EcoWorldly

A professor in Brazil is helping to bring solar powered wireless internet to communities in need. The low-cost “access point in a box” he has created needs no internet connection, electricity, or assembly to function. It is being tested on lamp posts in a number of locations. Innovations such as these are becoming more common around the world, and are leveling the economic playing field and creating countless benefits for people who could otherwise not pay for the internet.

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Brazil’s government seems to be doing anything they can to take on the challenge of deforestation and global warming in their country. What is not clear is whether or not these efforts are being made wholeheartedly, or simply as an obligatory exercise.

Brazil possesses a large portion of the world-important Amazon Rainforest, and therefore their attention to the issues of deforestation and global warming is crucial. Earlier this year they opened a $23 million international fund to assist with conservation programs in the Amazon– but said that no strings would be attached. So far Norway is the only country to have donated money to the fund. They say they will donate more, but only if progress is achieved.

Now Brazil’s government has made an even gutsier move– they say they will end deforestation in their country by 2015. The only problem: they don’t have any new plans for how to do it– only old ones that don’t really address the issue of protecting Amazon ecosystems. Read the rest of this entry »

German biologists have discovered an hitherto unknown ant species, believed to be the oldest on the planet, deep in the Amazon rain forest.

Field researchers from Karlsruhe’s Natural History Museum who made the discovery near Manaus, Brazil, say the species, which resembles miniature wasps and looks like no other, may date back around 120 million years, according to Reuters.

Martialis heureka, nicknamed the “Ant from Mars” due to its unusual features and heureka from its surprising discovery, the ants themselves are eyeless, pale in color, subterranean, and predatory, according to Wikipedia.

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Brazil’s government is pushing hard to position Brazil high on the list of the world’s leading energy providers. In addition to being one of the world’s principal ethanol producers, Brazil is also funding research for biofuels, planning to build new hydro and thermoelectric dams, and will now be drilling for oil in recently discovered reserves that are located off of Brazil’s coast. This is reported to be the 2nd largest oil deposit discovered worldwide in the past 20 years.

Brazil, nonetheless, does not feel entirely sure that other countries in the world will not stake claim to this newly found oil as well. For this reason, they have chosen to stage a military war game of sorts, to intimidate other countries from making a play for the oil. The planned exercise will involve 20 ships, 9,000 troops, and up to fifty aircraft. Read the rest of this entry »

Several weeks ago, the International Herald Tribune reported that Brazil will lend some hydroelectric power to its neighboring country of Uruguay during July and August of this year, the coldest months of South America’s winter. Uruguay, like many South American countries, is currently struggling to meet its energy needs.

Under the arrangement, Uruguay will begin to pay back the energy to Brazil once the winter demand for electrical heating ends. For the past four years, similar arrangements have been made. Brazil is currently in negotiations with Uruguay to build a coal-powered thermoelectric plant near where the countries border. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I find this rather simple news story intriguing. Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva headlined an event to officially launch a new international fund that will raise money to protect the Amazon Rainforest. “We are conscious of what the Amazon represents for the world… It’s better for the country’s image to do things right, so we can walk in international forums with our heads high,” Lula pontificated.

It is hoped that the fund will raise up to 21 billion dollars over the next 13 years from nations around the world. Norway has already chipped in, pledging 100 million dollars to kick things off. Brazil has made it clear though that donations are only being accepted with a condition of no strings being attached. In other words, countries that donate money will have no say over how the money is used. Read the rest of this entry »

Of nearly 2,000 Americans responding to a survey by The Regional Economist magazine of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis zero percent say they favor lifting import tariffs on ethanol. That opinion bodes badly for lifting the $0.54 a gallon tariff on Brazilian ethanol made from sugar cane. This view reflects America’s new dream of energy independence. But is it wise or even ethical for America to shut its doors to Brazil’s hottest new fuel?

Without Brazil, Can America Reduce Gas Consumption 20% Over Ten Years?

This ambitious “twenty-in-ten” gasoline reduction is the Bush administration’s goal. But without Brazil’s ethanol it may be an uphill battle. With US corn setting record prices this year, it’s no surprise ethanol made from US corn is $2.90 a gallon while ethanol from Brazilian sugar cane is less than half the price at $1.40 a gallon. Even after the tariff, Brazil’s ethanol would be almost a dollar a gallon cheaper than ethanol produced domestically from corn.

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Just like in Peter Matthiessen’s classic book At Play in the Fields of the Lord, the gut reaction of several tribal members living in a remote area of the Amazon Rainforest was to shoot arrows at what was most likely the first plane they had ever seen passing by. You can see this yourself in one of the amazing photographs taken recently by the Brazilian government’s office of Indian Affairs. Read the rest of this entry »

In the midst of the global food crisis, biofuels have been named as a probable culprit in driving the cost of food high up out of the reach of the world’s poor. New laws have just come into force in the United Kingdom requiring that all petrol and diesel be at least 2.5 per cent biofuel.

That target is expected to increase to five per cent by 2010 as part of efforts to make transport fuels more environmentally friendly. United States has just surpassed Brazil as the world’s largest producer of ethanol fuel.

The increased demand for biofuels from the world’s richer nations is being partly blamed for the skyrocketing food prices. Farmland that was once used to grow crops to feed people is now growing fuel for cars.

Here are (some of) the world’s biggest biofuel plants, including those in the pipeline, by production:

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Following are the top international environmental news for during the week of April 13 - 20. See an archive of top international environmental news here.

Asia

Two “Extinct” Species Discovered

First there was Swinshoe’s softshell turtle, and then the Javan Elephant. Is this more commonplace than we might believe?

Frankly, no. Despite the occasional hubbub over an animal science has lost track of– say, the Coelacanth– we’ve witnessed something extraordinary. Swinshoe’s turtle was previously believed to be extinct in the wild, with only three remaining in captivity, and therefore every one of these 300-pound turtles is a critical find.

Continue reading: Environmental Graffiti. Hot in media: Stumble Upon.

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