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ENVIRONMENT-HONDURAS: Forest Corruption a Major Challenge
18 02 2010 TEGUCIGALPA, Feb 17 (Tierramérica) - The effects of climate change in Honduras have a local accomplice. Not only are forests suffering from global warming; they are also the victim of illegal logging.
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ENERGY-ARGENTINA: Agrofuels Rev Their Engines
18 02 2010 BUENOS AIRES, Feb 17 (Tierramérica) - In a measure that was delayed by supply problems, this year Argentina is beginning to require that gasoline be mixed with ethanol and diesel fuel with biodiesel, at a proportion of five percent, to possibly reach 20 percent by 2015.
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Q&A: "Sustainability Issues Are Economic Issues"
17 02 2010 NEW YORK, Feb 16 (IPS) - Fresh from a whirlwind tour of non-stop meetings at the World Economic Forum in Davos and a U.N .investor summit on climate risk attended by George Soros, Al Gore, and 500 of the world's most powerful institutional and private investors, Mindy Lubber has a full plate.
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GUATEMALA: Anti-Mine Activists Encouraged by Canadian Ruling
17 02 2010 GUATEMALA CITY, Feb 16 (IPS) - Ecologists in Guatemala see a recent ruling by Canada's Supreme Court, which ordered Canadian mining companies to carry out rigorous environmental assessments, as a positive precedent that could help improve environmental controls over the mining industry in this Central American country.
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U.S.: Nuke Plants Back in Vogue, as Climate Bill Stalls
17 02 2010 WASHINGTON, Feb 16 (IPS) - After decades of debate, the United States is poised to build its first new nuclear reactors since the early 1970s.
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Q&A: The Two Faces of Agriculture
16 02 2010 BERLIN, Feb 14 (Tierramérica) - The challenge of the 21st century is to transform agriculture into a good administrator of biodiversity and reverse its destructive capacity, without restricting its mission to feed a growing world population, said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
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ENERGY: Planting New Seeds for the Take-Off
16 02 2010 CAIRO, Feb 15 (IPS) - A salty, crunchy salad herb known to gourmands as samphire could revolutionise agriculture in the Middle East by providing food, fodder and fuel without using a single drop of freshwater.
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CLIMATE CHANGE: U.N. to Mobilise Funds for Developing Nations
16 02 2010 UNITED NATIONS, Feb 15 (IPS) - After countries failed to reach a binding agreement on greenhouse gas emissions at the crucial Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last December, the United Nations moving forward to enforce a pledge to help developing countries cope with the worst impacts.
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GUYANA: Pro-Forest Measures Anger Miners
13 02 2010 GEORGETOWN, Feb 12 (Tierramérica) - The mining industry in Guyana is a vocal opponent of new conditions and regulations adopted by the government, which has engaged in a campaign to get millions in international donations for preserving the Amazon jungle as part of the country’s contribution to mitigating climate change.
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CLIMATE CHANGE: The Day After Tomorrow Might Have Been Yesterday
13 02 2010 WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (IPS) - When the 2004 film "The Day After Tomorrow" depicted the northern United States buried under tens of feet of snow following an abrupt change in global climate patterns, it cemented the association in the public consciousness between climate change and extreme weather events.
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ENERGY: Nuclear Does Not Make Economic Sense Say Studies
13 02 2010 BERLIN, Feb 12 (IPS) - The enormous technical and financial risks involved in the construction and operation of new nuclear power plants make them prohibitive for private investors, rebutting the thesis of a renaissance in nuclear energy, say several independent European studies.
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CLIMATE CHANGE: Much Work Lies Ahead for Africa
12 02 2010 CAPE TOWN, Feb 11 (IPS) - Africa needs urgent action on global warming. The consensus position adopted by African leaders ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen failed. African environmental activists are now debating their way forward.
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CLIMATE CHANGE: 'Perhaps We Should Just Sign'
12 02 2010 WINDHOEK, Feb 11 (IPS) - Countries are quietly signing up to the Copenhagen Accord, but commitments on emissions cuts and funding remain unclear.
