Reviewing a landmark rainforest-pollution judgment against Chevron, a three-judge panel of Ecuador’s National Court of Justice this month upheld a provincial court’s finding against the oil giant but cut the damages nearly in half, lowering them from US$19 billion to $9.51 billion. The original judgment, rendered by Sucumbíos provincial court on Feb. 14, 2011, docked Chevron $9.6 billion in environmental and other damages. Punitive damages were then added, boosting the award to $19 billion, when Chevron failed to meet a court deadline for apologizing publicly. In this month’s National Court of Justice ruling, issued on Nov. 13, judges Wilson Andino, Paulina Aguirre and Eduardo Bermúdez decided a cassation appeal in which Chevron sought to throw out the provincial court’s judgment. Though they...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Since the turn of the century South America has registered some of the greatest deforestation increases and some of the greatest reductions, a new study shows. While deforestation slowed in Brazil more than in other parts of the global tropics from 2000 to 2012, tree loss was high in the Chaco dry forest in Paraguay and Bolivia, according to the study, published Nov. 15 in the journal Science. The study is accompanied by an online Google map with pixels color-coded to show worldwide forest cover year by year, as well as the aggregate change for the 12 years. Zooming in from the global to local scale on the map, a user “can realize the human footprint on forests, and natural drivers as well,” Matthew...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
A coalition of environmental organizations and other nongovernmental groups are warning that Mexico’s ongoing debate over energy reform has shortsightedly focused on fossil fuels alone, ignoring the role of renewable energy. President Enrique Peña Nieto has proposed changing Mexico’s constitution to allow private investment in drilling for oil and gas, which is now restricted to the state-owned monopoly Petróleos Mexicanos. The administration argues that private capital and know-how are needed to exploit non-conventional sources of energy, particularly deepwater oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico and natural gas in shale-rock formations. But the coalition, called the Financing Group for Climate Change, argues that the proposal does not provide a way for Mexico to meet its commitments under the 2012 climate-change...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Panama’s National Assembly has passed a law to reopen a controversial, open-pit gold mine in the central-western province of Veraguas. The mine not only served as a crucial source of employment when it operated in the late 1990s, but was blamed by local inhabitants for toxic cyanide spills and numerous other environmental and health problems. The law, passed Oct. 30 and signed Nov. 7 by President Ricardo Martinelli, provides an exclusive 20-year contract and generous tax incentives to Vera Gold, a Panamanian corporation. The company plans to begin exploiting 1.1 million ounces in gold reserves soon at the Santa Rosa mine, which is about 300 kilometers (185 miles) southwest of Panama City. Santa Rosa, previously owned by a Canadian consortium, opened in...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
