Environment

In early July, whales from the world's largest population of humpbacks began arriving in the warm, subtropical waters off Australia's north-west coast to breed and nurse their young.

Northern Thai villagers living on Mekong River's banks are poised to join a growing tide of opposition against a planned cascade of 11 dams to be built on the mainstream of South-east Asia's largest body of water.

Peruvian President Alan García confirmed Wednesday that the permit of the U.S. mining and metallurgical company Doe Run to operate a major smelter complex was being cancelled because the firm missed the deadline for proving that it had the necessary financing to restart operations and complete an environmental cleanup.

"Three-quarters of the fields are still under water. Maize, plantains, okra and pasture are all lost," José Asencio told IPS at the village of Santa Ana Mixtán in southern Guatemala, the area worst affected by tropical storm Agatha.

Fifty-three percent of Peru is covered with native rainforest, but the agencies in charge of protecting and monitoring this vast area are toothless and have neither the staff nor the resources to cope with the job, according to a report from the Defensoría del Pueblo (Ombudsperson's Office).

While some believe that restrictions on natural resource exports should be done away with, this could cause an increase in such exports that would be detrimental to the environment and bad for development.

Dark oil slicks are spreading from the middle of Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo towards the shores -- the wetlands, mangroves, beaches and docks. Oil is permeating fishing nets, coating the garbage dumped into the water, killing off wildlife and driving away residents and tourists.

The Barack Obama administration has found success in passing healthcare reform and legislation touted as an "overhaul" of the U.S. financial system, but last week it became clear that the Democrats wouldn't advance a climate change bill until after the August recess and, more likely, until next year.

Plagued by Spain's economic recession and subsidy cuts, renewable energy businesses are following the sun and wind to Latin America in search of profits.

Clay or earthen bricks could help to alleviate the housing shortage in Brazil because of the lower cost of brick buildings, while an innovative process for producing what are known as "ecological bricks" can avoid the environmental harm arising from more usual building materials.

"There are hardly any tourists now, and nearly all the hotels are empty," says Rosa Rosales, who works at the Hotel Pa Muelle, on the shores of Guatemala's Lake Atitlán, a natural treasure that has been overcome by pollution.

Turtles, frogs, toads and many kinds of birds are imported into Mexico as pets by the thousands every year, but they constitute an environmental and economic threat when they are invasive exotic species.

Shellfish in the Gulf of Mexico grow with drops of petroleum inside them, coyotes eat oil-soaked birds, and sharks suffocate when the oil coats their gills.

The spirit of international negotiations in Montreal on a draft protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) of natural resources were marred by Canada's insistence on a decentralised approach to ABS, Peigi Wilson, a Métis lawyer present at the meeting in support of the Quebec Native Women, told IPS.

If you want to observe the charismatic southern right whale (Eubalaena australis), the most popular place to do so is off Argentina's Valdés Peninsula, an enclave on the Atlantic coast that relies on tourist dollars -- and therefore opposes whale hunting.

Fears of a trade dispute with Canada have made European Union officials reluctant to categorise tar sands from North America as a more polluting fuel than conventional petrol.

The Nigerian government is trying to cope with an outbreak of lead poisoning which has killed over 200 people in Zamfara State since early July.

Canadian company Gabriel Resources has managed to resurrect a cyanide-based gold exploitation project which had been declared illegal in courts, and is opposed by most Romanians.

The environment remains a second-tier matter in Latin America and the Caribbean despite being interwoven with persistent poverty and stalled economic development in the region, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme.

Heavy reliance on petroleum imports, the need for electricity in rural areas, and the ongoing effort towards sustainable development have focussed Central America's attention on renewable energy. But that doesn't mean there isn't opposition.