Environment Archives - Page 39 of 46

Chile: Yet Another Dam Planned For Biobío River

Benjamin Witte October 15, 2008 Benjamin Witte

Biobío River

Chile's Biobío River, already home to two huge hydroelectric power stations, may soon be dammed yet again - this time by Chilean energy giant Colbún. And just like the massive Pangue and Ralco dams that preceded it, Colbún's "Angostura Project" is attracting serious criticism among area residents, many of whom may be displaced by the dam's reservoir. Incredibly, some of the people likely to be flooded out of house and home were already forced to relocate during construction of the Pangue facility.

Life as Commerce: Criticizing Market-Based Conservation

Simone Lovera & Orin Langelle October 9, 2008 Simone Lovera & Orin Langelle

Simone Lovera (Center) Photo: Langelle

Barcelona, Spain - As the international financial and food crisis worsens, Global Forest Coalition critiques the unreliability of market-based conservation mechanisms like ecotourism, forest certification, biodiversity offsets and carbon trade on Indigenous Peoples, local communities and women. Market-based mechanisms are often seen as solutions to the lack of funding for public conservation, but they are false solutions.

This Toxic Life: Our World is Awash With Petro-Chemicals

Wayne Ellwood October 6, 2008 Wayne Ellwood

A Bale of Plastic Bottles

'Every time I come here my body gets sad and angry at the same time,' says Ron Plain. 'You can't put into words what it means to me.' We've just tumbled out of Ron's jeep near the end of a three-hour tour of Sarnia, Ontario's 'chemical valley'. Ron calls it his 'toxic tour'. He's done it dozens of times so the patter is easy and familiar. Sarnia is a gritty blue-collar community of 70,000 people at the top of the St Clair River, on the Canadian side, about a 100 kilometres north of Detroit.

Toward a Movement for Peace and Climate Justice

Brian Tokar September 24, 2008 Brian Tokar

Complaining about the weather is about as American as apple pie, sitcoms and rock and roll. But while the rest of the world has been noticing for years that our increasingly unstable weather is an initial sign of potentially devastating global climate changes, our nation's collective heads have mostly remained in the sand. Finally, over the past year or so, things have begun to shift a little.

Social Ecology and the Greening of Our Cities

Brian Tokar September 11, 2008 Brian Tokar

Over the past year, we've seen an unprecedented rise in awareness of the consequences of potentially catastrophic global climate changes, and the need for a more ecologically sound way of life. We know that profound changes in our energy systems, our modes of transportation, and our entire way of life, are absolutely essential if we are to avoid a cascade of climate disruptions that will threaten every aspect of life on earth. We also know that people living in the global South, especially in subsistence cultures that contribute the least to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, are already facing the most severe consequences of an increasingly chaotic climate.

Alaska Natives Watch Traditions Melting Away

Kari Lydersen August 29, 2008 Kari Lydersen

Bobby Koezuna Holds Tusks

Hunting walrus is an age-old tradition for the Inupiat Eskimo Native people of King Island, a tiny rugged piece of land jutting out of the Bering Sea off Alaska. The walrus provides meat for the long, dark, frigid winters, and its tusks, skin, blubber, intestines and other body parts serve other crucial functions, including making watertight parkas and "pokes" to store berries. Watching the sky and sea for signs of the coming walrus migration is an art still passed on from elders to the young generation. Now, indigenous people across the Arctic region say, due to the effects of climate change, they can no longer predict important climactic changes and events like they used to, leading some to freeze to death caught in storms or stranded on ice; or face privation as their traditional hunts are interrupted.