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Friday, November 6, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Risk Management Act to Be Debated
The Honduran Congress is set to discuss a risk management bill that will replace the current three-decade-old regulations on the subject.Ecobreves – CHILE: Energy-Saving Light Bulbs for Low-Income Households
The Chilean government will distribute 1.4 million energy-saving light bulbs to some 250,000 families this year in an effort to bring down electric power consumption.
Brazil's Concrete Jungle
Rio de Janeiro is being populated with yacaré caimans, capybaras, boa constrictors, monkeys, and other wild animals. Could the jungle be sprouting back up again through the concrete?
Ambitious Polar Satellite Still in Planning Stage
If everything goes according to plan, in November the European Space Agency will launch CryoSat-2, in what will be the second attempt to put a polar satellite in orbit to explore the state of the earth’s cryosphere.Ecobreves – CUBA: Transgenic Crop Production Begins
Cuba has started planting transgenic corn as part of a field trial to obtain seeds to be used in food production.
ENERGY: Costa Rica Invests in Geothermal Power
The government of Costa Rica hopes to increase its power generation by tapping into volcanic hot spots, and to that end it has introduced a controversial bill in Congress that would allow drilling into volcanoes in national parks.
Amazon Turtle Quest
Two reporters embark on an expedition across Lago Verde, in eastern Amazonia, to observe how scientists and local fishing people join efforts to study and protect the area’s turtles.
Costa Rica Invests in Geothermal Power Generation
Geothermal power is the second leading source of energy in Costa Rica, after hydroelectric power, accounting for 17 percent of the country’s energy and covering an increasing proportion of its electricity needs.Ecobreves – Brazil: Digitally Mapping the Amazon Region
A total of 1,815 digital maps will be completed this year to provide a greater knowledge of Brazil’s Amazon region, contributing data on official and clandestine roads, rivers, settlements, haciendas and schools.Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Communities Promote Eco-Tourism Project
Three municipalities in Honduras’ central Comayagua valley are building their first eco-tourism center, with the aim of generating income for the region and developing conservation and management programs for the wildlife reservation of the PANACOMA national park.Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Neighbors Fed Up with Garbage
Tired of putting up with a nearby dumpster, the communities of Bouwer and Potrero del Estado, in the central Argentine province of Cordoba, filed a complaint against the provincial capital for diverting its garbage to that site.Ecobreves – MEXICO: Pet Slaughter
Dozens of cats and dogs that had been rescued from the street and were living in a 60-meter-square apartment in the state of Mexico were brutally killed by a group of hooded men armed with sticks and machetes.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Controversy Sails with the Polarstern
The prestigious German oceanography ship Polarstern is conducting a major experiment of seeding the oceans with iron in order to absorb carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse-effect gas.
ENVIRONMENT: Amazon Teetering on the Edge
The Amazon Basin captures 12,000 to 16,000 square kilometres of water per year, and just 40 percent of that flows through the rivers. The rest returns to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration of the forests and is distributed throughout South America.
Q&A: “Environmental Key Lies with Young People”
The road to sustainable development begins with the participation of children and young people, says Argentine environmental expert and activist Cecilia Iglesias.
Wake of Controversy Sails with the Polarstern
Stimulating the growth of phytoplankton by adding iron to the sea could be another way to absorb excess carbon that causes climate change, say the scientists involved in a controversial study in the Atlantic Ocean.
Amazon Teetering on the Edge
Four scenarios laid out in the GEO report, ranging from the horrific to the barely optimistic, provide a view of what the Amazon could look like in just 17 years.
“Environmental Key Lies with Young People”
Civil society members gathered in Nairobi, hosted by UNEP, called for involving young people in the official delegations that negotiate environmental agreements, like the climate change treaty, says Argentine activist Cecilia Iglesias in this Tierramérica interview.Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Zoo Saves Water
The São Paulo Zoo is saving 1.3 million liters of water per month since it started following the Rational Water Use Program (PURA, for its Portuguese acronym).Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Military Engages in Operation Forest
The Honduran government announced that at month's end it will deploy a military contingent to protect 23,000 hectares of forest in the protected areas that are most in danger of fire in the dry season.Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Schoolchildren Protect Fish
Gustavo, age 10, is happy to join his classmates in moving a hundred young cachama fish (Colossoma macropomum) to a pond in the Francisco de Mirando Park in the Venezuelan capital.« Previous Page — Next Page »
Tierramérica is the main communications platform on sustainable development and the environment in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is produced by IPS Noticias, the agency’s Spanish-language service, which created it jointly with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with later support from the World Bank. The weekly editions of Tierramérica are published in Spanish, Portuguese and English and are picked up and printed by dozens of media outlets in the region. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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