By Inés Benítez, Tierramerica, IPS, Global Issues. The economic and financial crisis afflicting the European Union (EU) countries has scarcely affected the sales of fair-trade products in Spain, especially foods from Central and South America. (English | Spanish | Portuguese)
Continue reading →Interview of Angus Wright with Robert Jensen, Common Dreams | By Chris Edgar and Burl Carraway, Texas Forest Service. Half a billion trees scattered across Texas USA have died from the unrelenting 2011 drought. Angus Wright comments: “I don’t see enough people having sufficient awareness, understanding, and determination to bring about the major changes we need.”
Continue reading →By Staff, with reporting by Milagros Salazar (Lima), Emilio Godoy (Mexico City) and Alice Marcondes (São Paulo), Tierramerica. Environmental innovation projects to obtain clean gold, fuel, and water demonstrate the capacity of Latin American researchers to develop virtuous circles.
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Plans are under way for Canadian and US corporations to mine Haiti’s northeast area near Caracol, which has been discovered to contain a wealth of silver and gold, in addition to copper. As in the Dominican Republic’s Pueblo Viejo project, construction of the mines will involve dynamiting of mountains, and the ore will be extracted by an opencast (or open-pit) mining process that contaminates large volumes of water with cyanide. UPDATES: Attempts to issue mining permits to the US’ VCS Mining LLC and Canada’s SOMINE SA, without any environmental impact assessment (EIA) were thwarted by Haiti’s Senate in January 2013. Plans to dredge a deep-sea port in the pristine Bay of Fort Liberte were scrapped in April 2014.
Continue reading →By Frederic Back, You Tube | Based on Jean Giono’s short story, The Man Who Planted Trees. Director Frédéric Back’s marvellous interpretation of Giono’s allegory won an Oscar for short animation. The story is a tribute to hard work and patience. (English | French | Portuguese | Spanish, 30 min.)
Continue reading →By Marianela Jarroud, IPS, Tierramerica | Haiti Chery. Plans to build the Castilla Thermoelectric Project, near an area of rich marine biodiversity has sparked fierce opposition from the Chilean farming town of Totoral, which has scored its first victory in court. Behind the Castilla project is the energy company MPX, a subsidiary of the EPX Group owned by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista.
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. An article by Paul Durak and colleagues in the Journal Science represents yet more confirmation that the effects of global warming are stronger than anticipated from scientific models. An intensification of water evaporation and precipitation over the Earth implies severe consequences for living things, including famines, floods, droughts, and general climate instability.
Continue reading →By Staff, SPX via Terra Daily | Staff, Wildlife Conservation Society. The Government of Bangladesh recently declared three new wildlife sanctuaries for endangered freshwater dolphins in the world’s largest mangrove ecosystem – the Sundarbans. In 2009 these areas were discovered to harbor thousands of freshwater dolphins, when only a few hundreds were thought to remain in the entire world.
Continue reading →By Susan Arterian Changs, YES! In the heart of inner Cleveland, Ohio, and abandoned by the global economy, the Evergreen Cooperative has emerged as one of the most promising models of locally based wealth-building in the U.S.
Continue reading →By Ben Block, Worldwatch Institute | Andrew Kalinchuk, Green Home Authority | You Tube | Haiti Chery. Grassroots campaigns, often inspired by the expanding movement to buy locally produced food, are leading United States municipalities to allow limited numbers of hens within city limits.
Continue reading →By Edner Son Décime, AlterPresse | Benjamin Fernandez, Le Monde Diplomatique | Marie-Monique Robin, YouTube | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Monsanto hybrid and genetically modified (GMO) seeds are once again being pushed as aid. Together with expensive fertilizers, and harmful pesticides, and noxious herbicides, these seeds represent a project to convert Haitian farmers from producers into helpers. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee. Hydraulic fracturing was identified by the U.S. as an earthquake trigger as early as 1990, and scientists have long known that injection of fluid where the Earth’s crust lies closest to faults and fractures can cause earthquakes.
Continue reading →By Vaclav Havel, in: The Natural World as Political Problem – Essays on Modern Man (Prague: Edice Expedice, Vol. 188, Feb 1984).
Continue reading →By Rachelle Charlier Doucet, AlterPresse | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. A massive industrial park is scheduled to open in the Caracol Bay area of Haiti, although no plan is in place to mitigate the park’s impact on a region that has been proposed as a World Heritage Site for its ecological, historical, and archaeological importance. (English | French)
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