Guatemala’s Lake Amatitlán historically has suffered from inflows of trash discarded near its shores and in the watershed of the Villalobos River, which empties into it. Now large quantities of discarded latex gloves and masks used for protection from the novel coronavirus are winding up in the lake as well, posing a new threat to wildlife. Amatitlán, a popular central highlands getaway just 16 miles (25 kms) south of Guatemala City, has long had to contend with influxes of trash. But workers involved in routine cleanup of the lake say that in early April, after the first rain of the year, they began noticing a change in the composition of waste entering the water body. “The quarantine changed consumption habits, but poor waste practices remained the same,” says Omar Orellana, director of the Authority for the Sustainable Management of Lake Amatitlán. “We used to see a lot of soda and...
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Nearly three quarters of tropical forests—particularly those in South America—will lose their carbon-storage capacity much faster than currently if global average temperatures increase by two degrees Celsius (C) above pre-industrial levels, according to a study published last month. That, the study says, would curb the potential of these forests to mitigate climate change. The greatest reductions in carbon stocks are projected in South America because its current temperatures are higher than those of other continents, says the study, published in May in the journal Science. The study shows that tropical forests can now store high levels of carbon as long as maximum temperatures do not exceed 32.2 degrees C. But the forests’ storage capacity would drop dramatically if global average temperatures increase by 2 degrees C over pre-industrial levels, or roughly 1 degree higher than they’ve risen already. That’s because a two-degree average increase...
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Angry Mexican farmers in the border town of Ojinaga, Chihuahua, held a group of Mexican government officials overnight and torched their three vehicles this month in the latest protest of treaty-mandated water deliveries from Mexico to the United States. In the June 8-9 incident, farmers held officials including Juan Carlos Loera, the Chihuahua delegate of the Mexican Welfare Secretariat, after becoming upset with them in a discussion about the water transfers. The farmers objected to the transfer of water from Chihuahua’s El Granero Reservoir to Texas’ lower Rio Grande Valley as stipulated by the 1944 Mexico-U.S. border-river treaty. Similar confrontations took place earlier this year in Chihuahua, with farmers protesting water extraction from another reservoir in the state, La Boquilla. Located on the Rio Conchos, a tributary of the Rio Grande, El Granero and La Boquilla reservoirs are important sources of so-called treaty water that Mexico...
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Scientists and environmental advocates in Uruguay expressed great relief in April following the annulment of a 2018 decree prohibiting dissemination of water-resource research without government approval. But the relief turned to alarm when it was discovered that an early-action bill drafted by Uruguay’s new government includes a provision that would dramatically alter policy on protected areas. The initial good news came on April 13, when the new administration of President Luis Lacalle Pou announced it was voiding the water-research decree, which drew widespread criticism when it was issued two years ago. (See "Uruguayan researchers decry imposition of 'Muzzle Decree'" —EcoAméricas, July 2018.) The original measure put government-funded research having to do with hydrobiology, water quality, marine biology and aquatic resources under the control of the Uruguayan Ministry of Ranching, Agriculture and Fishing (MGAP). In reversing...
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