Vehicle Pollution in São Paulo Quadruples Risk of Death
Saturday, March 7th, 2009Vehicle emissions indirectly kill 20 people per day in the São Paulo metropolitan region, according to a study reported in the daily Folha de São Paulo done by the Air Pollution Laboratory of the University of São Paulo’s (USP) Faculty of Medicine (FM). The study was commissioned by the Brazilian Health Ministry (MS) and has […]
Minas Moves to Improve Air Quality
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008Synopsis in English: The State Environment Foundation (FEAM) of Minas Gerais (MG) is upgrading its monitoring of air quality in this key Brazilian state. All its automated measurements will be conducted around the clock 365 days a year, with results accessible via the internet soon to be more frequent than daily. This includes new monitoring […]
¿Se recupera el aire bogotano? / Is Bogotá’s Air Recovering?
Friday, November 28th, 2008Bogotá’s environment authority, SDA, just issued a release declaring that the city’s air is getting better. Their evidence that is so? First, that the sulfur content in diesel fuel sold in the capital has fallen from 500 parts per million (ppm) this past July to 231 ppm in October. They attribute the drop to the […]
A Sustainable Energy Plan for Barbados?
Tuesday, February 27th, 2007In an earlier article, I looked at the sustainability of Brazil’s long-range energy plans. Today I examine Barbados’ recently announced 20-year plans. The government of Prime Minister Owen Arthur recently presented to Parliament a ambitious draft national energy plan that has numerous environmental elements in it. While some have applauded its stated intentions — reduction […]
Recycling Coconuts II: Need Anything Be Wasted?
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006In Part I I looked at how some projects have sprung up in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to convert those “empty” coconut husks discarded after agua de coco is served or bottled/packaged into useful products, such as flower pots, plant basket liners or “growing walls.” But the market potential for such products may […]
Quantifying the Health Impact of Poor Environmental Management
Wednesday, September 6th, 2006The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) recently released an interesting report on the linkages between environmental conditions and public health. It should be required reading for health, environment and aid officials and policymakers in all nations, but particularly in developing nations such as those in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). It certainly will be […]