Worldcrunch
-Analysis- LA PAZ — As it stands now, half of Latin America’s power is generated by hydroelectricity, an energy source that is also of vital importance worldwide, producing more electricity than all renewables combined. Hydropower is especially beneficial for countries that depend on global commodity prices — particularly with regards to oil, natural gas and […]
-Analysis- In his half-century as leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro oversaw grand changes on the island. In the wake of his death, new changes may — or may not — be on their way under the helm of the late leader’s brother, President Raul Castro. Nowhere is the future more uncertain on the island nation […]
LIMA — The Peruvian capital has no shortage of vultures flying overhead. For the past year they have also been enlisted to help find, and perhaps eventually clear, some of Lima’s worst illegal trash heaps. How is it done? The city and scientists have been using 10 vultures strapped with GPS and GoPro cameras to […]
The legacy of our time will not be our literary or architectural monuments, but all the plastic trash we leave to poison the seas and choke our future. Fortunately, change is in the air.
While the average Dane generates more than 10 tons of CO2 each year, a resident on the island of Samso actually spares the planet three. The island changed its fate by invest
Time for a major ecological awakening in the world’s most populous nation. The planet is at stake.
As the 20th UN Climate Summit begins in Peru, one faster way to fight global warming is to steer investors away from oil and gas, and bet instead in clean energy. The planet depends on it.
Thankfully, Indonesian band Navicula’s nickname “the green grunge gentlemen” refers only to their environmental nature and not to a type of radioactive dirt. They are one of Indonesia’s most successful rock bands, having just returned home to their island of Bali after touring the U.S. and Australia. Their name “Navicula” refers to a type of […]
LUBHU — How do you celebrate your birthday? By throwing a party and cutting a cake? In Nepal some people plant a tree instead. Making tea at home in her village 11 kilometers outside Kathmandu, Sunita Poudel says, “Forests are everything for us. We are dependent on wood and grass. Some of my neighbors cook with small sticks from the forest — they are very poor and can’t afford gas stoves. I have some cows and goats, so I also need grass from the forest every day.” But due to mismanagement, the forest around the village of Lubhu is in […]
In the hills south of Rome, another kind of “liberation community” is preparing for a very different future.
A solar-powered hospital offers a glimmer of hope in a country still mired in poverty, and the after-effects of the massive 2010 earthquake.
The inhabitants of Butembo rely increasingly on solar energy, allowing households to save money and be self-sufficient.
Two environmentalists are killed on average every week as land struggles intensify violence against green activists worldwide.
The World Bank has recently published a report entitled “Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience.” Rising sea levels, heat extremes, aridity, impacts on ecosystems… Unsurprisingly, the news is not so good on the climate front, and the experts are raising the alarm. In the first Turn Down the […]
GENEVA – He quotes Mahatma Gandhi and wears the traditional Indian dress, but Arun Krishnamurthy is not living in the past. On the contrary, it is his desire to build a better future that led him to give up a promising career at Google and create an organization to help fight environmental degradation in his […]
Look at the numbers, both environmental and economic, and the solution is clear: slower growth.
BERLIN – There are more and more healthy food snobs in our society – and I’m probably one of the worst. It all began when I was sick and a friend showed up with a green smoothie, telling me that drinking it would bring “pure light” into my body. I got better right away, and […]
A technological marvel, the plastic bag has become a symbol of humankind’s ecological footprint. Laws and habits are decreasing their use, but the alternative is sometimes worse.
CLARIN, NOLAPLANCHES.COM.AR (Argentina) Worldcrunch BUENOS AIRES – December 20 is the Day of the Wrinkled Shirt in Argentina. This unlikely celebration was called by nolaplanches.com.ar (translates as: don’t iron it). It sounds like a housewife’s dream, but the Day of the Wrinkled Shirt is actually an environmental initiative put on through the collaboration of three […]
DUBLIN – Ireland, its scenery, its music, its hospitality… who has never dreamed of having a couple of drops of Irish blood in their veins? That’s the idea behind “The Gathering.” In 2013, Ireland is calling on “all the Flynns, O’Malleys and Schweitzenburgs to come back home (…) no matter when their families left.” The […]