Green advocates in Argentina have scored an early-round legal win in their campaign to prevent the importation of spent nuclear fuel from an Argentine-built nuclear-research reactor in Australia. Waste produced by a new research reactor that Argentina’s state-controlled high-technology company Invap has built for the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (Ansto), was to have been vitrified in Argentina if Ansto requests it and returned to Australia for disposal. But a three-judge federal appeals panel in the Argentine city of Bahía Blanca has issued an order prohibiting the arrangement, which Ansto has not yet sought to use. The decision, made public last month, reverses a lower court’s rejection of a complaint that a green activist filed to challenge the...
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Brazil’s Mines and Energy Ministry and São Paulo’s Metropolitan Urban Transport Company (Emtu) have launched a US$16 million pilot project to put five hybrid buses into operation by 2009 that will be powered by rechargeable batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. Meanwhile, the agency also is developing catalytic converters for its buses to cut down on particulate emissions. The buses, which will get 70% of their power from fuel cells and 30% from batteries, will be the first of their kind to be used commercially in Latin America, says Marcio Schettino, an Emtu manager heading the project. The effort, to include construction of a hydrogen production plant, is being funded with US$12.3 million from the Global Environment Facility, a multilateral funder of green projects...
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An Amazon indigenous community’s Brazil-nut harvesting plans have resulted in environmental certification of the largest swath of tropical forest ever under standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), developer of the world’s foremost green seal for sustainable forestry. A 120-member Kayapó indigenous community’s plans to harvest Brazil nuts on its 3.7-million-acre (1.5-million-ha) reserve in the Brazilian state of Pará were declared in compliance with FSC standards Oct. 17 by two certifiers—The Rainforest Alliance, a U.S.-based green group, and the Brazil-based Institute of Forestry and Agricultural Management and Certification (Imaflora). Sustainable-forestry criteria developed by the FSC, a nonprofit based in Bonn, Germany, currently are being used in over 57 countries. The Kayapó community, part of...
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Despite recent torrential rains, long-term drought forecasts continue to raise questions about the adequacy of water supplies along the U.S.-Mexican border. Looming water scarcities in the fast-growing region are prompting various binational initiatives involving government agencies and civil society groups. For instance, under legislation sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and passed by the U.S. Senate, funding would be provided to improve mapping of trans-boundary groundwater supplies. The bill, approved in the Senate last year, awaits action in the U.S. House. With assistance from Washington, Mexican municipalities are implementing conservation, recycling and possible privatization measures to save water. This fall, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza traveled to the Mexican border cities of Nuevo Laredo and Ciudad Juárez...
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