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Monday, November 9, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Biodiversity
ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Wildlife – Kashmir's Other Conflict
Decades of separatist militancy in Indian Kashmir and the massive response to it by the armed forces have taken a toll on human life. But, what is less known is the fact that this and other human activity have exacerbated dangers posed to the state’s wildlife.ENVIRONMENT: Plenty of Blame for Collapsing Fish Stocks
Climate change, pollution and overfishing have left the oceans in crisis, experts agree. Now a new study reveals that every national government with a fishing fleet has dramatically failed to manage fisheries in a responsible manner.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Amazon Destruction Undermines Brazil’s Leadership
The Brazilian government, and its Environment Ministry in particular, accepted a risky bet by agreeing to voluntary goals for curbing deforestation in the Amazon, giving the country greater weight in the global talks on fighting climate change.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Tropical Forests Fight for Survival
Current rates of deforestation suggest there will hardly be any tropical forests left in 20 years. Sixty percent of the rainforests, which survived for 50 million consecutive years, are already gone.CLIMATE CHANGE: North American Trees Dying Twice as Fast
Our trees are dying. Throughout the western United States, cherished and protected forests are dying twice as fast as they did 20 years ago because of climate change, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science.ICELAND: That Whale of a Question Again
"Start whaling" proclaimed the full-page advertisement that appeared in Icelandic newspapers early January.CLIMATE CHANGE-BRAZIL: Calls for Adaptation Unheeded
Torrential rains have deluged several Brazilian states since November, causing nearly 200 deaths so far and reinforcing environmentalist campaigns calling for urgent climate change adaptation measures.ENVIRONMENT: U.S. Back in the Fold?
After nearly a decade of defiance by Washington toward international efforts to protect the environment, notably its disengagement from the Kyoto treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions, there are high hopes that the United States will soon play a leading role in addressing what U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has described as "the defining challenge of our era".ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Anti-Whalers Take Campaign to Japan
As Japan’s whaling fleet sails south for the annual hunting season, Greenpeace and the Australian government are concentrating their anti-whaling actions on diplomacy and public opinion in Japan.CLIMATE CHANGE: Latin America Could Show the Way
The World Bank has urged the international community to look to Latin America, the world's most bio-diverse region, for innovative solutions to avert a climate crisis.
ENVIRONMENT-LATIN AMERICA: Personal Crusades for Nature
Elba Muñoz rescues and cares for mistreated monkeys in Chile; Trinidad Vela revived a dry riverbed and saved her Peruvian community from drought; Rubén Pablos has spent 12 years restoring the native Patagonian forest in southern Argentina; and Angela Corvea is cultivating awareness about the environment in Cuba.ENVIRONMENT: Native Peoples Out in Cold at Warming Meet
Global efforts to combat climate change will lead nowhere as long as the indigenous peoples' representatives have no say in discussions to lay out future plans, say activists who are attending the international conference on climate change being held in the Polish city of Poznan this week.
LATIN AMERICA: Changes in Land Use, Changes in Climate
The countries of Latin America have failed to design integrated policies to control the processes of changes in land use, one of the causes of climate change. The region produces 12 percent of the world's emissions of greenhouse gases, which are driving up the planet’s average temperatures and changing the climate around the globe.CLIMATE CHANGE: Oceans Passing Critical CO2 Threshold
An apparent rapid upswing in ocean acidity in recent years is wiping out coastal species like mussels, a new study has found.U.S.-MEXICO: Fence to Carve Up Fragile Border Preserve
Another chapter in U.S.-Mexico border relations is about to close. In the waning days of the George W. Bush administration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is completing construction of a 22-kilometre triple fence along the San Diego-Tijuana border.ENVIRONMENT-BURMA: Conflict Threatens Karen Biodiversity
On top of 60 years of military occupation, the Karen people of Burma are now facing severe impairment of their environmental and cultural foundations, say activists.
BIODIVERSITY: Ten-Year Probe Reveals Oceans in Peril
A thousand points of light are being shone into the dark ocean depths as scientists from 82 countries work to complete the decade-long global research effort called the Census of Marine Life.BIODIVERSITY: The Real Price of Farmed Salmon
Salmon aquaculture is devastating the world's oceans and an international coalition of scientists, Canadian First Nations and tourism operators have called for a global moratorium.ARGENTINA: Newspaper Brings to Light Abuses against Poor Farmers
Small farmers in the northern Argentine province of Santiago del Estero are publishing their own newspaper in an attempt to raise awareness about the constant abuses they suffer at the hands of wealthy landowners, who are encroaching on their small plots of land.
ENVIRONMENT: Costa Rica at a Crossroads
The Crucitas open-pit gold mining project in northern Costa Rica could become an environmental cross to bear for the government of Óscar Arias.BIODIVERSITY: Unraveling the Mysteries of Salmon Migration
Tiny juvenile salmon have been electronically tracked for the first time from their natal rivers in the Rocky Mountains 2,500 kilometres north to Alaska.« 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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