Environment

In Caribbean, Climate-Smart Agriculture Bolsters Farm Production

By Desmond Brown
A new initiative is catching on in the Caribbean that aims to increase and sustain agricultural productivity by incorporating information about weather and climate into the farming process, all under the umbrella of climate-smart agriculture.

OP-ED: Learning from Haiti’s Goudou Goudou

By Peter Costantini
On a hillside overlooking Port-au-Prince, a muscular Haitian man in a green tank top raises a heavy steel pry bar over his head and brings it down into a hole, shattering a bit of Haiti’s limestone skeleton.
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Experts Fear Collapse of Global Civilisation

By Stephen Leahy
Experts on the health of our planet are terrified of the future. They can clearly see the coming collapse of global civilisation from an array of interconnected environmental problems.

Water Summit to Focus on Resolving Scarcities in Mideast

By Thalif Deen
Amidst a growing water crisis in the predominantly arid Middle East and North Africa (MENA), some of the world's most influential water experts will meet Jan. 15-17 at the International Water Summit (IWS) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) to look for sustainable solutions.

World Bank “Success” Came at High Cost in Haiti

By Correspondents
A 61-million-dollar, eight-year community development project funded by the World Bank and executed by the Haitian government and two international development agencies has raised questions of waste and corruption, and even carried out what could be called “social and political re-engineering".

Treaty “Insufficient” to Reduce Global Mercury Levels

By Carey L. Biron
Even as government negotiators from around the world prepare to gather next week for a final round of talks on a new international treaty limiting the use of mercury, scientists and activists are warning that the draft treaty is both too weak and too limited in scope to have a major impact.

U.N. Aims at Sustainable Energy for All by 2024

By Thalif Deen
When the General Assembly wound down its 67th session in late December, it underscored the key role for energy in the U.N.'s post-2015 economic agenda by declaring 2014-2024 the "Decade of Sustainable Energy for All".
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More Aging U.S. Coal Plants Hit the Chopping Block

By Matthew Charles Cardinale
Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the largest utilities in the U.S. south, plans to retire 15 coal and oil-fired energy generating units at four different plants, in the latest sign that a national campaign against coal is gaining traction.

Brazil Measures Rain Against Dengue

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever need clean, still water and warm night temperatures to reproduce and thrive. That is common knowledge, but now scientists in Brazil have managed to measure the relation between increased rainfall and temperatures and the risk of dengue epidemics in this city.

Chilean Archaeologists and Environmentalists Fight Dakar Rally

By Marianela Jarroud
Archaeologists, environmentalists and the National Monuments Council are battling the Dakar Rally, an annual off-road race, in northern Chile, an area with a rich archaeological and natural heritage that has already lost dozens of sites key to understanding Chilean and South American prehistory.

China’s Rising Soybean Consumption Reshaping Western Agriculture

By Lester R. Brown
Global demand for soybeans has soared in recent decades, with China leading the race. Nearly 60 percent of all soybeans entering international trade today go to China, making it far and away the world's largest importer.

A River Runs Dry in Tanzania

By Orton Kiishweko
Avelina Elias Mkenda, a 52-year-old small-scale farmer in the Mbarali district of Tanzania’s southwestern Mbeya region, can sense a change in her environment.

Pacific Island Wakes Up to Threat of Oil Spills

By Catherine Wilson
Coral reefs and marine ecosystems in the Milne Bay Province of the Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea are at serious risk of long-term environmental damage. The reason: an oil spill from a ship that ran aground on a reef on Kwaiawata Island on Christmas Eve, and authorities’ long delay in mobilising an appropriate response to the accident.

Villagers Wail Against Nuclear Power

By K. S. Harikrishnan
Mahalakshmi, a housewife married to a farmer, is afraid for her family’s future. The fifty-two-year-old woman is also frustrated that Indian authorities have "betrayed" poor villagers.
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OP-ED: Climate Inaction Is a Clear Failure of Democracy

By Stephen Leahy
Around the world, 2012 was the year of extreme weather, when we unequivocally learned that the fossil fuel energy that powers our societies is destroying them. Accepting this reality is the biggest challenge of the brand new year.

Paediatricians for a Healthy Environment

By Marcela Valente
A group of Argentine paediatricians has been combining work on environmental protection and child health for more than 10 years. It appears a basic principle to apply, but the task is turning out to be increasingly challenging and complex.

Between Drought and Floods – A Year of Extremes in Sri Lanka

By Amantha Perera
Wild elephants are usually the primary attraction in the remote shrub jungles of Udawalawe, about 180 kilometres southeast of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo. But this Christmas season, the massive Udawalawe dam stole the limelight from the lumbering beasts.

Bicycles No Longer Mere Recreation in Argentine Capital

By Marcela Valente
A programme launched in Buenos Aires three years ago to encourage the use of bicycles has already brought results: the use of this environment-friendly means of transport has increased fivefold in the Argentine capital.

International Aid Helps Cuba Adapt to Climate Change

By Patricia Grogg
"Adaptation to climate change is urgent and must be part of development," said Bárbara Pesce-Monteiro, the United Nations resident coordinator in Cuba, assessing the damage done by hurricane Sandy in the eastern region of the country.

Indigenous Chileans Still Fighting Pinochet-Era Highway Project

By Marianela Jarroud
For more than two decades, Mapuche indigenous people in the Chilean region of Araucanía have been fighting the construction of the Ruta Costera (Coastal Highway), a megaproject initially conceived during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990) which has already caused significant archeological and cultural losses and damages.

Amazon Regional Alliance to Confront the Climate Emergency

By Milagros Salazar
“When someone in Peru sneezes, someone in Brazil catches a cold. When a barrel of oil is produced in Ecuador, a neighbouring country ends up buying it,” says prominent environmentalist Yolanda Kakabadse.
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