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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: Environment - INTER PRESS SERVICE

AUSTRALIA: Marine Biodiversity Threatened by Oil, Gas Exploration
Publish Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2010 21:55 GMT
In early July, whales from the world's largest population of humpbacks began arriving in the warm, subtropical waters off Australia's north-west coast to breed and nurse their young.

SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Thailand Faces Flak for Backing Mekong Dams
Publish Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2010 04:01 GMT
Northern Thai villagers living on Mekong River's banks are poised to join a growing tide of opposition against a planned cascade of 11 dams to be built on the mainstream of South-east Asia's largest body of water.

PERU: Adios, Doe Run
Publish Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2010 17:44 GMT
Peruvian President Alan García confirmed Wednesday that the permit of the U.S. mining and metallurgical company Doe Run to operate a major smelter complex was being cancelled because the firm missed the deadline for proving that it had the necessary financing to restart operations and complete an environmental cleanup.

Climate Extremes Fuel Hunger in Guatemala
Publish Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2010 15:35 GMT
"Three-quarters of the fields are still under water. Maize, plantains, okra and pasture are all lost," José Asencio told IPS at the village of Santa Ana Mixtán in southern Guatemala, the area worst affected by tropical storm Agatha.

Slack Oversight of Peru's Amazon Rainforest
Publish Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2010 14:53 GMT
Fifty-three percent of Peru is covered with native rainforest, but the agencies in charge of protecting and monitoring this vast area are toothless and have neither the staff nor the resources to cope with the job, according to a report from the Defensoría del Pueblo (Ombudsperson's Office).

AFRICA: "Free Trade in Natural Resources Bad for Development"
Publish Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2010 07:13 GMT
While some believe that restrictions on natural resource exports should be done away with, this could cause an increase in such exports that would be detrimental to the environment and bad for development.

VENEZUELA: Chronic Oil Leaks Sully Lake Maracaibo, Livelihoods
Publish Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2010 07:10 GMT
Dark oil slicks are spreading from the middle of Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo towards the shores -- the wetlands, mangroves, beaches and docks. Oil is permeating fishing nets, coating the garbage dumped into the water, killing off wildlife and driving away residents and tourists.

Hopes Fade for Languishing U.S. Climate Bill
Publish Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2010 16:34 GMT
The Barack Obama administration has found success in passing healthcare reform and legislation touted as an "overhaul" of the U.S. financial system, but last week it became clear that the Democrats wouldn't advance a climate change bill until after the August recess and, more likely, until next year.

Spain's Renewable Energy Heads West
Publish Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2010 11:41 GMT
Plagued by Spain's economic recession and subsidy cuts, renewable energy businesses are following the sun and wind to Latin America in search of profits.

Bricks in Brazil - Eco-Friendly, Low-Cost and Cool
Publish Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2010 14:27 GMT
Clay or earthen bricks could help to alleviate the housing shortage in Brazil because of the lower cost of brick buildings, while an innovative process for producing what are known as "ecological bricks" can avoid the environmental harm arising from more usual building materials.

GUATEMALA: Reviving Lake Atitlán
Publish Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2010 11:42 GMT
"There are hardly any tourists now, and nearly all the hotels are empty," says Rosa Rosales, who works at the Hotel Pa Muelle, on the shores of Guatemala's Lake Atitlán, a natural treasure that has been overcome by pollution.

MEXICO: Risk of Exotic Pets Morphing into Invasive Pests
Publish Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2010 13:33 GMT
Turtles, frogs, toads and many kinds of birds are imported into Mexico as pets by the thousands every year, but they constitute an environmental and economic threat when they are invasive exotic species.

BP Oil Poisons the Gulf of Mexico's Food Chain
Publish Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2010 06:09 GMT
Shellfish in the Gulf of Mexico grow with drops of petroleum inside them, coyotes eat oil-soaked birds, and sharks suffocate when the oil coats their gills.

Canada Slowing Biodiversity Protocol's Progress
Publish Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2010 13:13 GMT
The spirit of international negotiations in Montreal on a draft protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) of natural resources were marred by Canada's insistence on a decentralised approach to ABS, Peigi Wilson, a Métis lawyer present at the meeting in support of the Quebec Native Women, told IPS.

ARGENTINA: A Livelihood from Whales - Without Hunting
Publish Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2010 08:33 GMT
If you want to observe the charismatic southern right whale (Eubalaena australis), the most popular place to do so is off Argentina's Valdés Peninsula, an enclave on the Atlantic coast that relies on tourist dollars -- and therefore opposes whale hunting.