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IPS: Environment news

IPS, civil society's leading news agency, is an independent voice from the South and for development, delving into globalisation for the stories underneath.

Site: IPS Inter Press Service - Environment

AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: Calls for Sustainable Green Revolution
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KAMPALA, Jul 4 (IPS) - Africa needs a Green Revolution, but one that will increase agricultural productivity by using practices that build soil fertility while minimising harm to the environment.

PERU: Petroleum Sullies the Amazon
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BAGUA, Peru, Jul 3 (IPS/IFEJ) - "Now the fish are going to disappear," said Luis Umpunchi, an Awajún Indian, one of about 20 people gathered around a broken oil pipeline in the Jayais community, in the northern Peruvian province of Amazonas.

AGRICULTURE: Biotechnology: Africa Must Not Be Left Behind
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KAMPALA, Jul 3 (IPS) - Africa must embrace agricultural biotechnology or risk being excluded from a major technological revolution that has had increased food production in the Europe, North America and Asia.

HEALTH: Sri Lanka's Battle With Dengue
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COLOMBO, Jul 3 (IPS) - Sri Lankan health authorities have had to combat an upsurge in cases of the lethal Dengue flu in the island nation this year. They have used mass man-power, public awareness campaigns and even threatened incarceration to stem the spread of the killer disease that has touched epidemic levels in the past six months. But it won?t be easy to stop the disease from spreading.

US-ECUADOR: Chevron Fails in Effort to Lift Trade Benefits
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WASHINGTON, Jul 2 (IPS) - In the latest in a string of setbacks that could cost the U.S. oil giant Chevron billions of dollars in damages, President Barack Obama decided this week to extend trade preferences for Ecuadorean exports for another six months under the 1991 Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA).

CLIMATE CHANGE: Opportunity For Biopirates?
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NEW DELHI, Jul 2 (IPS) - Genetically modified (GM) crops that can withstand environmental stress may be one answer to climate change but a powerful lobby is building up against the patenting of technologies involved, especially when they are derivatives of traditional farmers? innovations.

ENVIRONMENT: Scientists Study the Riches of the Mexican Pacific
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MEXICO CITY, Jul 2 (Tierramérica) - Mexico?s Pacific coast, one of the world's richest seaboards in terms of biodiversity, has been the focus of very few scientific studies. A new observatory aims to fill that void.

TRADE: Who?s Harming Fish Stocks? Trawlers or Artisanal Fishers?
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GENEVA, Jul 2 (IPS) - Red tunas, sharks, rays and cods may soon disappear from our tables. Negotiations are ongoing at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to reduce the subsidies that contribute to this catastrophe. These talks foresee exceptions for developing countries, but small fishers may have to turn to other sources of livelihood.

ENVIRONMENT-URUGUAY: Invasion of the Sand Dunes
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CIUDAD DE LA COSTA, Uruguay, Jul 1 (IPS) - "A road used to run through here, the sidewalk was over there, and this was the neighbour?s yard. That was an esplanade where people parked their cars, and that area over there was a plaza," says Jackeline, pointing to enormous sand dunes that have swallowed up everything, even entire trees.

PARAGUAY: President and Congress Face Off Over Agrochemicals
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ASUNCIÓN, Jul 1 (IPS) - "Silvino was riding his bike on a dirt road near our home when he was poisoned by toxic agrochemicals, sprayed on a nearby field of soybeans. He died soon afterwards. He was 11," said his mother, Petrona Villasboa, a rural activist in southern Paraguay.

INDIA: Reverse Migration Casts Shadow on Kerala Economy
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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Jun 30 (IPS) - Recession in petroleum-rich Middle Eastern countries is causing thousands of workers to return to their homes in southern Kerala triggering fears of a negative impact on the local economy.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Europe Feels the U.S. Sneeze
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LONDON, Jun 30 (IPS) - Governments and interest groups around the world followed the U.S. House of Representatives' vote Friday on the first U.S. policy to limit the country's greenhouse gas emissions. They were especially interested in Europe, where a system similar to the bill's cap-and-trade scheme already exists and where EU countries agreed last December to tough emissions targets.

CLIMATE CHANGE: 2020 Deadline Is the Crucial "Litmus Test"
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VIENNA, Jun 29 (IPS) - "So who here thinks there will be a meaningful deal in Copenhagen?" Few of the more than 600 energy ministers, officials and experts from 80 countries attending the Vienna Energy Conference raised their hands in response to the conference moderator's question about the final round of climate negotiations this December in Copenhagen.

CLIMATE CHANGE: India?s Monsoon Predictions More Uncertain
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NEW DELHI, Jun 27 (IPS) - Predicting the monsoons - a risky proposition despite the deployment of satellites and supercomputers - appears to have become iffier thanks to climate change.

U.S.: House Passes Controversial Climate Legislation
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WASHINGTON, Jun 26 (IPS) - Amid furious lobbying on both sides, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly approved landmark legislation Friday designed to reduce the nation's greenhouse emissions that contribute to global warming 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.