Environment

Nuclear Test Moratorium Threatened by North Korean Impunity

By Thalif Deen
When the United Nations commemorates the International Day Against Nuclear Tests later this week, the lingering question in the minds of most anti-nuclear activists is whether or not the existing moratorium on testing will continue to be honoured - or occasionally violated with impunity.

Q&A: Everyone Loses in War Over Amazon Dams

By Mario Osava
In the war over major hydropower dams in the Amazon jungle, everyone loses - even the winners who manage to overcome the opposition and build them, but who suffer delays, costs that are difficult to recoup, and damage to their image.

Exclusive Bus Lanes Speed Things Up in Buenos Aires

By Marcela Valente
A new system of exclusive lanes for bus rapid transit appears to be benefiting public transport passengers and bus drivers in the most congested part of the centre of the Argentine capital.

Uruguay Prepares for Iron Rush

By Inés Acosta
A bill that would regulate large-scale mining operations is making its way through Uruguay’s two houses of parliament, despite a lack of political consensus and vocal opposition from environmental organisations and other sectors of civil society.

New Initiative Aims to Integrate Agriculture and Conservation

By Fabíola Ortiz
It took Brazil four decades to overcome food insecurity and earn a place as a major global food supplier. Now its experiences will contribute to the evidence base for a new initiative that seeks to reconcile agriculture and the conservation of biological diversity.

Civil Society Calls for Vote on Drilling in Ecuador’s Yasuní Park

By Ángela Meléndez
The Ecuadorean government’s decision to allow oil drilling in the Yasuní National Park, one of the most biodiverse areas of the planet, has caused alarm among environmentalists and indigenous people, who are calling for a referendum on the issue.

Cheap Power Stymies Renewables in Kyrgyzstan

By Chris Rickleton
Almost five years ago, as his village in northern Kyrgyzstan endured daily power outages, rays of light always emitted from Sabyr Kurmanov’s garage. They came from his egg incubator, a 12-volt contraption powered by something he and his neighbours have in abundance – wind.

Five Caribbean States Join Pilot for Energy Efficiency

By Peter Richards
Every year, the Caribbean's electric sector burns through approximately 30 million barrels of fuel. Overall, the region imports in excess of 170 million barrels of petroleum products annually.

Nicaragua’s New Canal Threatens Biggest Source of Water

By José Adán Silva
The law passed in Nicaragua to grant a concession to a Chinese company to build a canal between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans repealed legislation that protects Lake Cocibolca and its tributaries.

Mining in Chile Going Back Underground

By Marianela Jarroud
Declining mineral content, the need to preserve the environment, and technological advances are causing big mining companies to turn back to underground mining in what is a rising trend in Chile and around the world, experts say.

GM Seeks New Pastures in Pakistan

By Zofeen Ebrahim
After a string of setbacks in India in recent years, the genetically modified seed industry is now targeting Pakistan as its next frontier, say activists.

Higher Temperatures, More Dengue

By Patricia Grogg
The spread of the virus that causes dengue fever has created an emergency situation for institutions, governments and scientists in Latin America seeking sustainable solutions for a health problem that could worsen as a result of climate change.

Civil Society Trial Finds Oil Corp Guilty in Colombia

By Helda Martínez
An “ethical and political trial on pillaging of natural resources” in Colombia condemned three foreign corporations, including Canada’s Pacific Rubiales Energy, which has dozens of oil and natural gas operations around the country.

Angry Birds Skip Polluted Delhi

By Ranjit Devraj
Every winter the Okhla wetlands, a charmed haven in the heart of India’s bustling capital city, play host to Greater Flamingoes, Greylag Geese, Tufted Pochards, Northern Shovelers and other exotic, feathered visitors winging in from colder climes as far away as Siberia.

OP-ED: Rising Temperature, Rising Food Prices

By Lester R. Brown
Agriculture as it exists today developed over 11,000 years of rather remarkable climate stability. It has evolved to maximize production within that climate system. Now, suddenly, the climate is changing. With each passing year, the agricultural system is becoming more out of sync with the climate system.

Musical Toilets for a Few While 2.5 Billion Lack Basics

By Thalif Deen
Even as the United Nations laments the fact that more than 2.5 billion people in the developing world are still without adequate sanitation, both Japan and South Korea have gone upscale: offering automated toilets and piped-in classical music.

Water Dispute Pits Communities Against Brewing Giant

By Edgardo Ayala
Josefina Escamilla was in the Salvadoran capital to protest against UK brewing giant SABMiller, whose local subsidiary plans to drill a new water well on land alongside her community that, she says, will cause water scarcity for local residents.

Poor and Disabled When Disaster Strikes

By Lucy Westcott
Upon first glance, the emergency checklist distributed in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake looks like any other. Organised into key categories like water, sanitation and hygiene, and psychosocial support, the information is typical of the kind circulated for emergency response.

U.S. Task Force Urges Climate Change Preparations

By Jared Metzker
The United States government is recommending new preparations aimed at protecting vulnerable communities from climate change-related disasters, a year after a major hurricane devastated swaths of the country’s East Coast.

When Disaster Rains, Talk

By Amantha Perera
Gulam Rasul, chief meteorologist at the Pakistan Meteorological Department, was sure early this month that the second leg of the annual monsoon due in the latter half of the month was going to be bad. “Normally it peaks towards late August,” Rasul told IPS.

Sustainable Technologies Safeguard the Soil in Cuba

By Ivet González
The furrows are hard to make out in fields of the Finca de Semillas, a farm on Havana’s outskirts, because its administrators, Esmilda Sánchez and Raúl Aguilar, protect every centimetre of soil with mulch.
« Previous Page — Next Page »
*#*