U.S. for Climate Change

By Stephen Leahy and - -

The Inuit peoples of the Arctic regions hope the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will find that the United States, the leading emitter of carbon dioxide, is threatening their existence. Their action is seen as the first case that links climate change and the rights of indigenous communities.

ENVIRONMENT: Ban Endures on Terminator Seeds

By Stephen Leahy

An international moratorium on the use of controversial "terminator technology" in genetically engineered crops survived efforts to overturn it at a United Nations interim meeting on the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bangkok Friday.

ENVIRONMENT-CANADA: Kyoto So Close…Yet So Far Away

By Stephen Leahy

Canada will be hard-pressed to meet its Kyoto targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, even as scientists warn that the risks of climate change are more serious than previously thought.

ENVIRONMENT: The Decade After Next…

By Stephen Leahy

Climate change could raise global temperatures a whopping 11 degrees C. by mid-century, new research revealed Thursday, even as some international experts warn that just a two-degree increase would likely spell disaster for many people.

DEVELOPMENT: Cutting Hunger in Half Costs "Peanuts", Experts Say

By Stephen Leahy

World hunger can be cut in half in a single decade for a mere 60 cents per month for every person living in a developed country, say two renowned scientists heading the United Nations task force on hunger.

The Mexico City subway transports some five million people each day -

Death Traps Below the Big Cities

By Stephen Leahy and - -

The ever-growing number of underground transportation networks, shopping centers and parking ramps in the world's mega-cities are vulnerable to natural disasters, warn experts. Not even the wealthiest cities of the United States and Europe have given this serious issue much thought.

AGRICULTURE: Monsanto "Seed Police" Scrutinise Farmers

By Stephen Leahy

Agribusiness giant Monsanto has sued more than 100 U.S. farmers, and its "seed police" have investigated thousands of others, for what the company terms illegal use of its patented genetically engineered seeds, and activists charge is "corporate extortion".

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Monsanto "Seed Police" Scrutinise Farmers

By Stephen Leahy

CHALLENGES 2004-2005: ‘Pharma Crops’ Threaten Food Safety

By Stephen Leahy

Medicine and farming are merging as genetically engineered (GE) maize and soy crops promise cheap drugs, but they also threaten to contaminate food and the environment, warn activists and experts.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Sea Levels to Rise Faster – NASA

By Stephen Leahy

The predicted rise in sea levels caused by the world's changing climate will have to be revised upward after U.S. scientists recorded accelerated melting of ice in the Arctic and Antarctic, one researcher said this week.

ENVIRONMENT: Climate Change Legal Action Heats Up

By Stephen Leahy

British scientists say they now have proof linking Europe's deadly heat wave of 2003 to climate change caused by human activities, portending a raft of lawsuits against countries and companies.

U.S: Crop Testing Rules Menace Food Supply, Say Critics

By Stephen Leahy

Proposed rules for experimental genetically engineered (GE) crops will allow contamination of the U.S. food supply, critics said this week, as a new poll reported Americans want stricter regulation of GE foods.

MEDIA: Tunisian Journalist Fights for Openness

By Stephen Leahy

The Tunisian recipient of a Canadian award recognising her fight for media freedom in her homeland says she will organise a counter conference to a planned United Nations meeting on the "information society" in Tunis in 2005.

BRAZIL: Indians’ Genetic Material Sold on Internet

By Mario Osava and Stephen Leahy

The Brazilian government has asked Interpol, the international police, to intervene in what it says is the illegal sale of genetic material from its indigenous peoples by a U.S. research centre.

Indians' Genetic Material Sold on Internet

By Mario Osava, Stephen Leahy, and - -

Genetic material from members of the Karitiana and Suruí indigenous communities in Brazil can be purchased for 85 dollars through the Internet. The Brazilian government is demanding an end to what it says are ''illegal sales'' conducted by the U.S.-based Coriell Institute, which holds the world's largest collection of human cell cultures.