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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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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
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Sustainable Development
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
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Sustainable Development
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News in RSS
MEXICO: Music and Dance Classes Foster Tolerance, Self-Esteem
MIDEAST: Israel Lands in Public Relations Nightmare
THAILAND: In Convoys of Red, Rural Masses Stage Historic Protest
RIGHTS-MALAWI: Country Not Safe for Homosexuals
US-ISRAEL: Tiff or Tipping Point?
RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: 'Our Lives Are Cut Short at a Stroke'
ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Law on Forest Rights Fails to Deliver
HEALTH: U.S. AIDS Fund Flat-Lining, Groups Complain
MEXICO: Consumers on the Offensive
RIGHTS: Gender Confab Marked by Political Uncertainties
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ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Law on Forest Rights Fails to Deliver
By Manipadma Jena
BHUBANESWAR, India - A four-year-old landmark law that was supposed to bring profound changes in the lives of India’s tribal and forest-dwelling peoples has failed to deliver on that promise.
MORE >>
 

BIODIVERSITY: Lucrative Shark Trade Under Scrutiny
By Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON - As climate change transforms the acidity and oxygen levels of the world's waters with devastating effects for some marine species, others are facing an even more immediate threat from human consumption.
MORE >>
 

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INDONESIA: Waste Composting Project Blazes Cleaner Path
By Kanis Dursin
JAKARTA - Battling the pain from a boil on his left thigh, 45-year-old Inggit Tukino pulled his two-wheeled cart through the overcrowded alleys of a slum in Rawabebek, Penjaringan hamlet in here North Jakarta.
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EDUCATION-URUGUAY: Gardens of Knowledge
By Silvana Silveira
MONTEVIDEO - "Nature is wise, and if we take the time to observe it, we can learn so much" is the underlying philosophy of a number of innovative programmes being carried out in Uruguayan schools that are using gardens as a teaching resource, explained Edith Moraes, director of the national Primary Education Board.
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TANZANIA: Weather Changes Turn Farming into Gamble with Nature
By Denis Gathanju
DAR-ES-SALAAM - Changes in weather patterns have turned agriculture into a gamble with nature for Tanzanian farmers. Prolonged droughts and floods have made the lives of small-scale farmers, who don’t have access to irrigation, extremely difficult.
MORE >>
 

FINANCE: Self-Policing of Extractive Industries a "Dismal" Failure
By Charles Fromm
WASHINGTON - An international initiative that seeks to reform how governments profit from their natural resources should not reduce its existing standards of membership solely because candidate countries have been reluctant or incapable of meeting them, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday.
MORE >>
 

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RIGHTS: "Famine Marriages" Just One Byproduct of Climate Change
By Thalif Deen*
UNITED NATIONS - The negative fallout from climate change is having a devastatingly lopsided impact on women compared to men, from higher death rates during natural disasters to heavier household and care burdens.
MORE >>
 

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ENVIRONMENT-UGANDA: Landslides - Experts Warn Worst is Yet to Come
By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA - Fourteen-year-old Isaac Wadyegere of Bundesi village in Bududa district woke up to a rainy and chilly Monday morning and went to school as usual. But Mar. 1 was not a usual day in eastern Uganda.
MORE >>
 

ECUADOR: Avatar Downfall a Blow for Indigenous Communities
By Gonzalo Ortiz
QUITO - Science fiction blockbuster Avatar was the big loser in the Oscar awards ceremony - not only a blow for director James Cameron but also seen as a symbolic reverse in the struggle to recover Amazon rainforest areas in Ecuador from the effects of oil pollution.
MORE >>
 

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PERU: Suspension of Mining Operation Merely a Placebo
By Milagros Salazar
LIMA - Although the Peruvian government reported that it had suspended the exploration activities of the Afrodita mining company in the country's northern Amazon jungle region to avoid further protests by local indigenous people, officials took no actual steps to bring the firm's work to a halt.
MORE >>
 

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ENVIRONMENT: Violent Backlash Against Climate Scientists
By Stephen Leahy*
UXBRIDGE, Canada - Climate change science has come under full-scale attack in a last-ditch effort to delay or prevent action by the U.S. government against global warming, experts warn.
MORE >>
 

