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Sunday, November 8, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Biodiversity
Plastic Seas Altering Marine Ecology
Plastic trash is altering the very ecology of the world's oceans. Insects called "sea skaters", a relative of pond water striders, are now laying their eggs on the abundant fingernail-sized pieces of plastic floating in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean instead of relying on a passing seabird feather or bit of driftwood.
Climate Change Threatens Crucial Marine Algae
Without major reductions in the use of fossil fuels, sunlight is to kill an unknown number of ocean phytoplankton, the planet's most important organism, a new study reports this week.
Expo 2012 Aims to Protect World’s Endangered Oceans
Come May 12, South Korea will host its largest single landmark event for the year - an achitecturally-glittering Expo 2012 - continuing a 161-year-old tradition going back to the first Great Exhibition in England in 1851 showcasing the steam engine.
Smugglers Devastate Gulf of Mannar Marine Reserve
Forest officials of the Gulf of Mannar Marine Biosphere Reserve abutting the Palk Straits between India and Sri Lanka have reported a decline in marine wildlife, as smugglers exploiting lax conservation laws in the region tank up on protected species used in traditional Chinese medicines and fine dining.
Tribal Farming Beats Climate Change
Tribal farmer Harish Saraka has rediscovered the key to sustainable farming in this rain-dependent hinterland of eastern Odisha state – mixed cropping.
Blue Crab Revival Offers Hope for Ailing Fisheries
Authorities in Maryland and Virginia have rescued the Chesapeake Bay's blue crab from the brink of collapse, tripling its population in five years, by using methods that emerging crabmeat-exporting countries in Asia and Central America could emulate, scientists say.
Cloning – Lifeline for Cashmere Shawl Industry
After scientists in Kashmir successfully cloned the pashmina goat, that produces the famous ‘cashmere’ wool, hopes are running high for the revival of the traditional shawl-making industry in this Indian state.
U.S.: Trekking for Wild Florida
There was a time when big, yellow cats freely roamed the length of a wild Florida. Today, three medium-sized humans are trekking the length of this southeastern U.S. state - 1,000 miles of swamp, forest, ranchland and blistered feet - in hopes that panthers may one day be able to safely tread the same path.
Ghanaian Fisherfolk Blasting Their Way to Finding Fish
Explosives, high-watt light bulbs, monofilament nets, and poison: these are a few methods fisherfolk are using to catch ever-dwindling fish stocks off Ghana’s shores.
Gulf of Mexico Seafood Deformities Alarm Scientists
"The fishermen have never seen anything like this," Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this either."
Crocodiles Edged Out of Habitats in Sri Lanka
Reacting to a series of deadly crocodile attacks, the Sri Lankan government has drawn up plans to capture the free-ranging beasts and confine them to parks. Conservationists oppose this move.Sea Level Rise Threatens Mekong Rice
With Vietnam’s fertile Mekong delta threatened by rising sea levels and salt water ingress, the country’s future as a major rice exporter depends critically on research underway in the Philippines.
Bringing the Lost Cheetah Back to India – But at What Cost?
On Monday, the Indian Supreme Court declined to call a scheduled hearing of the Federal Ministry of Environment and Forests regarding plans to reintroduce African cheetahs, which were declared extinct in 1952 as a result of over-hunting by India’s nobility, into 10 identified sites in north and central India by May 2012.
U.S. Still Importing Illegal Timber
Since 2008, over 20 U.S. companies have imported illegally logged timber worth millions from the Peruvian Amazon, charged a multi-year investigative report released Tuesday by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).
Kittitians See Ominous Signs of Climate Change
It is mid-morning and the temperature has already soared to 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mexico’s Corn Festivals – a Haven from Transgenic Crops
Catalina Salvador, an 87-year-old peasant farmer who grows pumpkins, beans, and above all corn on her small plot of land, was one of the opponents of transgenic crops who took part in the traditional corn festival in San Juan Ixtenco in the central Mexican state of Tlaxcala.
Development Deficit Compounds Indian Sundarbans Crisis
Sahara Bibi, a 47-year-old poor Muslim woman living on one of the climate- impacted islands of Eastern India’s fragile Sundarbans archipelago in West Bengal state, was forced to pull her two young sons out of school and send one of them to the Southern state of Kerala to earn a decent income.
Tourism Woes Replace Terrorism in Kashmir
As separatist militancy peters out in Kashmir, the valley is beset by armies of tourists who bring in the dollars but devastate the fragile ecology of ‘Asia’s Switzerland’.
Treat Illegal Logging Like Organised Crime, Urges World Bank
With illegal loggers clearing the equivalent of a football field of the world's most valuable forests every two seconds, local and international law enforcement systems should target the criminal operations that profit most from the trade, according to a new report released here Tuesday by the World Bank.
Q&A: Expo 2012 to Focus on Protecting World’s Marine Resources
The United Nations, which is hosting a major international summit on the global environment in Brazil in late June, points out that while the world's oceans account for 70 percent of the earth's surface, only one percent of this area is protected.
Anguilla Battles a Shrinking Coastline
When Hurricane Luis, a category four storm, lashed the tiny Caribbean island of Anguilla on Sep. 4, 1995, its forceful waves eroded all of the beaches, leaving vast areas of the shoreline carpeted with dead sea grass and debris torn from the coral reefs.« Previous Page — Next Page »
The world's diverse flora and fauna are facing urgent threats due to pollution, climate change, commercialization of nature and other forms of harmful human intervention. The widespread loss of biodiversity is worrying not simply because of the disappearance of exotic species which deserve saving, but because tampering with nature's equilibrium means that the loss of one form of life is a threat to another. IPS taps into its own diverse network of correspondents around the world to report on continuing and emerging dangers to nature's riches - and the struggle to protect them.
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