City health report prompts showdown with Shell

December 2001

Brazil

City health report prompts showdown with Shell

Brazilian municipalities typically leave environmental-health questions to state or federal authorities. But Paulínia, a small city northwest of São Paulo, departed from that pattern this ......

Guatemala

As Petén highway plans surface, so do objections

The engineers showed up six months ago unannounced, conducting surveys in the Maya Biosphere Reserve here in Guatemala’s northern department of Petén. Next, copies of a ......

Mexico

Mexico wrestles with growing piles of PET

World economic developments, coupled with inefficiencies here in the collection of recyclables, are leaving Mexican trash-sorting centers awash in a rising tide of plastic bottles. The ......

Argentina

Opponents of nuclear deal force hearings

Argentine green groups are applauding a decision by the lower house of Congress to suspend consideration of legislation that would allow spent nuclear-fuel rods from ......

Paraguay

Pilcomayo’s silting, drought hurting habitat

Born in the Bolivian highlands, the Pilcomayo River gnaws at crumbling Andean hillsides as it descends southeast. Eventually, it flows onto the plains of Paraguay. That’s ......

Around the Region

Brazil breathes new life into plan for third reactor

Brazil’s National Energy Policy Council (CNPE) this month authorized financial and environmental studies in connection with a proposed $2.5 billion project to build the country’s ......

Centerpiece (Free Read)

Green factor enters Chile’s timber equation

Six years ago, the head of the Chilean Central Bank’s environmental accounting department, Marcel Claude, released an unsettling report on the state of Chile’s native ......

Q&A

A voice for cost control—of the environmental variety

Marcel Claude heads the Terram Foundation, which he founded in 1997. Terram is a sustainable-development think tank that seeks to educate the Chilean public about ......

City health report prompts showdown with Shell

Brazil

Brazilian municipalities typically leave environmental-health questions to state or federal authorities. But Paulínia, a small city northwest of São Paulo, departed from that pattern this year by checking up on a neighborhood near a pesticide plant formerly operated by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch/Shell. The result has been a bitter debate about whether residents’ health is at risk. Fueling the disagreement is a city-funded health report concluding that some of the 200 inhabitants of the neighborhood, Recanto dos Passaros, have organochlorines and other toxins in their blood. Based on the report, São Paulo state’s public health department (CVS) has recommended all residents be relocated. Says Elizeu Diniz, acting director of CVS: “The report’s findings, which are based on sound methodology, show there... [Log in to read more]

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December 2001

Brazil

City health report prompts showdown with Shell

Brazilian municipalities typically leave environmental-health questions to state or federal authorities. But Paulínia, a small city northwest of São Paulo, departed from that pattern this ......

Guatemala

As Petén highway plans surface, so do objections

The engineers showed up six months ago unannounced, conducting surveys in the Maya Biosphere Reserve here in Guatemala’s northern department of Petén. Next, copies of a ......

Mexico

Mexico wrestles with growing piles of PET

World economic developments, coupled with inefficiencies here in the collection of recyclables, are leaving Mexican trash-sorting centers awash in a rising tide of plastic bottles. The ......

Argentina

Opponents of nuclear deal force hearings

Argentine green groups are applauding a decision by the lower house of Congress to suspend consideration of legislation that would allow spent nuclear-fuel rods from ......

Paraguay

Pilcomayo’s silting, drought hurting habitat

Born in the Bolivian highlands, the Pilcomayo River gnaws at crumbling Andean hillsides as it descends southeast. Eventually, it flows onto the plains of Paraguay. That’s ......

Around the Region

Brazil breathes new life into plan for third reactor

Brazil’s National Energy Policy Council (CNPE) this month authorized financial and environmental studies in connection with a proposed $2.5 billion project to build the country’s ......

Centerpiece (Free Read)

Green factor enters Chile’s timber equation

Six years ago, the head of the Chilean Central Bank’s environmental accounting department, Marcel Claude, released an unsettling report on the state of Chile’s native ......

Q&A

A voice for cost control—of the environmental variety

Marcel Claude heads the Terram Foundation, which he founded in 1997. Terram is a sustainable-development think tank that seeks to educate the Chilean public about ......