Environment

Fishing Communities Will Face Warmer, Acid Oceans

By Desmond Brown
Eating fish has been an integral part of the Caribbean's cultural traditions for centuries. Fish is also a major source of food and essential nutrients, especially in rural areas where there are scores of small coastal communities.

Brazil Headed Towards an Energy Revolution

By Stephen Leahy
Energy consumption and production are undergoing fundamental shifts but the world is still on course to a 3.6 degree C hotter climate according a report released during the U.N. climate talks in Warsaw.

Concerns Over Role of Corporates at Climate Talks

By Mantoe Phakathi
As deliberations continue in earnest at the 19th United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Warsaw, negotiators from the Global South welcome a focus on financing adaptation – but reject a new emphasis on a role for the private sector.

Developing World Pushes for Rescue of U.N. Carbon Credit Fund

By Wambi Michael
Negotiators from Least Developed Countries are calling for the United Nations climate body to urgently establish a rescue fund to save Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism from collapse.

In Anti-Poaching Warning, U.S. Destroys Ivory Stockpiles

By Carey L. Biron
The United States has become the first developed country to destroy its stock of seized ivory, a move being widely lauded by conservation groups pushing for an outright ban on domestic ivory sales.

Q&A: Indonesia Still at High Risk for Catastrophic Fires

By Lusha Chen
In June, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia were enveloped in haze as hundreds of forest fires burned across the island of Sumatra, in the worst pollution crisis to hit Southeast Asia in more than a decade.

U.S. Fights G77 on Most Counts at Climate Meet, Leaked Doc Shows

By Claudia Ciobanu
The U.S. delegation negotiating at the U.N. international climate change conference in Poland is pushing an agenda of minimising the role of “Loss and Damage” in the UNFCCC framework, prioritising private finance in the Green Climate Fund, and delaying the deadline for post-2020 emission reduction commitments, according to a State Department negotiating strategy which IPS has seen.

Protecting Tanzania’s Farmers from Weather Extremes

By Kizito Makoye
When Habiba Msoga from Kiroka village, in Tanzania’s Morogoro Region, first began applying a method of rice cultivation that was different from what her fellow farmers traditionally used, they laughed at her.

U.N. Climate Meet: “It’s About Survival”

By Desmond Brown
For the small island developing states of the Caribbean, there is nothing more important than the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place here at the national stadium of Poland from Nov. 11-22.

Relief Slowly Makes Its Way to Typhoon-Battered Philippines

By AJ Correspondents
Relief operations in typhoon-devastated parts of the Philippines picked up pace Wednesday, but still only minimal amounts of water, food and medical supplies were making it to increasingly desperate survivors in the hardest-hit places.

Oil Palm Expands on Deforested Land in Brazil’s Rainforest

By Fabiana Frayssinet
The green of the oil palm plantations is unbroken along kilometre after kilometre of red soil, devastated in the past by loggers and ranchers. The oil palm, a sign of alarm for some and of hope for others, is here to stay in the Amazon rainforest state of Pará in the extreme north of this country.

St. Vincent’s Volcano Holds More Promise Than Peril

By Desmond Brown
Weary of sky-high electricity prices, St. Vincent is following in the footsteps of another, decidedly un-tropical island nearly 4,000 miles away in its quest to harness clean geothermal power.

For Poland the Right Way Is Coal

By Claudia Ciobanu
These are busy days in the Polish capital Warsaw, even if it doesn’t show. The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 19 has opened at the National Stadium, while on the other side of the river Wisla the Polish far right gathered for their annual march on Independence Day on Monday.

Little Preparation for a Great Disaster

By Richard Javad Heydarian
Despite the government’s early warnings and evacuation of up to 800,000 people from vulnerable areas, the category 5 - the highest level - Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda to Filipinos) has left some communities and coastal zones in the central Philippine islands of Visayas in complete ruins.

Small Islands Demand U.N. Protection

By Thalif Deen
Threatened by rising seas, some of the world's small island developing states (SIDS) are demanding that the U.N.'s new set of Sustainable Development Goals place a high priority on the protection of oceans and marine resources.

Mining Takes a Bite Out of Guyana’s Amazon

By Desmond Brown
Guyana is engaged in a balancing act to save its rainforest, regarded as a living treasure, from the destructive activities of miners digging their way to another kind of treasure buried beneath this fragile ecosystem.

OP-ED: A Global Green New Deal for Sustainable Development

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Eight decades ago, during the Great Depression, newly elected U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced the New Deal consisting of a number of mutually supporting initiatives of which the most prominent were:

This Bird Has Flown – Forever

By IPS Correspondents
The extinction of a single species (a fish off the coast of Cuba, a bird in the Brazilian forest) creates a void that can trigger a whole series of repercussions, from the alteration of ecosystems to increased hunger.

Ethiopia’s Indigenous Excluded from Rapid Growth

By Ed McKenna
As the construction of a major transmission line to export electricity generated from one of Ethiopia’s major hydropower projects gets underway, there are growing concerns that pastoralist communities living in the region are under threat.

Foul Play Ahead of Russian Olympics

By Pavol Stracansky
Despite an endorsement from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for their adherence to environmental standards in preparations for next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russian authorities are cracking down harder and harder on people trying to expose the environmental cost of projects related to the Games.

World Headed for a High-Speed Carbon Crash

By Stephen Leahy
If global carbon emissions continue to rise at their current rate, humanity will eventually be left with no other option than a costly, world war-like mobilisation, scientists warned this week.
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