In 1992, I attended an event that filled me with hope.
Canada and the rest of the world had just signed a climate change treaty at the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
I remember being optimistic that the world could come together to fight the greatest threat to our planet and our own survival. We had done it before in overcoming other threats, like defeating Nazism in Europe and beating back horrific diseases like polio.
Father Edilberto Sena arrives at Rural
Radio station and takes up his position behind the microphone. He
reaches into his pocket and pulls out his script for today's show. One
question is scribbled on it for the daily debate: ‘Why is this
happening?'
THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC), private lending arm of the World Bank, has withdrawn a $90 million (€57 million) loan to Brazilian cattle industry giant Bertin, following complaints that it was using the money to expand further into the Amazon region.
"It is good news that the World Bank is withdrawing these funds, yet scandalous that it was feeding a company that causes Amazon deforestation and climate change in the first place," said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Brazil's Amazon campaign director.
LIMA - Peruvian lawmakers suspended a controversial law that eased restrictions on lumber harvesting in the Amazon rain forest, days after it sparked clashes between police and indigenous protesters, killing dozens of people.
The legislature agreed by a 59 to 49 vote to suspend Decree 1090 -- dubbed the "Law of the Jungle" -- that covers forestry and fauna in Peru's northeastern Amazon rain forest, said Javier Velasquez, the head of Peru's single-chamber Congress.
A decree related to governing private investment also was suspended.
Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, writing in the Guardian in March,
offered us these words of hope: "No country has a larger stake in
reversing the impact of global warming than Brazil. That is why it is
at the forefront of efforts to come up with solutions that preserve our
common future." Lula's words are fine. But we are still waiting for
real action.
Five "uncontacted" tribes are at imminent risk of extinction as oil companies, colonists and loggers invade their territiories. The semi-nomadic groups, who live deep in the forests of Peru, Brazil and Paraguay, are vulnerable to common western diseases such as flu and measles but also risk being killed by armed gangs, according to a report by Survival International, which identifies the five groups as the most threatened on Earth.
LIMA, Peru - After more than six weeks of protests by Peru's Amazonian indigenous groups that have included blockades of major roads and waterways and the shutting down an oil pipeline pumping station, the Peruvian government has begun to crack down.
During the past two weeks, the administration of President Alan Garcia has declared a state of emergency in the country's Amazon provinces, issued a decree allowing the military to help the national police maintain order there, and charged the protest's leaders with crimes against the state.
A cooking oil that is driving the
destruction of the rainforests, displacing native people and
threatening the survival of the orangutan is present in dozens of
Britain's leading grocery brands, an investigation by The Independent has found.
Palm
oil - blamed for a tree-felling rampage in south-east Asia - is present
or suspected in 43 of 100 best-selling brands in UK, far more than the
one in 10 products estimated by Friends of the Earth four years ago.
The trade in Sumatran orangutans for pets shows little sign of decline and is taking the species to the brink of extinction, a report concludes.
Compiled by Traffic, the international wildlife trade monitoring network, it suggests that more orangutans are being traded than in previous decades.
The species is listed as critically endangered, with only about 7,000 left.
Traffic says Indonesian authorities need to pursue prosecutions and heavy penalties against illegal traders.
The Sumatran orangutan is protected under national laws and international conventions.
