| OP-ED: Expanding Oil Production Poses Environmental Risks Shakuntala Makhijani With oil prices on the rise again and geopolitical upheaval in some major oil producing regions, many countries are turning to new and often environmentally damaging sources of oil, including oil sands, deepwater offshore oil, and heavy oil. Poor communities are hit hardest by extreme weather ... MORE > > |
| Micro Hydels Power Indonesia's Green Energy Plans Kafil Yamin The nighttime glitter of Indonesia's cities and urban centres contrasts sharply with darkness of the hinterland where some 90 million people live without the benefit of electricity. With an electrification rate of 65 percent - about 35 percent of its 250 million people have no access to ... MORE > > |
| Cuba Develops Crops Adapted to Climate Change Ivet González Cabbage, broccoli, carrots, onions and other resistant vegetables are being grown by researchers in Cuba, who for decades have been working to design plants adapted to the tropical conditions in the Caribbean region. Resistance to drought is one of the main aims of crop improvement ... MORE > > |
| Haiti's "Gold Rush" Promises El Dorado - But for Whom? Correspondents Twenty billion dollars worth of gold, copper and silver hidden in the hills of the hemisphere's poorest country. Investors in North America so convinced of the buried treasure, they have already spent 30 million dollars collecting samples, digging, building mining roads and doing aerial ... MORE > > |
| No Strategy for Civilisation in Crisis Mario Osava The Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) in Istanbul in 1996 was one of the international meetings most open to civil society participation. Its conclusions, published as a voluminous Plan of Action, collected thousands of proposals and recommendations from ... MORE > > |
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| Cuba Seeks to Guarantee Food Supplies in Changing Climate Ivet González In the face of the challenge of producing more food in a changing climate, farmers in Cuba are coming up with alternatives like planting drought-resistant crops and digging ponds to guarantee water supplies, in order to keep food on the table during times of drought, heavy rains or ... MORE > > |
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| Asia Sees Red Over 'Green Economy' Marwaan Macan-Markar The just-ended United Nations sustainable development summit in Rio de Janeiro has exposed the discomfort that many developing Asian countries have over buzz words like 'green economy' and 'green growth' in development diplomacy. With the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ... MORE > > |
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| Native Protest March Approaches La Paz - Franz Chávez Snow-capped mountains shrouded in clouds tower over the ninth gruelling march of indigenous people from Bolivia's eastern lowlands to the seat of government, to challenge the government's environment policy and protest the construction of a road through a protected area of rainforest and water ... MORE > > |
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| Climate Change: Waiting for a Catastrophic Wake-Up Call * - Mario Osava Disasters are the new midwives of history. But in order to play this role, they need to be catastrophic, like the accidents in Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011 that led governments to suspend and even abolish their nuclear energy programs. Awareness of environmental deterioration is ... MORE > > |
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| Biofuels and Hunger, Two Sides of the Same Coin - Daan Bauwens Despite growing evidence that biofuel production is causing food insecurity around the world, the new European Union policy blueprint on renewable energy ignores the social effects of biofuels. Last week, Guatemalan victims of the food crisis came to Brussels to make European policy makers aware of ... MORE > > |
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| Climate-Smart Agriculture to Reduce Vulnerability* - Fabiola Ortiz Agroforestry is gaining ground as a tool for climate change adaptation and mitigation in Central America, a region where global warming could generate losses equivalent to 19 percent of gross domestic product. Agroforestry contributes to the recovery of water sources. Credit: Courtesy of ... MORE > > |
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| Weak Rio+20 Agreement Anticipates New Noah's Ark - Fabiana Frayssinet The downpour that fell Friday in this Brazilian city was nature's warning to the heads of state meeting at the Rio+20 summit. The generation of Noe (Noah), an environmentalist's son who will be born a month from now, will have to save biodiversity that is more complex than that of his Biblical ... MORE > > |
HAS SOUTH AMERICA'S MOST SUSTAINABLE CITY LOST ITS EDGE? | The Atlantic Cities - Flavie Halais
The southern Brazil metropolis of Curitiba built its reputation as an urban planning model thanks, in large part, to its innovative transportation system. But in recent years, the system has become overcrowded and expensive, pushing people into their cars.
Curitiba is now the Brazilian state capital with the highest ratio of automobiles per inhabitant, and its bike paths remain largely underused. In early June,news reports revealed that usage of its famous Bus Rapid Transit system has decreased by 14 million rides in the past four years, or 4.3 percent. This followed a series of road accidents involving speeding buses, and complaints about ever-increasing fare prices. [+]
