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Monday, November 9, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Biodiversity
ENVIRONMENT: Earth, Inc. Sliding Into Bankruptcy
Build a shrimp farm in Thailand by cutting down mangrove forests and you will net about 8,000 dollars per hectare. Meanwhile, the destruction of the forest and pollution from the farm will result in a loss of ecosystems worth 35,000 dollars/ha per year.SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Floral Kingdom as Vulnerable as It Is Biodiverse
Climate change is threatening the Cape Floral Region, a World Heritage Site in South Africa's Western Cape province, say environmentalists.
CLIMATE CHANGE: U.N. Braces for New Breed of Refugees
As the international community continues to express fears over the potentially devastating impact of global warming worldwide, there is also growing concern over the steady increase in a new category of displaced persons: environmental refugees.CLIMATE CHANGE: “We’ve Never Seen What We’re Seeing Now”
One night about four years ago, Lakhan Bibi's grandfather told her that things in their land were going to change. "How come?" she asked. "Look up to the sky," he said. "You see the moon? It is no longer where it used to be."CLIMATE CHANGE: Indian Scientists Yet to Study Biodiversity Impacts
Scientists at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc) based in this southern Indian city say that field studies of climate change impacts in India are currently non-existent, with no attention being given to them.ENVIRONMENT-KENYA: Biodiversity Fades as Coral Bleaches
Synonymous with big game and rolling savannahs, Kenya has also garnered fame for a part of its natural heritage that is found off shore, in the form of coral reefs. But, officials warn that higher sea temperatures - ascribed to climate change - are taking a toll on these reefs, as well as the diverse marine life they play host to.BIODIVERSITY: Climate Change Also Drives Evolution
New scientific evidence confirms that human action, such as carbon emissions causing global warming, and industrial-scale search for food, is decimating biodiversity - and, in some cases, is driving threatened species to evolve and adapt at unexpected speed to new living conditions.
Q&A: Putting a Human Face on Biodiversity
Biodiversity is what sustains life on Earth, but we are on the verge of the sixth mass extinction of species in the planet's history, Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, told Tierramérica.On the eve of World Biodiversity Day, May 22, in a conversation with correspondent Stephen Leahy, Djoghlaf underscored that climate change is creating conditions to which plant and animal life cannot react to quickly enough. In turn, the loss of species will aggravate global warming, creating a vicious cycle.
BIODIVERSITY-MEXICO: Sierra Gorda Reserve Hit Hard by Climate Change
In the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, Mexico's richest in biological diversity, thousands of trees are dying from the attack of pests, against which there are few viable weapons. The ongoing lack of rainfall opened the door to the onslaught.
ENVIRONMENT: Ecuador Seeks Aid Not to Exploit Amazon Oil
A novel proposal by Ecuador is testing world leaders' commitment to fight global warming and preserve the biodiversity of the Earth.BIODIVERSITY: Wild Parrots Tame the Concrete Jungle
Southern California has a vast array of transplants lured by the moderate climate and endless days of sunshine, and perhaps none are more exotic than the urban parrots that have come to colonise bedroom communities ringing major cities like San Diego and Los Angeles.BIODIVERSITY-PHILIPPINES: Warmer Seas Threaten Rich Marine Life
For the past 11 years, Scott Sharpe, a diver from Hawaii, has been exploring the undersea world off the coast of the Philippines. It is the beauty of that country's marine life that drew him to the archipelago.ENVIRONMENT: Southern Ocean Nears CO2 Saturation Point
Climate change has arrested the Southern Ocean's ability to absorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, researchers announced Thursday.
BIODIVERSITY: Scientists Foresee Extinction Domino Effect
Climate change is accelerating species extinctions and unraveling the intricate web of life, experts fear.BIODIVERSITY-INDIA: Climate Change Skews Tribal Farming
A group of 25 leaders of the Soliga tribe in the isolated Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary in the hills of this southern Indian state sit in a semi-circle, discussing matters of concern to them.BIODIVERSITY-JAPAN: Climate Change Fosters Coral-Eating Starfish
At the Kushimoto marine park, 640 km southwest of the national capital, divers proudly display the coral-eating starfish they pluck away from the famed table coral formations that attract tourists for their sheer beauty.BIODIVERSITY: A Web Page for Each of the World’s Creatures
Scientists launched a global initiative Thursday called the "Encyclopedia of Life" that will document the Earth's 1.8 million known species and track the impacts of habitat loss and climate change.
ENVIRONMENT: Mining Threatens Jamaica’s Wildest Region
Jamaica's famously rugged and undeveloped Cockpit Country could be threatened by bauxite mining if the government does not expand proposed boundaries for a nature reserve, local environmental groups say.CLIMATE CHANGE-SRI LANKA: Flash Floods – An Ominous Sign
As Tamil militant planes flew sorties over the national capital last week, the attention of political leaders were diverted from a worse disaster unfolding on the ground - flash floods, attributed by scientists, to climate change.BIODIVERSITY-INDIA: Lax Laws Worry Villagers, Activists
Five years after India enacted a seemingly pioneering, conservation-oriented law to preserve the country’s amazing diversity of flora and fauna, the Act remains bogged down by widespread protests from local communities, while civic groups protest the dilution of related environmental laws.
ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Neglecting Ancient Reservoirs Carries a Price
The carved granite pagodas that dominate this town in southern Tamil Nadu state have earned it a place on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites. Less noticeable, though, are the vast reservoirs that once took care of the water requirements of this millennia-old cultural centre.« 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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