Environment

Lakshmi Puri. Credit: UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz

OP-ED: Women and Girls at Heart of the Blue Revolution

By Lakshmi Puri
World Water Week recently concluded in Stockholm with a special emphasis on the linkages between water and food security.

China Puts Up a Green Shield Against Sandstorms

By Manipadma Jena
The setting sun is still streaming in through the poplars along the shelter belts, but Horquin Lianjun is done with farm work for the day. The desert wind has turned bone chilling.

Kenya’s Water Wars Kill Scores

By Protus Onyango
Water scarcity is fuelling deadly inter-ethnic wars that continue to claim lives in Kenya, according to government officials. And if nothing is done to educate communities on how to conserve the valuable resource, the situation will escalate, governance experts and environmentalists warn.

Small Dams – from Heroes to Villains in Brazil

By Fabiana Frayssinet
A recent Brazilian court decision to suspend construction of small hydroelectric dams along the Paraguay River has highlighted the doubts raised about a growing alternative source of energy that until recently was considered one of the most environmentally-friendly sources.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: New Regulations for Batteries

By - - and IPS Correspondents
Manufacturers of batteries in Brazil will now be responsible for their products throughout their entire lifecycle, from production, transportation and storage until their final safe disposal, in accordance with new regulations adopted by the national environment authority.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA : Conservationists Concerned Over Fate of Guanacos

By - - and IPS Correspondents
The possible declaration of the guanaco (Lama guanicoe) as a “harmful species” to cattle farming in the southern Argentine region of Patagonia could lead to its extinction, warn conservationists and academics.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Consultations on New Motor Vehicle Efficiency Standards Completed

By - - and IPS Correspondents
New standards for motor vehicle efficiency will enter into effect in Mexico in 2013. The public consultations on the proposed new rules, which began in July, ended on Sep. 9.

Kyoto Protocol May End With the Year

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
As government negotiators from the world’s poorest countries ended a round of United Nations climate change talks in the Thai capital, they sounded a grave note about what appears imminent when they assemble in November in Doha – the reading of the last rites of the Kyoto Protocol.

Getting Into the Business of Environment

By Amantha Perera
Regulations that stand in the way of conservation programmes lower their likely success, experts warned at the World Conservation Congress of the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Jeju, South Korea.

Environment Congress Looks First at the Island It’s Meeting On

By Amantha Perera
Before business could get under way, the controversy had to be dealt with. That appeared to be the strategy of the South Korean government just before the opening of the high profile International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress here on Thursday.

Caribbean Seeks Leg Up from Economic Doldrums

By Peter Richards
As governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) that groups seven countries, Sir Dwight Venner is all too aware of the low economic growth, debt and financial instability confronting the wider Caribbean.

Climate Adaptation Troubles Karachi’s Planners

By Zofeen Ebrahim
Climate proofing this bustling port city is a daunting task for planners who must consider factors ranging from proneness to flooding and administrative malaise to the fact that 60 percent of its 18 million people live in slums.

U.S. Points to ‘Gross Negligence’ by BP

By AJ Correspondents
The U.S. justice department is blaming BP PLC for the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, describing in new court papers examples of what it calls "gross negligence and willful misconduct".

Water in DRC More Often Cause of Death than Source of Life

By Donat Muamba
Despite the desperate lack of access to water for domestic use in Mwene Ditu, in the central Democratic Republic of Congo, Dieudonné Ilunga spent a good part of July blocking up residents' wells.

Indigenous Consultations in Peru to Debut in Amazon Oil Region

By Milagros Salazar
Peru will debut a new mechanism for prior consultation with indigenous peoples by seeking their approval for a new stage of oil drilling operations in the infamous Lot 1AB in the northeastern Amazon region of Loreto.

Ruling Against Thermoelectric Plant Sparks Debate

By Marianela Jarroud
A Chilean Supreme Court decision ordering a halt to the construction of the Castilla thermoelectric power plant has sparked a debate over the country’s energy security.

Declaration of War in Mato Grosso do Sul

By Alice Marcondes
The land conflict between the Guaraní-Kaiowá indigenous people and large landowners in the southwestern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul is a powder keg ready to explode, say observers.

Small Step to Set Up the Biggest Marine Park

By Christoph Behrends
The world’s largest marine park is due to be launched in the Cook Islands located in the Pacific Ocean about 3,000 km from New Zealand. Covering an area of almost a million square kilometres, the park will be three times the size of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and twice as large as the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean that topped the list of marine protected areas (MPAs) for two years.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Pollution Poses Health Risks to Transport Workers

By - - and IPS Correspondents
Workers whose jobs place them in direct contact with air pollution face a higher possibility of health problems involving the eyes and lungs, as well as a higher risk of cancer.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Communities Reject Open-Pit Mining Project

By - - and IPS Correspondents
Residents of some 15 municipalities in El Triunfo, in southern Honduras, have rejected an open-pit mining project proposed by a Canadian company.
Panoramic view of Totoral, in the Atacama Desert, which has won a legal battle against the Castilla thermoelectric power plant. - Alex Fuentes/IPS

Ruling Against Thermoelectric Plant Sparks Debate

By - - and IPS Correspondents
By 2020, copper mining in Chile will require almost double the electricity consumed in 2011, say the authorities.
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