Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Fabíola Ortiz RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 6, 2011 (IPS) – With seven months to go until the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, Brazil is uniting in support of proposals to be included in the summit’s draft final document, which aim to transfer its successful national social and [...]
BRAZIL: Small-Scale Land Speculators Contribute to Amazon Deforestation
July 28, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Stephen Leahy* UXBRIDGE, Canada, Jul 28, 2011 (Tierramérica) – Many migrants from southern Brazil who clear forests in Brazil’s state of Amazonas are making their living as small-scale land speculators and not as farmers or as cattle ranchers, new research has found. This on-the-ground reality and the [...]
Navigating Challenges, Brazil Steps Up AIDS Response
June 26, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Elizabeth Whitman UNITED NATIONS, Jun 25, 2011 (IPS) – Long heralded as a model for the global response to HIV/AIDS, Brazil is intensifying its actions, at home and abroad, in the face of potential setbacks including an arising need for new treatment regimens, the resultant increase in [...]
BRAZIL: Protected Witness Speaks Out – Part 1
May 26, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Fabíola Ortiz RIO DE JANEIRO, May 26, 2011 (IPS) – Despite the risks involved, a man who is under the witness protection programme in Brazil and his wife decided to tell their story to IPS, to denounce flaws in a system that, in their case, has added [...]
BRAZIL: Amazon Dams Mean Progress for Some, Lost Livelihoods for Others
May 25, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Mario Osava * PORTO VELHO, Brazil, May 25, 2011 (Tierramérica) – The Amazonian town of Mutum-Paraná, in the northern Brazilian state of Rondônia, is disappearing. Its last remaining buildings must be dismantled before it is flooded by the construction of the Jirau hydroelectric dam on the Madeira [...]
BRAZIL: Sugar Cane Fertilises Its Own Soil
April 12, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Mario Osava* RIBEIRÃO PRETO, Brazil, Apr 12, 2011 (Tierramérica) – The mechanisation of sugar cane harvesting, originally aimed at curbing the pollution caused by the burning of cane fields, has resulted in an added bonus: it has helped to improve soil quality, according to growers and technical [...]
Films Shrink Global Problems Down to a More Human Scale
April 11, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Elizabeth Whitman UNITED NATIONS, Apr 11, 2011 (IPS) – "It’s bad to be rich at the height of fame with your morals a dirty shame," says Valter pointedly as he bumps along in the back of a pickup towards Jardim Gramacho, the largest landfill in the world, [...]
BRAZIL: Sugar Cane Fields Turned into Industry in Sertãozinho
April 11, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Mario Osava SERTÃOZINHO, Brazil, Apr 11, 2011 (IPS) – "A disappointment" was his first impression of his new city. It was small, half the size of his hometown of Barretos, and had "weak lights," says Marcelo Pelegrini, remembering his family’s move to this southern Brazilian city when [...]
BRAZIL: Science and Sugar Cane Produce Versatile Harvest
April 4, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Mario Osava PIRACICABA, Brazil, Apr 4, 2011 (IPS) – For nearly five hundred years, sugar cane was used almost exclusively for making sugar, with a handful of by-products like rum, alcohol and molasses. Now, in Brazil, it has become a source of multiple derivatives, and the focus [...]
