Tierramerica

Brazilian Innovation for Under-financed Mozambican Agriculture

By Amos Zacarias
Some of the technological excellence that revolutionised Brazil’s tropical agriculture is reaching small producers in Mozambique. But it is not enough to compensate for the underfinancing of the sector.

An Environment-Wrecking Pipeline Hangs in Limbo

By Samuel Oakford
The Pine Ridge Reservation of the Lakota Nation, in the midwest of the United States, is one of the most abandoned places in the country and in the world.

Where Would You Like Your New Glacier?

By Marianela Jarroud
The idea sounds like harebrained science-fiction, but the accelerated retreat of glaciers due to global warming and the effects of mining is leading scientists to seek to restore or recreate these valuable reservoirs of fresh water.

Iron Hell in Brazil’s Amazon Region

By Mario Osava
“My nephew was eight years old when he stepped in the ‘munha’ [charcoal dust] and burned his legs up to the knees,” said Angelita Alves de Oliveira from a corner of Brazil’s Amazonia that has become a deadly hazard for local people.

Women Farmers in Chile to Teach the Region Agroecology

By Marianela Jarroud
An organisation that brings together some 10,000 peasant and indigenous women from Chile is launching an agroecology institute for women campesinos, or small farmers, in South America.

Seedpods Worth More than Gold in Argentina’s Arid North

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Tired of the drought driving away their men and killing their livestock, the women of Guanaco Sombriana, a town in northern Argentina, have found a new source of income by using the seedpods of native trees that up to now merely provided shade in this arid landscape.

Bicycle Use Booming in Latin America

By Estrella Gutiérrez
“I ride 43 km a day and I love it,” said Carlos Cantor in Bogotá, Colombia. “Five years ago I switched my car for a bike,” explained Tomás Fuenzalida from Santiago, Chile.

An Argentine Town that ‘Celebrates’ Garbage

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Towns traditionally celebrate their most characteristic aspect. So the town of Bouwer in central Argentina decided to “celebrate” garbage.

Uruguay’s Mega-Mining Law in Place – Before the Minerals

By Pablo Tosquellas
The Uruguayan government, which recently passed a law on large-scale mining, does not actually have a clear idea of the country’s mineral wealth and has only just now proposed a geological study to find out.

Argentine Protesters vs Monsanto: “The Monster is Right on Top of Us”

By Fabiana Frayssinet
The people of this working-class suburb of Córdoba in Argentina’s central farming belt stoically put up with the spraying of the weed-killer glyphosate on the fields surrounding their neighbourhood. But the last straw was when U.S. biotech giant Monsanto showed up to build a seed plant.

Demarcation of Native Territories Essential for Venezuela’s Amazon Region

By Humberto Márquez
“All of the countries of the Amazon basin say they want to protect the environment, but they all have agreements with transnational corporations for the construction of roads or for mining and exploitation of forests,” Curripaco indigenous leader Gregorio Díaz Mirabal, from the south of Venezuela, told Tierramérica.*

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.

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.

Private Initiative Finds Garbage Profitable in Cuba

By Patricia Grogg
As self-employment and cooperatives expand in socialist Cuba, they are making incursions into new areas, such as waste picking and recycling – for many a means of subsistence, but for others, a gold mine.

Argentina Blindly Exploiting Groundwater, Scientists Warn

By Marcela Valente

Half of Argentina is supplied with water by invisible underground aquifers, which are crucial in the country’s arid and semi-arid regions, experts say. But Tierramérica discovered that nobody – not even the government – has any accurate scientific data on these groundwater reserves.

Chile’s Mining Industry Turns to Sunlight to Ease Energy Shortage

By Marianela Jarroud
The mining industry in the north of Chile, the world’s leading producer of copper, is trying to partially satisfy its insatiable appetite for energy with a renewable, ever-available source: the sun.

Rising Temperatures Hurt Pollination – and Food Production

By Patricia Grogg
A rise in temperature modifies the physiological features of some plants – a consequence of climate change that is less perceptible than stronger and more frequent hurricanes, but just as harmful to food production.

TransBrasil Could Boost Integration in Rio de Janeiro

By Fabíola Ortiz
The TransBrasil bus rapid transit system, which will connect poor suburbs with the centre of Rio de Janeiro, will be the high-speed bus corridor that serves the largest number of commuters in the world.

If You Want to Conserve Biodiversity, Protect Latin America

By Stephen Leahy
A team of scientists who analysed the richness of plant species around the world concluded that the ecosystems in need of immediate protection in order to meet the 2020 conservation goals set by the Convention on Biological Diversity are largely concentrated in Latin America.

“Bring What You Want, Take What You Want”

By Marcela Valente
Disillusioned with an economy that promotes individualism and ruthless consumption, thousands of people in Argentina are giving things away in street markets, organising car pools with strangers or offering free accommodation to travellers from abroad.

Brazilian Hydroelectricity Giant Promotes Biogas

By Mario Osava
The massive Itaipú hydroelectric dam, shared by Brazil and Paraguay, has now become a model for the micro-scale production of an energy source that is not only clean, but also helps to reduce pollution and promote local development: biogas.
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