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"For the global South, and especially Africa, environmental issues are not a luxury. Arresting the world's warming and protecting and restoring our natural systems are issues of life and death for much of the world's population"
2004 Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai
(Kenya's Business Daily, Dec. 14, 2007)

IPS is intensifying its coverage of both global and local environmental challenges. We look at them from the perspective of the people for whom the ecosphere matters in a direct way: rural dwellers who have little means to protect themselves against adverse conditions; communities that need to switch to sustainable development in order to survive; poor women and children, always the most vulnerable in harsh times.

IPS has entered into cooperation with the International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ) - a partnership within the Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development, COM+ - and Friends of the Earth International (FOEI), and is building new alliances in order to expand its independent coverage of the issues that will determine our future and that of our children. IPS also created the award-winning Tierramérica, a specialised information service on environment and development, sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and The World Bank (WB).


Winners of the 2009 Friends of the Earth International photo competition
on the theme "Biodiversity Lost, Biodiversity Preserved"

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IPS environment and science correspondent Stephen Leahy appears on Vancouver's Radio Ecoshock to discuss climate change, the future of the oceans, and why leading scientists are hitting the streets to demand policy changes.
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News in RSS
HUMAN EXISTENCE IS AT REAL AND IMMINENT RISK
by Maurice Strong
NOVEMBER 2009 (IPS) - The current economic and climate change crises are both rooted in the unsustainable nature of the existing economic system. The rapid and unexpected economic meltdown, which began in the United States and quickly spread throughout the world demonstrated dramatically that the phenomenon of globalization and interdependence has a dramatic downside of shared risks and vulnerability, writes Maurice Strong, Secretary General of the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, first Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and Secretary General of the 1992 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment.
more >>
BRAZIL: SHOWING THE WORLD HOW TO END HUNGER
by Andrew MacMillan
NOVEMBER 2009 (IPS) - It is scandalous that in a world of ample food supplies, over one billion people face constant hunger -and the number is still rising. What makes matters worse is that we know how to end hunger, and yet few governments are doing so, writes Andrew MacMillan, a rural economist and former Director of the Field Operations Divison of FAO.
more >>
PRIVATISATION IS THE ENEMY OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
by Vandana Shiva
AUGUST 2009 (IPS) - The privatisation of the earth's resources is a recipe for famine and desertification, violence against women, hunger, and, as happens in India, the suicide of farmers, writes Vandana Shiva, author and international campaigner for women and the environment.
more >>
WHAT WE NEED IS A CLIMATE BAILOUT
by Maurice Strong
GROWING A GREEN COLLAR ECONOMY
by Mark Sommer
MISGUIDED PHILANTHROPY CANNOT FEED AFRICA
by Anuradha Mittal
AFRICA COULD LOSE BIG IN ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS WITH EU
by Aileen Kwa
ECO-AGRICULTURE CAN FEED WORLD, WHILE HEALING EARTH
by Lim Li Ching
THE POSSIBLE AMAZON
by Marina Silva
BIOFUELS AND FOOD SECURITY: CONFLICT OR COMPLEMENTARITY?
by Ignacy Sachs
INDIA: AS THE ECONOMY GROWS, SO DOES HUNGER
by Anuradha Mittal
CLIMATE CHANGE: WE NEED A PROACTIVE MEDIA
by Mario Lubetkin
BIOFUELS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: A CURE THAT MAKES THE DISEASE WORSE
by Vandana Shiva
Part of the Guardian Environment Network
Kyoto on the Horizon
In The Eye of a Storm
Biodiversity - One Planet - 1.4 million species
Oil, Gas and Minerals: Mixed Blessings
Feedin the Future
Troubled Waters
The Creeping Desert
Energy Crunch
Subsidies
Sustainable Development
Agriculture
Tierramérica - Environment & Development
News in RSS
INDIA: Lay-offs from Recession-hit Gulf Lead to New Lives at Home
GREECE: New Migrant Law Tough But Respects Rights
US-IRAN: Sanctions Are the Talk of the Day
RIGHTS: Group Urges Bahrain to Stop Torture of Detainees
DEVELOPMENT: Crisis Could Open Doors for Change, Says UNCTAD
COSTA RICA: Chinchilla to Join Club of Women Presidents
UKRAINE: Back Full Circle
BIODIVERSITY: Companies Push Hard to Halt Tuna Collapse
MUSIC-BRAZIL: 'Enchanted' Guitars for Social Change
Q&A: ''There's a Limit to Fish Harvesting''
More >>
Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
The contents of this news coverage, including any funded by the European Union, are the sole responsibility of IPS and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.

DEVELOPMENT: Crisis Could Open Doors for Change, Says UNCTAD
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - 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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BIODIVERSITY: Companies Push Hard to Halt Tuna Collapse
By Stephen Leahy*
VICTORIA, Seychelles - 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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Q&A: ''There's a Limit to Fish Harvesting''
David Cronin interviews ISABELLA LÖVIN, Swedish fisheries policy activist
BRUSSELS - 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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CLIMATE-GERMANY: Planting the Forest of the Future
By Julio Godoy*
BERLIN - 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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ETHIOPIA: Dam Critics Won't Go Away
By IPS Correspondents
ADDIS ABABA - 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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DEVELOPMENT: South-South Cooperation Key to MDGs
By IPS Correspondents
UNITED NATIONS - Member states meeting here Thursday called for the immediate implementation of development commitments made during the Nairobi high-level U.N. conference on cooperation between developing countries.
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ENVIRONMENT: Keeping Wetlands from Becoming Wastelands
By Stephen Leahy
VICTORIA, Seychelles - Swamps, marshes and other wetlands are beginning to be recognised as a country's 'green jewels', even in a tropical paradise like Mahé Island here in the Seychelles, with its stunning beaches and dramatic granite outcrops.
MORE >>
 

