Ahead of Brazil’s Oct. 31 presidential runoff the buzz was less about who’d win—pollsters favored Dilma Rousseff, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s choice—than about the strong, third-place finish of Green Party candidate Marina Silva in the first-round vote. Silva’s strong showing in the Oct. 3 first round left political pundits wondering whether she would stay neutral in the runoff or back runner-up José Serra and tighten the race. Amid intense speculation, she ultimately announced she would not. Silva, who pollsters had thought would finish far behind Rousseff and Serra in the first round with 9% to 10% of the vote, wound up receiving a hefty 19.3%. Though she was knocked out of contention by virtue of winding up third...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
The United States, Costa Rica and the Nature Conservancy environmental group have agreed to cooperate in a 15-year, US$27 million debt-for-nature swap aimed at helping the Central American country create a “complete and integrated” protected-areas system. In return for the debt reduction, Costa Rica has committed to steer the freed-up funds to the private-public conservation initiative Forever Costa Rica to assess conservation needs in three areas. The areas are mangrove swamps on the Osa Peninsula; land along the Naranjo and Savegre rivers in western Costa Rica; and La Amistad park along the Panama border, a region that houses 90% of the country’s known plant species. The U.S. government gave US$19.6 million in debt relief under the deal...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
It’s one thing to pass an environmental measure and another to enforce it. Confusion surrounding a Mexico City ordinance to cut down on the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags appears to be proving the point. Put into effect in August 2009 after being passed by the city legislative assembly, the measure makes it illegal for grocers and other vendors in the Mexican capital to distribute non-biodegradable bags to customers for free. Alternatively, vendors can hand out biodegradable bags or charge for regular ones. Stores were given a year to prepare for the change. As of August of this year, those failing to comply were liable for arrest, 36-hour jail terms and fines of up to 20,000 days of the minimum wage, or...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
The Mexico City Environment Secretariat has earmarked 9 million pesos (US$700,000) over three years to build roof gardens on public buildings. Evelyn Pichardo, an architect who works on the project in the environment department, estimates that buildings in the city center whose roofs sometimes reach temperatures of 60 degrees Celsius rarely ticked above 24 degrees once the technique was in place. Using a process that it says has been employed in Germany for decades, the city and some private companies have turned the tops of buildings green by putting down a layer of waterproof and anti-rooting material on the roof’s surface, followed by a drainage layer, a filter and then earth and the plants themselves. The flowering succulent genus sedum is the source...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
