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According to the Associated Press, the government of Chile has chosen to build three new volcano monitoring centers. Several of the country’s 122 active volcanoes have erupted this year, the most notable event being a sustained eruption of the Chaitén Volcano that started on May 2nd.

After the initial volcanic activity began, approximately 4,500 people were evacuated from the town of Chaitén, which sits at the base of volcano. The eruption lasted through various levels of intensity through July, and several amazing, cool, and intriguing photos depict an electrical storm that occurred one evening directly above the volcano. Currently, a different eruption that commenced on July 2nd within the Llaima Volcano has other Chilean communities on alert. Read the rest of this entry »

Several days ago my family visited one of Lima, Peru’s zoos. On the day before our visit, I wrote about some of my general thoughts and feelings about zoos, in an article titled “Why Zoos Stimulate Our Minds.”

Writing out my thoughts was a sort of preparative exercise, mostly to try to articulate the main dilemma I have with zoos: do the potential education benefits of zoos outweigh the cruelty of caging animals in small spaces that I personally believe typically don’t provide them with fulfilling lives? I still am not sure of the answer, but my trip to the Huachipa Zoo did answer another intriguing question for me. When zoos are bad, would I personally prefer that a bad zoo exist rather than have no zoo at all?

Before I reveal the answer to the aforementioned question, I should explain that my wife and I came up with some criteria for rating zoos. For the purpose of reviewing more zoos in the future, I wanted to have some reasonable means to compare them. Read the rest of this entry »

Political leaders have a key role to play in developing and taking action to combat the world environmental degradation, according to a recent survey of 1,350 professionals in position to make or influence large climate-related decisions in their governments, companies, or other organizations across 120 countries.

The performance of key actors - particularly national governments - has been inadequate to date with rhetoric at much feted climatic conferences over-dominating action states the survey.

Respondents in the survey conducted by the GlobeScan for the World Bank, The World Conservation Union (IUCN), and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), noted that there is currently little consensus on solutions to climate change.

In many parts of the world, the destruction of the environment is a daily reality in spite of the numerous statements that have been made about the terrible state of the environment.

But visionary political leadership can indeed influence a paradigm shift that can promote better treatment of the environment through requisite legal and policy mechanisms, but most importantly through political text that highlights the urgency of the matter followed by action.

As Kenyan Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai succinctly puts it the generation that destroys the environment may not be the one that pays the prize.

It is the future generations that will confront the consequences of today’s destructive activities of the current generation, she says.

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“We have the obligation to lead the renewable energies development here in Chile. Currently we own 50 percent of the electric market and we want to keep this number also for the renewable energies,” said Rafel Mateo, the Chilean manager from Endesa. Endesa Chile, an Endesa Spain subsidiary, will invest 40 million dollars in the first solar power plant in Chile.

The chosen location for the plant is the northern part of Chile, possibly Tarapacá or Antofagasta. The northside of Chile is warm and desert, with sunlight almost all year long. Those attributes make the place ideal for a solar energy plant.

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Argentina will produce massive wind power turbines. This country of South America is using some of the biggest generators with de Eolis-15, that has 1,5 megawatts of power and almost 80 meters tall.

Río Negro and Neuquén, two of the southeast provinces in Argentina, along with the Science and Technology Department from Cutral-Có and Plaza Huincul-both municipalities with oil royalties- have joined each other to develop the wind turbine Eolis-15, designed by Invap to make the most of high speed winds.

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There is no consensus among water analysts on whether there will be global wars over water ownership.

According to UNESCO, globally there are 262 international river basins: 59 in Africa, 52 in Asia, 73 in Europe, 61 in Latin America and the Caribbean and 17 in North America — overall, 145 countries have territories that include at least one shared river basin.

UNESCO states that between 1948 and 1999, there have been 1,831 “international interactions” recorded, including 507 conflicts, 96 neutral or non-significant events and, most importantly, 1,228 instances of cooperation around water-related issues.

As a result, some experts argue that the idea of water wars is rather farfetched given the precedent of water cooperation that has been exhibited by many of the countries around the world.

“Despite the potential problem, history has demonstrated that cooperation, rather than conflict, is likely in shared basins,” says UNESCO.
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Several months ago we told you that the Argentinean government was helping the rural zones with their power problems by installing solar energy. That time we are talking about solar energy kitchens for schools in Jujuy. Currently the government is installing solar cells in the province of Catamarca to empower schools, homes and public dependences.

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On Friday, the website livinginperu.com reported that the people of Lima soon will enjoy the wonders of a new planetarium. This is great news for Peru, as there are currently not many museums, science centers, or other tourist sites in Lima devoted to helping people learn more about nature.

A modern planetarium is an especially terrific asset for the country, as evidence from many of Peru’s archaeological sites suggest that ancient Peruvian peoples used the stars above and our solar system to their benefit. Examples of places where these observations occurred include Machu Picchu and also the site of Chankillo, which is thought to be the site of the most ancient solar observatory in the Americas. Now the people of today’s Peru can also use a special tool to learn about what happens in the skies above. Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday, the International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting came to a close with a whimper. This year’s gathering was held in Chile, and the meeting’s chairperson, United States delegate William Hogarth, made a gutsy and stupid decision. Hogarth wanted to avoid confrontations at this year’s meeting, with the hope of creating good will among countries. He pontificated that this good will could be used to find solutions in the future (not now). Translation: he pleaded for member countries not to vote on or discuss important issues that concern whales. Based on what happened (or more accurately, did not happen), the meeting was very unsuccessful. Read the rest of this entry »

Starting things off with a bang, Chile declared a permanent ban on whaling on the opening day of the International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting. The Pacific Ocean-bordering country is playing host to the conference, where tensions are running high. One goal of the conference is to get enough countries to vote affirmatively to create a new whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic Ocean. But this plan might be stymied by the meeting’s own chair person.

In an effort to build consensus, the chair person of the conference urged for there to be little debate and no voting at the meeting this year. The goal is to “pay it forward,” and use any additional good will that is created this year at next year’s meeting with the hope that more can be accomplished. Many environmentalists find the chairman’s plan to be intolerable, as they claim that Japan is using “scientific research” as an excuse to hunt approximately 1,000 whales each year. But Japan isn’t the only country ignoring a 1986 ban on commercial whaling that was agreed upon by the commission. Read the rest of this entry »