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 …
Allegations of corruption and influencepeddling dog the ambitious us $1.4 billion surveillance project aimed to protect the Brazilian rain forest. The Integrated Amazon Vigilance System or Sivam, as it is known, was announced with much fanfare earlier and the contract was awarded to the Massachusetts-based Raytheon Company in the US. …
A CONTROVERSIAL pharmaceuticals patent law pushed by the Brazilian President, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, has drawn flak from critics who accuse the government of favouring giant us multinationals. That Cardoso is bypassing the Congress and passing the law directly by presidential decree, is generating heat in the country's scientific, grassroot and …
Amapa, one of the poorest states of Brazil, has won plaudits for its development model. Spearheading the change is Joao Alberto Capiberibe, a former guerrilla who is now governor of the state. Capiberibe's commitment to sustainable development has been described by the environmental group, Friends of the Earth as "unprecedented …
Amazon apocalypse For the handful of surviving Yanomami tribals left in the Amazonian rainforests of Brazil and Venezuela, the recent moves to end their rights over their home - the forests - could very well sound their death knell From June this year the pressure started building on both sides …
The mythical univer5e of the Yanomami i5 extremely complex. U5ing it5 ideal5, 5haman (prie5t) David Yanomami from Demeni village gave a moving te5timony of the trauma hi5 people are going through a5 a re5ult of the invasion of their land5. In hi5 test imony to anthropologi5t Bruce Albert in 1990, …
The Yanomami are not the only tribal communities among Brazil's Indians facing a dark future. The Guarani Kaiowa Indians in the state of Mato Grosso do Sui are showing signs of mass frustration, and incidence of suicides among them have shot up recently. The figure of 30 suicides this year …
Between 1968 and 1978, anthropologists and missionaries petitioned the Brazilian government 11 times for a protect- ed ayea for the Yanomami, but to no avail. Finally, in 1978, outraged by the ever-worsening situation of the Yanomami people, a group of concerned citizens in Brazil (including anthropologists, ecologists, lawyers, clerics, and …
The Brazil government green watchdog Jhama is all set to haul up nvironmental offenders. In an agressive move to end its ofic financial problems pt people to observe ugunental laws, lhama loonched Operation &F.; The aim is to clear Me becidog of cases collect unpaid fines, which anuount to around …
Soyabeans are about to become hot stuff in Brazil. The crop faced a serious crisis when the government almost entirely cut it out of its subsidised credit programmes and the producers were desperately looking out for money for the next crop. But the situation has taken a dramatic turn after …
Brazilian farmers frequently using pesticides in their farm operations, unknowingly make their children susceptible to kidney cancer. Recently, researchers established that 18 per cent of Wilms' turnours - which affect kidneys - among Brazilian children, are due to exposure of their parents to pesticides (American Journal ofEpidemiolop@ Vol 141). Colin …
The Brazilian government has come down heavily on the Kayapo Indians, an Amazonian tribe. The Kayapoes are "mining" mahogany from the reserve forests in northern Brazil and wreaking havoc on the pristine forest cover, allege the authorities; therefore, they must be stopped immediately. Now, a court in Brasilia has banned …
Mounting protests have greeted a Brazilian government proposal to construct a hydroelectric dam on the Cotingo River in the Serra/Raposa do Sol area in the northern part of the country. The project will adversely affect the lives of the 4,000 Makuxi and Ingariko Indians living in the area who have …
Brazilian researchers claim that they have been able to turn the oil of the African palm into a diesel substitute (Indian Forester, Vol 121,No4). This exceptional fuel possesses thermodynamic properties that are far superior to those of diesel fuel that is obtained from crude oil. It has been tested with …
A mysterious disease with symptoms similar to haemorrhagic fever has swept the city of Nova Olina Do Norte in Brazil's Amazon region. It has spread panic among the local people, who are afraid that it could lead to a similar epidemic as that caused by the Ebola filovirus which devastated …
A PROGRAMME called Local Initiatives for the Environment -- LIFE -- is using novel approaches to finance and implement environmental projects. A product of Agenda 21, the international agreement drawn up during the Earth Summit (1992) in Rio de Janeiro, LIFE is "aiming to be more of an initiative catalyst …
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil has decided that the state-owned oil company Petrobas has been pampered silly and needs to be disciplined. He proposes to do so by selling it off to private investors, arguing that till now the firm's only contribution has been to augment the state's federal …
BRAZIL has been a favourite hunting ground for mysterious killer viruses. Unknown illnesses, giving occasion to much brainracking in medical circles, have been its bane. Four deaths recently in Cuiaba in the state ofMato Grosso - mortalities attributed to a virus called the Hanta virus ( closely related to the …
"We want to transform the accident into something positive," says Paulo New regional director of the National Nuclear Energy Commission in Brazil -referring to the nuclear waste dump in Goiania, site of a macabre radiation disaster, which the Brazilian government now proposes to turn into a national park. It happened …
Brazil is tipped to be one of the world's fastest growing computer markets for 1995, with projected computer and peripheral sales of US $6.9 billion, up from US $5.7 billion last year. Software sales are expected to reach US $550 million, up from US $418 million in 1994. The frenzy …
The Brazilian government is facing flak from conservationists and opposition members for not buying land to create the national parks it had proposed. The delay in buying the land has affected 6 national parks that were created in 1989, and this is wrecking conservation efforts by hindering the government in …
