A report by Mexico’s population-growth monitoring agency attributes many of the country’s gravest socioeconomic problems to ecological damage. The report was published last month by the government-run National Population Council as part of a study of population and development in Mexico from 1994 to 2003. It presents a laundry list of Mexican environmental ills and suggests that many of the country’s principal population challenges—especially tumultuous internal and international migration patterns and increasing poverty—are in large part a product of those problems. The report’s findings are particularly notable coming from a group not normally preoccupied with environmental monitoring and, some say, a sign that the Mexican government may be realizing the serious impact ecological problems are having on many aspects of the...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
A leading Brazilian insurer, Unibanco AIG, has begun offering the country’s first comprehensive corporate environmental liability insurance. Though no policies have been issued yet, Unibanco says it is reviewing a number of company requests for coverage. Currently, companies in such pollution-prone sectors as oil, petrochemicals, chemicals, pulp and paper, textiles and mining have a form of insurance that covers pollution that occurs and can be contained within a 72-hour period. But they don’t have protection from liability for so-called gradual pollution that occurs over longer periods, says Unibanco product manager Luis Nagamine. “Our environmental insurance covers a company that is prone to causing both sudden, accidental pollution, like a quickly-contained chemical spill, and prone to causing gradual pollution, like that involving...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Mexico will release a long-awaited report on corn and biodiversity on Nov. 20, the country’s Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (Semarnat) says. The report, a study of environmental effects of transgenic corn in Mexico, was ordered by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and had been expected to be released last June. The tri-lateral agency, which oversees the environmental side-agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), has offered no explanation for the five-month delay. But Canadian and U.S. officials say their governments still are reviewing the report. Questions about the impact in Mexico of genetically altered corn have loomed since studies three years ago confirmed that bioengineered genes had found their way into some Mexican corn. (See “GM strains...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Mexico City’s biggest landfill has been granted a controversial new lease on life. The dump, called El Bordo Poniente, had been judged by federal authorities to have reached capacity in July and as such would no longer be serviceable as the primary landfill for the capital area. The news upset some officials in Mexico City and surrounding Mexico state because neither jurisdiction has viable alternatives. The area’s other principal dumps are all near capacity and could not handle the 12,000 tons of trash delivered daily to El Bordo for disposal. But after heated debate, Mexican Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Alberto Cárdenas last month approved a proposal to add a second level to El Bordo so use of the landfill could be extended for a...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
