UNEP/CARICOM: Drastic Climate Change Consequences for Insular Caribbean / PNUMA/CARICOM: drásticas consecuencias por cambio climático en el Caribe Insular
Saturday, December 27th, 2008Although this report (English only) was finished in October, it was formally unveiled at the global climate change talks in Poland in November, but did not get much media play because of all the other actions, initiatives, reports and declarations made in Poznan at the same time. But it deserves much more attention and hopefully […]
Progress Towards the Health MDGs in LAC / Progreso hacia los ODM relacionado con la salud en ALC
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008Recently 14 United Nations (UN) agencies* released a report (English, Spanish) reviewing the status of efforts of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations toward meeting the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The report addresses the following health-specific MDGs: reducing the under-five mortality rate by 2/3 between 1990 and 2015; reducing the maternal mortality ratio by […]
Dominica Commits to Geothermal
Sunday, October 19th, 2008From the Government of Dominica: Dominica Forging Ahead With Geothermal Resource Development The Government of Dominica in collaboration with the European Union, The Regional Council of Guadeloupe, the Agence Francaise de Developpement and other French development partners is forging head with plans to exploit the country’s geothermal resource. This information came to light at the […]
Past as Prologue for Caribbean Reefs?
Friday, June 13th, 2008Earlier this year the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published a report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) assessing the state of the Caribbean’s coral reefs after their toughest year in recent history, 2005. The IOC is the lead international entity assessing and reporting […]
Dengue on the Rise Again / Dengue Avance de Nuevo
Friday, October 12th, 2007If you’ve ever had dengue before, you can testify to its agony. My wife got it from a mosquito while we lived in Santo Domingo in the late 1990s, and for a week she experienced fiery pain in every joint and muscle, a steady headache and fever that will not respond to any medicines. She […]
Eco-Certification for Tourism: The Role of Blue Flag, Part III
Friday, July 27th, 2007It’s been gently pointed out to me that I have yet to post Part III, the listing of beaches and marinas in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) that have been awarded the Blue Flag, that I promised in Part II of the Blue Flag series back in December. Oops. I had prepared a list […]
Combatting Deforestation I: How Bad Is It in LAC?
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007In my “confession and foreword” to the series on deforestation in LAC, I promised to begin with a look at the current state of knowledge about the rate and magnitude of deforestation in in the region. Here is my stab at this topic, building on an entry I originally sketched out last November regarding the […]
Bush Asks Senate to Ratify Caribbean Pact on Marine Pollution
Tuesday, March 13th, 2007Been meaning to get this out for nearly three weeks! This is actually rare good international environment news from the Bush White House. Implementation of the 1983 Cartagena Convention's 1999 Protocol on Pollution from Land-based Sources and Activities (LBS) has been hampered by US hesitation to ratify the Protocol. The LBS, in fact, has not […]