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BIODIVERSITY: U.N. Treaty Key Tool in Conserving Ecosystems
12 02 2010 UNITED NATIONS, Feb 11 (IPS) - In a bid to pressure policymakers to take urgent action to implement a major United Nations treaty on the preservation of plant and animal species, the world body has launched a global campaign to raise awareness about the importance of biodiversity.
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ENVIRONMENT: World Bank Faces Tiger Trap in Burma
12 02 2010 BANGKOK, Feb 12 (IPS) - As the World Bank embarks on its latest foray to protect Asian forests that are home to wild tigers, one of the continent’s iconic predators, a visible trap looms in military-ruled Burma.
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BIODIVERSITY: Conservation Groups Pounce on Year of the Tiger
11 02 2010 WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (IPS) - The Lunar New Year that begins Sunday will mark the start of the Chinese Zodiac's Year of the Tiger, but conservationists are saying 2010 will have much more than symbolic significance for the Asian big cat.
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U.S.: Gas Prices, Economy Raise Stakes for Cleaner Cars
11 02 2010 NEW YORK, Feb 10 (IPS) - The Chinese auto industry surpassed the U.S. in car sales last year, according to a recent report, raising the question of whether this represents a bump in the road for the U.S. auto industry or a long-term shift to other means of transportation.
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CLIMATE CHANGE: Amidst Global Warming Coldest Winter in 50 Years
11 02 2010 BERLIN, Feb 11 (IPS) - It was probably an irony that Europe's coldest winter in 50 years coincided with the U.N. climate change summit in Copenhagen last December, which failed to deliver a treaty to reduce global warming emissions.
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BIODIVERSITY: India Bans Farming of GM Aubergine
10 02 2010 NEW DELHI, Feb 9 (IPS) - After India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh announced Tuesday a ban on the cultivation of Bt brinjal, the country’s first genetically modified (GM) food crop, food security experts and activists said this major farming country has been saved from a biodiversity disaster.
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ENERGY-MEXICO: Big and Small Firms Harness Sun's Rays
10 02 2010 CHAPANTONGO, Mexico, Feb 9 (IPS) - It was Isabel Cortés, the family matriarch, who started the project. In 1990, she started looking for a way to market xoconostle, the sour variety of the nopal cactus fruit that is abundant in this arid part of central Mexico, in the Mezquital valley.
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Q&A: ''There's a Limit to Fish Harvesting''
09 02 2010 BRUSSELS, Feb 8 (IPS) - The perilous state of the world’s fish stocks has received less media attention than the more visible, palpable environmental problems like air pollution. Isabella Lövin is seeking to redress that balance. Her 2007 book ‘Tyst hav’ (Silent Seas) hit the best-seller list in her native Sweden, garnering her three awards, including the title of 'Journalist of the Year'.
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BIODIVERSITY: Companies Push Hard to Halt Tuna Collapse
09 02 2010 VICTORIA, Seychelles, Feb 8 (IPS) - In the Seychelles' only cannery, the din of thousands of empty tuna cans rattling on narrow metal troughs is incredible as they bustle along, soon to be filled with Skipjack tuna that only days ago were swimming freely in the inky blue Indian Ocean.
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DEVELOPMENT: Crisis Could Open Doors for Change, Says UNCTAD
09 02 2010 UNITED NATIONS, Feb 8 (IPS) - As the financial crisis continued to threaten world economies last year, the White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel famously declared: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."
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ETHIOPIA: Dam Critics Won't Go Away
07 02 2010 ADDIS ABABA, Feb 6 (IPS) - Ethiopia is building a 240-metre high dam on the Omo River that is intended to end the country's electricity shortage and supply power to neighbouring countries. Not everyone's happy.
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CLIMATE-GERMANY: Planting the Forest of the Future
07 02 2010 BERLIN, Feb 7 (Tierramérica) - Exotic tree seedlings grow next to native species in the southeastern German village of Laufen, at a site where researchers are experimenting with ways to restore forests lost to the effects of global warming.
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