In 2024, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded 393 natural hazard-related disasters. These events caused 16,753 fatalities and affected 167.2 million people. Economic losses totaled US$241.95 billion. The year 2024 was marked by extreme temperature events in Asia that caused thousands of deaths, severe droughts in Africa affecting over 25 …
EFFORTS of environmentalists to block a vast waterways scheme linking the Parana and the Paraguay rivers in South America have elicited promises from project officials that a full-scale environmental impact study will be conducted first and the project would be abandoned if its damage potential was rated high. Environmentalists, however, …
AFTER the Green Revolution, the next great leap forward in food production is predicted to be in the cerrado region of South America, a grassy area covering more than 200 million ha. This exceeds the total cultivated land in India. Unfortunately, much of the cerrado soil is acidic and, until …
AN OFFER by Latin American banana growers for a dialogue has been eagerly accepted by their Caribbean rivals and discussions scheduled in St Lucia hopefully will dampen the dispute between them, triggered by banana import quotas fixed recently by the European Community (EC). The cause of acrimony between the two …
CARIBBEAN banana producers have challenged the review to be undertaken by a General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) panel to examine European Community restrictions imposed on the fruit's import from Latin America. The review was proposed by Latin American countries, whose bananas are cheaper, and seeks to do away …
AS THE world's biggest per capita consumers of bananas, the Germans are understandably angered by an European Community (EC) proposal to restrict imports of the fruit from Latin America. The EC proposal, which is to come into effect July 1, would tax banana imports from Latin America at the rate …
AT LEAST 600 million of the 1.5 billion urban inhabitats in AsiaAfrica and Latin America live in squattersettlements on illegally occupied land or in housingdevelmopment schemes that never received municipalapproval. Their houses fail to meet government buildingstandards and their inhabitants are victims of overcrowdingpoor constructionlack of piped waterrudimentarysanitationinadequate drainage and …
INTO THE HEART is an apt title for the autobiography of anthropologist Kenneth Good and the ethnography of the Yanomama Indians rolled into one, and for a romantic book that journeys into the heart of the unexplored Venezuelan jungle. When Good set off to study the Hasupuweteri Yanomama, he had …
FROM VERY small children we receive an education which is very different from white children, ladinos. We Indians have more contact with nature. That's why they call us polytheistic. But we're not polytheistic... or if we are, it's good, because it's our culture, our customs. We worship -- or rather …
Thanks to the foresight of an American plant collector 20 years ago, several bean varieties are today resistant to a pest scientists had given up trying to control. During a trip to southern Mexico, H S Gentry recognised a wild vine considered a useless weed was, in fact, a wild …
Scientists have successfully used tiny wasps and an invisible fungus disease to battle pests destroying cassava crops in Africa and South America. Cassava, a starchy root crop native to Latin America, was taken across the Atlantic by Portuguese traders four centuries ago and is now a major food for more …
BEANS are one of the few crops grown for beauty as well as nutrition. Archaeologists in South America have excavated beautiful, multicoloured bean seeds buried with Indians 10,000 years ago. Analysis showed the Indians ate only fresh, young bean pods and seeds. Pottery, which made boiling beans possible, began only …
The main purpose of this book is to bring to the reader an idea of the nature of the struggles being waged to individuals and voluntary groups across the world, and especially in India, to protect the environment.
The ancient and beautiful town of Cholula, Mexico, one of the magical towns in Mexico, where the Universidad de las Americas, Puebla is located, has been chosen as the site for the celebration of the ICHRCC. The city of Puebla, is about less than 3 miles (5 km) away from …
