In a world of higher electricity demand growth, clean electricity is stepping up to the challenge. Spearheaded by exponential solar expansion, clean power is set to grow faster than demand, marking the start of a permanent decline in fossil generation. 2024 both clarified and consolidated the shape of the global …
It was an experiment to clear the air in polluted Sao Paulo, South America's biggest city, so as to allow Paulistanos breathe more easily. Motorists, depending on the last digit of the licence plate, were asked to leave their cars at home for one working day of the week in …
Land ownership rights continue to torment the many Indian tribes living in this country. Estranged from their own land and forced to adopt alien customs, distressed Brazilian Indians have turned to committing suicide. Over the last 10 years, some 200 Kaiowa Indians, a sub-group of Guarani Indians, have killed themselves …
An accelerated destruction of the Amazon rainforest has set alarm bells ringing. Satellite data from the National Space Research Institute in Sao Jose dos Campos shows that from 11,000 sq km in 1991, deforestation has increased by 34 per cent to 14,900 sq km a year between 1992-94. "That is …
The fears of the inhabitants of Serra Leste in the northern state of Para have come true. When the Brazilian government announced to the world at large the discovery of a gold mine that could probably be Latin America's biggest, the local residents weren't amused ( Down To Earth , …
Smokers will find it all the more difficult to take a puff as a recently enforced law prohibits smoking in enclosed places. But the law does not carry any punitive measures in case it is broken. The Congress passed a law last month, sanctioned by President Cardoso, which bans smoking …
Coconut shells and ash could soon compete for becoming the new age building materials. A breakthrough by researchers from the Brazil-based Technological Research Institute involves the use of these two materials to promote low-cost housing ( IDRC Report , Vol 23, No 4). Says Vahan Agopyan, the brain behind the …
Imagine a city where recycled garbage is traded to buy essential items; old wooden electricity posts are reused in office buildings, bridges and public squares retired buses transform into mobile classrooms for adult education and; a gunpowder depot becomes a theatre-in-the-round. Curitiba, a city located 200 miles southwest of Sao …
Deer populations of Brazil have been on a steady decline due to loss of habitat and poaching by colonists. In the largest reservation of the South American continent in central-west Brazil, Xavante Indians occupy a natural area of 229,000 ha, bordering the Rio das Mortes, a principal tributary of the …
Drug companies and laboratories in the country will no longer be able to enjoy the freedom to pirate patente@ products. The government has finally adopted a new patent law that brings foods and pharmaceuticals under the cover of intellectual property rights. The law will expectedly bury the widespread practice of …
A GOVERNMENT decree which had put the indigenous lands of Brazil up for grabs, is being contested for demarcating 70 indigenous areas and reserves. Till this date, more than 1, 100 actions have been registered with the National Indigenous Foundation (Funai) in this regard. This is seen as a direct …
Instead of the usual scenes of gaiety to celebrate the 'Discovery of Brazil' on April 22, Brazilian Indians undertook protest demonstrations to display their anger against an administration which has systematically created more hardships for them. Even as President Fernando Henrique Cardoso along with local leaders of the Pataxo area …
Developed initially as a tranquilizer in 1950, thalidomide has ultimately resulted in disquiet and disturbance in the wake of one of the worst drug disasters ever. However, the most agitating fact about thalidomide is that 25 years after a German company paid US $31 million as compensation to German children …
The new Decree 1,775/96 signed by President Fernando Cardoso on January 8, allows Brazilian states, municipalities and other parties to contest and oppose the delimitation of indigenous lands (Down To Earth, Vol 4, No 19). Says Beto Borges, Amazon Campaign Coordinator of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), "Brazil has taken …
IN WHAT could be Latin America's biggest gold mine Brazil, the world's sixth largest goii:1 producer, has 'reported a major 150--tonne gold find worth nearly. us $2 billion. But this time, the discovery, announced early last month, has raised fears of another possible invasion of garimpeiros or individual prospectors into …
HARDLY have the Brazilian Indians absorbed the shock brought about by the change to the Decree 22/19, they are confronted by another decree which yet again threatens their ownership of land. Decree 1775 which regulates the demarcation of indigenous lands in Brazil, has found disfavour with the Council for the …
IT IS obvious that for the Brazilian government, people's rights do not matter. Why else would they - in spite of vociferous local protests and campaigns by several agencies in favour of the indigenous Indians - go ahead and bring about the change to the controversial Decree 22/91, which could …
The Special Commission of the National Congress of Brazil is studying various means of making the much derided Calha Norte mining project feasible in the country. The commission took advantage of the crisis in the investigation and surveillance system of the Amazon region (Sivam) scheme, to propose that the Calha …
In Brazil, the feud over Decree 22/91 continues to dog the Yanomami and other indigenous peoples. S A Agropecuaria e lmoveis, an influential mining company, has now requested that the injunction it filed against the Decree at the Supreme Federal Court should continue to be judged. The judgement has been …
That the Hydrovia waterways project, linking Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay and Argentina, could spell doom for the Pantanal - the largest * wetlands in the world - in Brazil is well understood. What is surprising is that it is being backed wholeheartedly by politicians, businesspersons and farmers alike. Warns Katherine …
