The State of LAC’s Forests
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has just released State of the World’s Forests 2009 (English, Spanish), the latest update of its annual overview of forest resources worldwide. While it does not shed significant new light or offer new data on forest cover and the state of deforestation in Latin America and the Caribbean […]
Latins Recognized for Tobacco Control Efforts
Thursday, March 12th, 2009At the 14th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health (WCTOH) held this week in Mumbai, India, two sets of awards were given this week in international recognition of exemplary tobacco control efforts. In both sets Latin Americans figured prominently. The first set, announced on 09 March, were the Bloomberg Awards for Global Tobacco Control given […]
Uruguay Launches Campaign Against Plastic Bags
Monday, March 9th, 2009It’s beginning to look like Uruguay will be the next Latin American jurisdiction to take aim at plastic bags. Uruguay’s Minister of Housing, Zoning and Environment Carlos Colacce, with the British Ambassador at his side, announced today the launch of a media campaign on the responsible use of plastic bags to be known as “Sacá […]
Tienda Inglesa Helps Uruguay Eliminate Mercury Thermometers
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009Last year I posted about Health Care Without Harm‘s (Coalición Salud Sin Daño) campaign to get the health care sector in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to get mercury-containing medical instruments [primarily thermometers and sphygmomanometers (blood pressure monitors)] out of hospitals, clinics and homes. At that time, they were primarily having success in Argentina. […]
Bolivia Bans Dozens of Pesticides, Activists Call for Rest of LAC to Follow
Monday, February 2nd, 2009At the close of the meeting of the Latin American section of the Pesticide Action Network (known by its Spanish acronym RAP-AL) in La Paz last week, host country Bolivia announced that it was banning all pesticides with active ingredients classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as extremely (Class 1a) or highly (Class 1b) […]
Now Renewables Have Their Own International Agency
Saturday, January 31st, 2009The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) was created at a founding conference in Bonn, Germany, this week, followed the next day by a short working session of the preparatory commission charged with getting it up-and-running. The brainchild of renewable advocate Germany, with strong backing from Denmark and Spain, IRENA is intended to raise the profile […]
The Ecoclubs Movement in Latin America and the Caribbean
Friday, January 2nd, 2009A couple of years back, while I was working on a series of posts for the Green Team about Dominican cities attempting to come to grips with their litter problems, I ran into some local news posts about how the mayor of La Vega attributed some of his success in cleaning up that city to […]
In 2009 6% of Uruguay’s Electricity will be from Renewable Sources
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008Synopsis in English: Uruguay’s Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM) reports that the share of renewable sources of energy in Uruguay is growing steadily and should reach 6% during 2009, especially since the Nuevo Manantial de Rocha wind power park is joining the National Administration of Electrical Plant s and Transmissions’ (Administración Nacional de […]
MERCOSUR Adopts Guidelines on Promotion, Advertising & Marketing of Pharmaceuticals
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008I’ve said here many times that Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations tend to take seriously the recommendations, guidelines and other soft norms of the World Health Organization (WHO) on any issue involving public health and/or the environment, and I’ve tried to provide a few examples where WHO work has translated into national laws and […]
A Unique GEO for MEROSUR
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008Last month a GEO for the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR or MERCOSUL) was finally unveiled with much fanfare by representatives of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at the meeting of MERCOSUR Environment Ministers. What’s a GEO? It’s probably the best known type of comprehensive environmental diagnosis available. “GEO” was the acronym for “Global […]
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