Environment

Balkans: Floods Reunite Former Yugoslavs

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
The Balkans region is living one of its most horrible springs ever, after the worst flooding in 120 years took 47 lives and witnessed evacuation of dozens of thousands of Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs in a matter of days last week. 

Transgenics Prosper Amidst Pragmatism and Collateral Damage

By Fabiana Frayssinet
The advertising department of Swiss agribusiness giant Syngenta was on a roll in early 2004 when it published a map that dubbed a large area of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay the “United Republic of Soy”.

The Biggest Mideast Crisis You Probably Don’t Know Enough About

By Thomas W. Lippman
The Middle East’s seemingly endless conflicts are diverting attention and resources from a graver long-term threat that looms over the whole region: the growing scarcity of water. And the situation will get worse before it gets better — if it ever does get better.

Bolivia’s Mother Earth Law Hard to Implement

By Franz Chávez
The law for the defence of Mother Earth passed by Bolivia a year and a half ago has not yet moved from good intentions to concrete action.

Climate Legislation Over the Last 10 Years

By IPS Correspondents
Climate Legislation   in the last decade | Create Infographics
For our interactive world map showing all climate laws per country going back four decades, click here:

U.N. Decries Water as Weapon of War in Military Conflicts

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations, which is trying to help resolve the widespread shortage of water in the developing world, is faced with a growing new problem: the use of water as a weapon of war in ongoing conflicts.

How Does Your Country Fare on Climate Legislation?

By IPS Correspondents

Conflict with Local Communities Hits Mining and Oil Companies Where It Hurts

By Stephen Leahy
Conflicts with local communities over mining, oil and gas development are costing companies billions of dollars a year. One corporation alone reported a six billion dollar cost over a two-year period according to the first-ever peer-reviewed study on the cost of conflicts in the extractive sector.

OP-ED: The Free-Trade Regime: Oligarchy in Action

By Morris Sanchez
The United States is not really a democracy. That’s the (simplified) conclusion of a recent study from Princeton University. Instead, economic elites and special interest groups enjoy tremendous sway in Washington, while “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”

Lagging Urban Transport Works Hinder World Cup Sustainability

By Fabíola Ortiz
Brazil’s efforts to promote the image of an environmentally sustainable World Cup have focused on the stadiums built for the tournament. But the 12 cities where the matches will be played are in a race against time to complete the urban transport projects.

VIDEO: Mangroves Could Be Saviour of Guyana’s Shrinking Coastline

By Desmond Brown
With climate change robbing Guyana of some of its prime agricultural land, the government is looking to mangroves as a natural barrier to the rising seas.

Mangroves Could Be Saviour of Guyana’s Shrinking Coastline

By Desmond Brown

Agriculture has always played an important role in the socioeconomic development of Guyana, one of just two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states that straddle South America.

Traditional Wisdom to the Rescue in Cyclone Season

By Malini Shankar
May and November bring the most vicious cyclones to the Bay of Bengal rim countries in Southeast Asia.

Kiribati Bans Fishing in Crucial Marine Sanctuary

By Christopher Pala
After years of claiming untruthfully that the world’s most fished marine protected area was “off limits to fishing and other extractive uses,” President Anote Tong of the Pacific island state of Kiribati and his cabinet have voted to close it to all commercial fishing by the end of the year.

Saving West Africa’s Last Intact Tropical Rainforest through Tourism

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
Jonas Sanhin Touan has big dreams. As he sits under a canopy, he greets the rare tourist to Gouleako, one of the many villages near the entrance of Côte d’Ivoire’s Taï National Park, with a meal.

Industrial Agriculture: Too Big to Succeed

By Paul Weinberg
An estimated one billion small farmers scratching out a living growing diverse crops and raising animals in developing countries represent the key to maintaining food production in the face of hotter temperatures and drought, especially in the tropical regions, says Sarah Elton, author of the book, “Consumed: Food for a Finite Planet.”

Mexico’s Climate Laws Ignore Women

By Emilio Godoy
The rural communities of San Miguel and Santo Tomás Ajusco, to the south of Mexico City, are preserving 3,000 of their 7,619 hectares of forest in exchange for payment for environmental services. But the inequality in the communities is far from ecological.

U.N. Treaty on Corporate Rights Abuse Sees New Momentum

By Carey L. Biron
Some 500 global groups are calling for action by governments next month to jumpstart the process of drafting an international treaty to address rights abuses by multinational corporations, following on a related proposal by Ecuador and others.

CO2 Producing Hollow Food

By Stephen Leahy
Rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels will make many key food crops like rice and corn less nutritious, a new study shows.

U.N.’s Post-2015 Agenda Skips the Right to Water and Sanitation

By Thalif Deen
A U.N. working group mandated to formulate a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the post-2015 development agenda is being accused of bypassing water and sanitation as a basic human right: a right long affirmed in a General Assembly resolution adopted back in July 2010.

Community Electricity Lights Up Spain

By Inés Benítez
Until recently it was inconceivable for small groups of organised citizens in fully electrified industrialised countries like Spain to generate their own power from clean sources of energy, challenging the prevailing energy model.
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