MALAWI: Patrilineal Inheritance Prevents Women’s Access to Land
By Claire Ngozo
LILONGWE - Mercy Gondwe, 51, from Rumphi in northern Malawi, was married for 34 years. When her husband died in 2008, she assumed she would inherit the land they had been cultivating together since they got married. But this was not the case.
MORE >>
 

DEVELOPMENT-SRI LANKA: Water Woes Fall on Women’s Shoulders
By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO - As a wife of a rice farmer and mother of two children aged nine and two, Sanjeevani Bandara’s days are packed with chores. Yet while she used to be able to keep up with all she has to do in a day, this Sri Lankan mother now finds herself struggling to accomplish even the most basic tasks.
MORE >>
 

ENVIRONMENT-MEXICO: Green Areas to the Highest Bidder
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY - Activists in Mexico complain that the deforestation threatening the environmental health of Mexico has been accentuated by the granting of public areas to private companies.
MORE >>
 

EUROPE: Green Finance Wise, or Otherwise
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS - A plan to give the European Union's lending arm a beefed-up mandate for financing the fight against climate change has drawn a sceptical response from campaigners on green and economic justice issues.
MORE >>
 

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MEXICO: Scientists Reinvent the Corn Tortilla
By Verónica Díaz Favela*
MEXICO CITY - The process of making corn tortillas - the filling, age-old traditional food throughout much of Mexico and Central America - pollutes huge volumes of water and consumes a great deal of energy.
MORE >>
 

MALAWI: Climate Change Is Changing Farming Methods
By Claire Ngozo
LILONGWE - As they slept soundly on the night of Feb. 28, a family of four was killed when their house collapsed over their heads in Malawi’s southern district of Chikhwawa.
MORE >>
 

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BIODIVERSITY: CITES Faces Political Storm over Tuna Ban
By Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON - The vast majority of the species protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, live on land, but as marine species come under increasing pressure from unsustainable fishing and a range of climate change-related threats that focus is beginning to shift.
MORE >>
 

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CLIMATE CHANGE: Arctic Shelf Leaking Potent Greenhouse Gas
By Stephen Leahy
UXBRIDGE, Canada - The frozen cap trapping billions of tonnes of methane under the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean is leaking and venting the powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, new research shows.
MORE >>
 

LATIN AMERICA: Canada Moves to Oversee Mining Firms
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY - Amidst allegations that Canadian mining companies operating in Latin America have been complicit in the murders and harassment of activists, several positive developments in Canada are seen as a source of hope that firms may begin to be held accountable on human rights and environmental questions.
MORE >>
 

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CLIMATE: The Thirsty Caribbean
By Peter Richards*
PORT OF SPAIN - Caribbean countries are considering options like desalination plants and cloud seeding to confront a drought that threatens the regional economy and which experts warned about years ago.
MORE >>
 

CHILE: Cost of Rebuilding Still Unclear
By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO - Chile has begun to think about the costs and challenges of rebuilding a large part of the areas hit by the Feb. 27 earthquake and tsunami, while rescue and aid operations continue.
MORE >>
 

ENVIRONMENT-LEBANON: Coastal Pollution Threatens Fisherfolk
By Mona Alami
BEIRUT - Pollution, oil spills and difficult living conditions are some of the challenges that fishermen in this eastern Mediterranean country face daily.
MORE >>
 

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ENVIRONMENT: Wanted - An Effective Multilateral System
By Marcela Valente*
NUSA DUA, Indonesia - The echoes of failure still sounding from the Copenhagen summit on climate change in December are spurring efforts to reform the international legal framework. Civil society groups are demanding a new, more agile system that is both influential and effective.
MORE >>
 

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CHILE: A Tidal Wave of Solidarity
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS - Chile has been wrapped in a blanket of international solidarity, while offers of cooperation for the relief of victims and the reconstruction of the country shower down upon it, after the devastating Feb. 27 earthquake and tsunami.
MORE >>
 

 

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