Brazil’s state oil company, Petrobras, has pioneered a refining process whereby cleaner, high-quality diesel fuel can be made through the reaction of petroleum and vegetable oils. The new diesel is made by using hydrogen to process a mixture of 10%-18% soy oil and 82%-90% petroleum in a catalytic cracker. Brazil plans to tap its vast supply of soybeans to make the new fuel, which is named H-Bio because hydrogen is used as a reagent, or catalyst. The fuel differs from the B-2 biodiesel already being produced and sold at the pumps. (See “Brazil adding biodiesel to its fuels mix”—EcoAméricas, July ’04). B-2 biodiesel consists of 98% conventional diesel fuel and 2% biofuel made from vegetable oil and a...
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Extreme weather—in some cases downpours, in others searing heat—have wreaked havoc on Mexico’s northern border in recent weeks. In Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state, torrential rains triggered floods and forced the evacuation of thousands of people, with at least six people reportedly dying in the transnational Ciudad Juárez-El Paso area due to storm-related causes. Crews in Ciudad Juárez pumped out stagnant pools of water to prevent outbreaks of mosquito-borne disease. According to Elisa Aguilar, the Mexican health coordinator for the binational Border Health Commission, no epidemics were immediately reported, but at least one case of West Nile virus was registered in neighboring El Paso, Texas. Félix Pérez, Ciudad Juárez representative for the Rio Bravo Environmentalist Alliance, blames the border city’s development...
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Pascua Lama, a massive gold mine planned for the Chilean- Argentine border, faces continued challenges in Chile despite winning a key environmental approval in June. The US$1.5 billion project by Canadian mining company Barrick Gold won the approval June 12 of Chile’s lead environmental agency—the National Environment Commission (Conama). Conama gave its assent after reviewing 46 separate appeals filed by green groups and residents of the Huasco Valley, a Chilean agricultural region downstream of the Andean project site. But Barrick still faces hurdles. Lawsuits by opponents are in the works to challenge the Conama approval. And just a week after Conama’s decision, a civil court here invalidated Barrick’s mining rights to a majority of its land, returning them to their previous owner. Barrick...
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Peru’s capital is parched, polluted and choking on the exhaust of a growing number of automobiles, according to a new report by the UN Environment Program (Unep). Nevertheless, there is increasing environmental awareness on the part of Lima’s eight million-plus residents, and the sprawling city would have a greener future if steps were taken to address the problems. Unep’s Global Environment Outlook (GEO) for Lima and Callao, the two-city metropolis where a third of Peru’s people live, studies environmental problems and recommends ways to address them. Of all problems studied, water was “the most critical,” says Renée Larivière, technical director of the study, done by Unep and the non-profit Grupo GEA in Lima. Says Larivière: “Though air quality is not good, action...
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