In the foothills of the Andes, in the Sierra Piura region of Peru, the problems faced by coffee farmers are clear. Up to 6,600 farmers produce here for the Central Piurana de Cafetaleros co-operative (Cepicafe), growing 4,000 tonnes a year of the finest Peruvian coffee on family plots scattered across the mountainside. Together, year in, [...]
Reaping Gold Through Cotton, and Newsprint by P. SAINATH The same full page appeared twice in three years, the first time as news, the second time as an advertisement. “Not a single person from the two villages has committed suicide.” Three and a half years ago, at a time when the controversy over the use [...]
Dominica leads group of 52 small island developing states aiming for a 45% cut in emissions in the next 18 years They seldom meet on the cricket or football fields, but the world’s small island developing states are informally competing with each other to be the first to ditch fossil fuels and embrace clean energy. [...]
It’s worth noting Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta’s remarks on energy, climate and security last night at an Environmental Defense Fund event honoring the Defense Department for its work on the intersection of these issues. Here’s an excerpt: Our mission at the Department is to secure this nation against threats to our homeland and to [...]
by HARVEY WASSERMAN In 1975-6, large, angry crowds I spoke to were already demanding the end of Fukushima and other reactor projects. They warned that all Japanese reactors were vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis, and that disasters on par with what happened at Fukushima were essentially inevitable. Now that it’s happened, the public rage in [...]
Nuclear reactors are massively expensive. They take a long time to build. And even when they’re up and running, they’re nothing like as reliable as the industry would have us believe. Few if any companies have balance sheets that are strong enough to cover the capital costs of a new reactor – with a starting [...]
All 50 reactors now closed for maintenance after 2011 tsunami but government faces major public opposition to reactivation Japan is shutting down its last working nuclear reactor as part of the safety drive imposed after the March 2011 tsunami triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima plant. The closure of the third reactor at the Tomari [...]
The Williams river was so languid and lovely last Saturday morning that it was almost impossible to imagine the violence with which it must have been running on 28 August 2011. Yet the evidence was all around: sand piled high on its banks, trees still scattered as if by a giant’s fist, and most obvious [...]
Low-tech experiment produces accurate data on threat to plant biodiversity and may also help with carbon The fresh snow covers the Aubonne valley overlooking Lake Geneva. Clumps of beech, maple and juniper trees cling to the slopes of the Jura highlands. Scientists from Lausanne Polytechnic (EPFL) and Switzerland’s Forest, Snow and Landscape Research Institute (WSL) [...]
In Island, Iles Sanguinaires, at the Gulf of Ajaccio, Corsican sees the sun turning red as the night approach. However, a new renewable energy experimental facility has been built there. The solar plant has been established on the hillside of the Mediterranean where the sun merely sets. The advance use of hydrogen, enables the plant [...]