Environment

• Friday, May 29th 2009 - 05:04 UTC

  Brazil discovers the benefits of efficient cook stoves.

  

  Woodland in Brazil is being cut down, day after day. The local people say they need it to make a living. This is not the Amazon rainforest deforestation, but the woody landscape of Caatinga in the North Eastern corner of Brazil. Caatinga’s inhabitants are cutting wood for cooking.

• Friday, May 29th 2009 - 02:19 UTC

  South Atlantic islands preparing invasive species strategy

  

  A regional strategy for invasive species in the South Atlantic should be ready towards the end of the year, following the conclusion of the regional workshop on Ascension Island.

• Tuesday, May 26th 2009 - 12:43 UTC

  OIE confirms impact of climate change on animal diseases

  

  The impact of climate change on the emergence and re-emergence of animal diseases has been confirmed in a worldwide study conducted by the World Organization for Animal Health, OIE. The announcement was done at the77th OIE General Assembly, Delegates of the 174 Member Countries and Territories as a warning to the International Community

• Saturday, May 23rd 2009 - 15:21 UTC

  Obama signs credit card holders “Bill of Rights”

  

  Credit card companies in the US will be bound by new restrictions on their ability to charge fees, or raise interest rates on existing borrowings. On Friday, President Barack Obama is signed a new law which will come into full effect next February.

• Tuesday, May 19th 2009 - 06:43 UTC

  Ence’s assets in Uruguay taken over by Stora Enso and Arauco

  

  Finland’s Stora Enso, Europe’s leading paper producer and Arauco, one of the largest forest industry enterprises in Latinamerica based in Chile, announced Monday the definitive purchase agreement for the joint (50%/50%) acquisition of Spanish pulp producer Grupo ENCE assets in Uruguay.

• Friday, May 15th 2009 - 12:25 UTC

  Calculating the impact of the Antarctic ice sheet melting

  

  The collapse of a major Antarctic ice sheet will not raise global sea levels as much as previous projections suggest, a team of scientists has calculated. Writing in Science, the researchers said that the demise of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) would result in a sea level rise of 3.3m.
  Previous estimates had forecast a rise in the region of five to six metres.

• Thursday, May 14th 2009 - 08:20 UTC

  Coral Triangle in risk of disappearance says WWF

  

  If the world does not take effective action on climate change, coral reefs will disappear from the Coral Triangle by the end of the century, the ability of the region’s coastal environments to feed people will decline by 80%, and the livelihoods of around 100 million people will have been lost or severely impacted, warns WWF.

• Monday, May 11th 2009 - 10:28 UTC

  Obama and Bush agree limited protection for polar bears

  

  The US government has opted to retain a Bush-era rule that limits protection for polar bears from the effects of global warming. Environmental groups had been calling for the rule to be lifted, and the US Congress had given Interior Secretary Ken Salazar the power to do so. Mr Salazar said lifting the rule would create “uncertainty and confusion”.

• Monday, May 11th 2009 - 09:01 UTC

  Record floods and drought in “complicated” Brazil

  

  Forty four deaths had been confirmed in northern Brazil's worst flooding in decades, fed by two months of unusually heavy rains in a zone stretching from deep in the Amazon to normally arid areas near the Atlantic coast. In spite of a gradual Sunday retreat of water in some areas the number of homeless climbed to 300.000

• Monday, May 11th 2009 - 07:32 UTC

  UN Environment Program agreement to ban nine persistent organic pollutants

  

  Under of the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program meeting in Geneva 150 governments have agreed to ban the production of nine of the world's most hazardous chemicals.