Stephen Leahy* – Tierramérica
TORONTO, Nov 11 2006 (IPS) – Skin cancer, eye lesions and other infections are on the rise, a reminder that the Antarctic ozone hole continues to be a serious problem, especially for southern Argentina and Chile, where ultraviolet radiation during the spring months increases 25 percent.
The ozone layer covers the entire planet at an altitude of between 15 and 30 kilometres, and protects living organisms from the sun s harmful rays.
According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the dramatic thinning of the ozone layer over the Antarctic an annual phenomenon sprawled to an average of 29.5 million square kilometres Sep. 21 to Sep. 30.
This year s Antarctic ozone hole is the largest on record, said Ac…
IPS Correspondents
WASHINGTON, Dec 7 2006 (IPS) – The World Bank s own auditing arm has confirmed what many anti-poverty campaigners have long been saying: the Bank s projects did not adequately reduce poverty levels in borrowing nations over the past five years.
In a report Thursday, the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) said that the Bank has focused too narrowly on economic growth, leaving unemployment and poverty rates to stagnate or worsen.
The Bank has helped many countries to get onto a growth path through improved economic management, but the growth strategies have not always helped enough to improve job opportunities and living conditions of the poor, the IEG said in its study, titled the Annual Review of Development Effectiveness 2006: Getting Results .
Diógenes Pina * Special to IPS
BAJOS DE HAINA, Dominican Republic, Jan 26 2007 (IPS) – The trees are finally green again in Paraíso de Dios since a car battery recycling plant, which produced a kind of foggy mist, like when it rains, was relocated. But years later, children continue to be born with high levels of lead in their blood.
Paraíso de Dios (God s Paradise), a neighbourhood in the town of Bajos de Haina, 20 km west of the capital of the Dominican Republic, was included on the New York-based Blacksmith Institute s list of the world s 10 most polluted places, released in October 2006.
The culprit was Metaloxa, a battery recycling smelter that operated for 20 years in the area without complying with any environmental standards or controls. Studies have found …
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Stephen Leahy
BROOKLIN, Canada, Feb 20 2007 (IPS) – Factory farms are responsible for both the bird flu and emissions of greenhouse gases that now top those of cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs), according to a report released Monday.
Sixty percent of global livestock production, including chicken and pig confined animal feedlot operations (CAFOs), now occur in the developing world. Unregulated zoning and subsidies that encourage these CAFOs or factory farms are moving closer to major urban areas in China, Bangladesh, India, and many countries in Africa, said the report, Vital Signs 2007-2008 by the Worldwatch Institute.
Although there is no definitive scientific proof, those farms are very likely where avian or bird flu started and will continue to be responsible…
Mithre J. Sandrasagra
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 29 2007 (IPS) – A new treaty designed to promote and protect the rights of the world s 650 million persons with disabilities opens for signature at the United Nations on Friday.
At its core, the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ensures that persons with disabilities enjoy the same human rights as everyone else, and are able to lead their lives as fully-fledged citizens who can make valuable contributions to society.
Once the convention is ratified, We will no longer be objects of charity and pity, Thomas Schindlmayr, a U.N. disability expert, told reporters here Thursday.
Just two days ago, because of my impairment, I would have had severe limitations here there was no ramp to the podium, Schindlm…
Emad Mekay
WASHINGTON, May 4 2007 (IPS) – Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon are warning the U.S. oil giant Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) that it could soon face a lawsuit in the United States if it fails to clean up toxic waste in their tropical rainforest.
A new report charges that Oxy #39s operations for three decades on the border between Peru and Ecuador have caused indigenous Achuar children to suffer from high concentrations of lead and cadmium in their blood, believed to cause serious developmental problems.
Previous studies by the Peruvian government have made similar findings.
We have told Oxy this week that they must talk with us in good faith about how they are going to clean up the toxic waste they left in our rainforest, said spiritual e…
Kester Kenn Klomegah
MOSCOW, Jun 8 2007 (IPS) – The industrialised nations of the Group of Eight are failing on the promises made in their previous summits to help Africa s economic development and to push for poverty alleviation for those struggling to survive on less than a dollar per day, say World Bank experts and development activists.
It s obvious to the whole world that G8 member countries are not fully delivering on their promises to Africa and nobody holds them accountable for those lapses, Eric Kilongi Mgendi, regional spokesperson for the development campaign group ActionAid, told IPS in an interview from Nairobi, Kenya.
African countries badly need technology and investment capital to help them adapt to all kinds of environmental hazards, including the c…