Brazilian women rally against deforestation

By Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 1 (IPS) – Touted as “harvested forests,” single-crop tree plantations are fast encroaching on the native forests and grasslands of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, affecting the environment and the lives of local communities, rural women say.
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Analysis by Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Dec 1 (IPS) – With one week left before the start of the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen, there is still no reliable word as to whether Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will attend, or whether or how much the South Asian state will commit itself to emission cuts.
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Por Matthew Berger

WASHINGTON, 26 nov (IPS) – El presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, confirmó su asistencia en la próxima cumbre sobre cambio climático en Copenhague, pero la reducción de emisiones contaminantes que propondrá en la capital danesa será inferior a la ofrecida por Brasil, Gran Bretaña y Japón y a la que recomiendan los expertos.
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Nastasya Tay

PORT ELIZABETH, Afrique du Sud, 24 nov (IPS) – Les femmes pauvres porteront le plus grand ‘fardeau climatique’, déclare le Fonds des Nations Unies pour la population (UNFPA) dans son rapport 2009 sur l’état de la population mondiale, publié le 18 novembre.
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Lewis Mwanangombe

NDOLA, Zambie, 27 nov (IPS) – Lorsque Obed Mumba était venu à Ndola, la ville minière de cuivre de Zambie, en quête de travail, elle était appelée encore respectueusement “Kalale Ku” – la terre de l’homme blanc. Dans les décennies qui ont suivi, il a vu son canton de Kabushi dépasser les rêves limités de ses urbanistes.
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Four generations of the Bhaktas are struggling to ensure their survival amid changing climate patterns that have severely affected their livelihood. / Credit:Manipadma Jena/IPS

BHUBANESWAR, India, Dec 1 (IPS/IFEJ) – Under a shed made of bamboo and corrugated sheet metal, Purusottam Sur feeds his two bullocks and a cow with a bundle each of dry paddy plant. A fifth of his five-acre paddy harvest will be used only as cattle feed; the rice seeds just did not develop because of untimely rains this monsoon.
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NOVEMBER 2009 (IPS) – The current economic and climate change crises are both rooted in the unsustainable nature of the existing economic system. The rapid and unexpected economic meltdown, which began in the United States and quickly spread throughout the world demonstrated dramatically that the phenomenon of globalization and interdependence has a dramatic downside of shared risks and vulnerability, writes Maurice Strong, Secretary General of the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, first Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and Secretary General of the 1992 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment.
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NOVEMBER 2009 (IPS) – It is scandalous that in a world of ample food supplies, over one billion people face constant hunger -and the number is still rising. What makes matters worse is that we know how to end hunger, and yet few governments are doing so, writes Andrew MacMillan, a rural economist and former Director of the Field Operations Divison of FAO.
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Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva

The privatisation of the earth’s resources is a recipe for famine and desertification, violence against women, hunger, and, as happens in India, the suicide of farmers, writes Vandana Shiva, author and international campaigner for women and the environment.
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