When Hugo Chávez won election as president of Venezuela, many expected him to pick ecologist Alexander Luzardo, chief architect of his environmental platform, as Minister of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources. But after taking office this month, the new president awarded the post to Atala Uriana, a Wayúu Indian and dedicated Indian rights activist from the Guajira region near Maracaibo. The appointment has been interpreted as a sign that the government will take a tougher environmental stand on mineral extraction in the Gran Sabana and eastern Orinoco, and also on the construction of electric power lines from Guri Dam to the Brazilian border. Both activities have drawn protests from Indian communities in the region. In recent years, Uriana has worked with the Indian and Environmental...
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The discovery of three apparent cases of Minamata disease in Brazil bolsters evidence of ongoing mercury contamination in the Amazon, according to an international scientific team undertaking a pilot project to address the problem. New Scientist magazine, in its Feb. 6 issue, reported that Japanese experts Maszumi Harada of Kumamoto University and Junko Nakanishi from the Yokohama National University found three people living near the Tapajós River with symptoms of the disease. The nervous disorder, named after a Japanese city where 1,500 became ill in the 1950s after eating fish contaminated with methyl mercury, causes uncontrollable shaking, weakened muscles and severe birth defects. Harada is the first to diagnose the disease outside Japan. Previous studies in the Tapajós Basin by researchers from the University of...
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Mannesmann Florestal Ltda., a company that supplies charcoal to the Brazilian steel industry, has been certified to comply with Forest Stewardship Council guidelines for ecologically and socially responsible timber management. The certification, performed by the auditing company Société Générale de Surveillance Forestry Ltda., covers operations at Mannesmann’s four eucalyptus plantations in Minas Gerais state. By making charcoal from the eucalyptus trees it plants, Mannesmann avoids cutting down native trees in the savanna of west-central Brazil. The Brazilian charcoal distributor Metaltec, which paid for Mannesman’s audit, expects the green seal to open new export markets for the charcoal. Certification of Mannesmann’s 581,391 acres (235,286 hectares) brings the total area in Brazil found to comply with stewardship council guidelines to 1.5 million acres (624,101 hectares). Mannesmann...
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The state of San Luis Potosí was founded on centuries-old mining claims, but plans to mine one of the region’s richest gold and silver areas is nevertheless drawing opposition. Compañía Minera San Xavier, a subsidiary of Cambior Inc. of Canada, wants to operate an open-pit mine and processing plant at its proposed Cerro de San Pedro site 38 miles (60 kms) northeast of the state capital, an area that has been mined off and on for 400 years. A citizens group, Coalición Ciudadana Potosina en Defensa del Cerro de San Pedro, and the Greenpeace environmental organization have called on the government to deny the company permission. The project, which would involve the extraction of 32,000 tons of ore daily for eight years from...
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Fires in southern Argentina that blackened nearly 150,000 acres (60,000 hectares) of Andean forest, as well as pasture and farmland, were brought under control in the first week of February after raging for more than a month. Firefighters in the Patagonian provinces of Río Negro and Neuquen contained the blazes after the federal government, alarmed the flames were closing in on the popular lake resort of San Carlos de Bariloche, sent helicopters, personnel and supplies. The fires started north of Lake Nahuel Huapi; the cause is unknown. They spread with the help of winds and dry conditions, which continue to contribute to high fire risk in the region...
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Argentine authorities are trying to determine responsibility for an oil spill that followed the Jan. 15 collision of a tanker belonging to Royal Dutch-Shell and a German container ship at the mouth of the River Plate. The Dutch oil giant has said it is not liable in the spill, in which 66,000 gallons (250,000 liters) of crude spilled from the tanker. It dispatched 50 workers to help vacuum the spreading oil, which initially caused a 100,000-square-yard (87,000-square-meter) slick 12 miles (20 kms) from the town of Magdalena. Cleanup efforts were expected to continue during most of this month...
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How much carbon do Latin America’s rainforests store? The question is addressed in research that scientists from the University of Maryland have conducted in collaboration with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Researchers performed a digital data analysis developed at Goddard using ground measurements taken in Costa Rica’s La Selva biological Research Station and laser images captured from aloft. The results, presented at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, are summarized in a report by the internet information service UniScience News Net, Inc., entitled “Probing How Much Carbon The World’s Forests Store.” Meanwhile, a separate study showing how the Amazon rainforest functions as a carbon sink is used as a springboard for recommendations on ways Latin America could help control global warming...
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