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INDIA: Angry Villagers Bear Pollution Costs of Sponge Iron Industry
By Manipadma Jena
BHUBANESWAR, India - At dawn, 65-year-old Indian share farmer Gundicha Rout goes to the stone water trough in his backyard to wash his face and prepare for paddy husking. He reaches out for the water, dipping into a thin film of oil on its surface. As he swishes the water in his mouth, there is a bitter metallic taste.
MORE >>
 

U.S.: Ill Omens for Senate Climate Legislation
By Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON - Delivering his State of the Union address before both houses of Congress and a global audience on Jan. 27, U.S. President Barack Obama asked for passage of "a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America."
MORE >>
 

PERU-CHINA: Social Responsibility Missing in Growing Trade Ties
By Milagros Salazar
LIMA - China has become Peru's second largest trade partner, with interests basically in mining and oil. However, it is viewed with caution by this Andean nation, because the Asian giant has a reputation for flouting environmental standards and labour rights.
MORE >>
 

CLIMATE CHANGE: European Firms See Windfall in Renewable Energy
By Julio Godoy
BERLIN - European governments failed to help along an international treaty to stop global warming at the United Nations climate change summit in December, but their engineering and power industries see business opportunities in renewable energy sources and their smart management.
MORE >>
 

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BIODIVERSITY: The Amazon Is Not Eternal
By Stephen Leahy*
PARIS - The Amazon jungle "is very close to a tipping point," and if destruction continues, it could shrink to one third of its original size in just 65 years, warns Thomas Lovejoy, world-renowned tropical biologist.
MORE >>
 

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ENERGY-PORTUGAL: Racing for Renewables
By Mario de Queiroz
LISBON - Just a decade ago, criticism rained down on sunny, windy Portugal for not making the most of nature's gifts to develop renewable energy sources. Now all signs indicate that it did not fall on deaf ears, as the country has become a leader in the field.
MORE >>
 

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NEPAL: Communities Take Up Cudgels for Forest Conservation
By Damakant Jayshi
KATHMANDU - Tired of walking, Shankar Prasad Ghimire, 87, a retired government worker, puts his walking stick aside and takes rest on a vast expanse of lush green land.
MORE >>
 

BIODIVERSITY: Northern "Biopirates" Gobbling up Resources
By Stephen Leahy
PARIS - Rich countries are like biopirates, looting far-away lands for food, raw materials and cheap labour. They're plundering other richer ecosystems because they've largely destroyed their own. And they're blocking global efforts to create an independent scientific assessment panel that is likely point the finger at the real reason species are going extinct at 1,000 times their natural pace, experts say.
MORE >>
 

NICARAGUA: Can Army Protect Plundered Forest Reserves?
By José Adán Silva
MANAGUA - The Nicaraguan state has embarked on an iron-fisted policy, including the use of military force, to clamp down on those responsible for environmental depredation, after repeated denunciations by organisations and government officials that the country's two largest biosphere reserves are being plundered.
MORE >>
 

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Reconciling Social and Environmental Needs
By Mario Osava* IPS/TerraViva
SALVADOR, Brazil - One of the greatest challenges facing the world today is to attend to the urgent social needs of the planet’s population, and particularly the one billion people living "on the brink of survival", while dealing with the equally urgent demands of the environment.
MORE >>
 

BURMA: Ethnic Women Expose Opium Fields in Junta Strongholds
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - A report exposing the spreading opium fields in the north-eastern corner of the military-ruled Burma has brought to light an equally revealing story. It was produced by a team of ethnic women who risked their lives to document the heroin-filled world they inhabit.
MORE >>
 

ENVIRONMENT-ASIA: Future of China’s Tiger Farms in the Balance
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - The road to the world’s first tiger summit in Vladivostok later this year will have to be paved with answers about the future of tiger farms in China and other East Asian countries, said conservationists.
MORE >>
 

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CUBA: Zeolite, Mineral of a Thousand Uses
By Patricia Grogg*
HAVANA - Cuba, which has major reserves of zeolite, aims to boost exploitation of the mineral, whose properties and uses in products and technologies contribute to protecting the environment.
MORE >>
 

INDIA: Mobilised by Old Clothes, Poor Folk Stand Up, Take Action
By Neeta Lal
NEW DELHI - Salidhana village, a mere blip on the vast and arid landscape of India’s central state of Madhya Pradesh, was devoid of life’s most basic necessity – water. Until last year, there was no well in this hamlet of about a hundred families. Women would trudge hours daily to fetch water from distant areas, often losing their balance on the hilly village’s treacherous slopes.
MORE >>
 

BIODIVERSITY: EU Farmers Face Genetic Contamination of Seeds
By Julio Godoy
BERLIN - Biodiversity, already decaying fast as a result of climate change and intensive farming, is under further threat by genetic modification (GM) of seeds, says a leading German ecological activist.
MORE >>
 

MIDEAST: Clean Energy Faces Tough Financial Climate
By Cam McGrath
CAIRO - Renewable energy projects in the Middle East could be scaled back or scuttled unless fresh sources of financing are found.
MORE >>
 

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Q&A: Rage and the Economics of the Environment
Stephen Leahy interviews British economist TIM JACKSON*
TORONTO, Canada - "Rage is sometimes the appropriate response" to the failure of the world's leaders to craft a new climate treaty at the Copenhagen summit, says British economist Tim Jackson.
MORE >>
 

EL SALVADOR: Activists Link Mining Co. to Murders
By Edgardo Ayala
SAN SALVADOR - Environmental activists in El Salvador allege that managers of a gold mine owned by a Canadian corporation are implicated in the murders of three anti-mining activists.
MORE >>
 

 

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