Cell Phone Recycling in Brazil Weak?
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008Last month Nokia publicized the results of a survey it commissioned of 6,500 consumers in 13 nations, among them Brazil (the only LAC nation included). By now you know the drill — this is The Temas Blog, so we care mostly about the LAC nation involved and very little about the other 12! [Besides, I […]
The High-Level Caribbean Sustainable Energy Seminar
Thursday, July 31st, 2008Temas Observation: This seminar is a follow-up to the meeting held in Guyana last year, where some of the same promises were made. Let’s hope that not another year must pass before something more concrete emerges from this initiative. ________________________ From the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB): Plans to unleash the Caribbean region’s renewable energy potential […]
Five LAC Nations Picked for Forest Carbon Partnership Facility
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008In a recent post on the growing list of international carbon finance sources available to nations of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), I mentioned the new Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) recently created by the World Bank designed to combat deforestation and climate change at the same time. The Facility essentially will help developing […]
Tire Mountains as a Border Issue
Monday, July 14th, 2008If you you’re not a waste specialist (“garbologist”) or waste nut (like me), then you might have missed this one or not understood its significance even if you did hear of it. End-of-life (EOL) tires — called “scrap tires” by industry but often referred to as “waste tires” by regulators — have bedeviled environmental authorities […]
State of the North American Environment
Saturday, June 21st, 2008The North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has just released a “state of the environment” (SOE) report entitled The North American Mosiac (English, Spanish, French). The CEC is the main vehicle for environmental cooperation between Canada, Mexico and the US, and as I stated in a prior post, like it or not, Mexico has […]
Future Environmental Challenges for Mexico and its North American Partners
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008Whether or not you perceive it as a good thing, Mexico long ago decided to link its environmental policymaking to that of its two partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canada and the United States. The main vehicle for their collaboration is the Montreal-based North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC). CEC […]
Aluminum Recycling Reconsidered
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007A Sixth Year as Aluminum Can Recycling Champion The Brazilian Aluminum Association (ABAL) recently announced that Brazil recycled 139,100 metric tons (Mt) of aluminum cans (about 10.3 billion cans) in 2006 for a recycling rate of 94.4%, assuring the first-place position for Brazil for the sixth year in a row, ahead of Argentina, Japan, Switzerland, […]
Quiz: Who is 5-Time World Champion Recycler of Aluminum Cans?
Saturday, January 13th, 2007Brazil is five times champion of what? Well, yeah, football (futbol, or soccer as my American friends insist on calling it). But something else too: Brazil has led the world in recycling aluminum cans five years in a row (so it is not a anomaly or “blip”!). In 2005 Brazil recycled 96.2%, higher than Japan […]
Hearts and Minds in LAC II: What LAC Thinks About CVD
Friday, November 3rd, 2006Trying to Find the Story Behind the Story Behind LAC’s CVD In Part I of “Hearts and Minds in LAC,” I expressed surprise that World Heart Day did not receive greater attention in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations, given the region’s problem with cardiovascular disease (CVD). I also admitted that I myself had not […]