Tous les articles et traductions

Shorbanu Khatun flew into the Thai capital to share her pain about being a victim of a natural disaster. In May, Cyclone Aila tore through her community along the coast of Bangladesh, adding another layer of misery to the 36-year- old’s already impoverished life.
She, however, was only one of (…)

China plays an important role of representing the interests of developing countries in the current climate change negotiations through the mechanism of 77+China. As the most important emitter in developing countries it is facing an enormous challenge to fulfill its international obligations to (…)

Under the winter sky of January flamboyant French President Nicolas Sarkozy sat next to Indian President Pratibha Patil and watched the Republic Day parade last year. Eight months later India and France shook hands to sign an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation. Business followed diplomacy. (…)

Argentina has seen an explosion in genetically modified (GM) soy bean production with soy exports topping $16.5 billion in 2008. The fertile South American nation is now the world’s third largest producer of soy, trailing behind the United States and Brazil. However, this lucrative industrial (…)

Untreated sewage contaminates water, affecting both environment and human life, says Rohini Nilekani, Founder-Chairperson, Arghyam. She argues for a new paradigm of ecological sanitation which is both financially sound and environmentally sustainable.
It is supposedly the 100th anniversary of (…)

DDT was extensively used for malaria vector control in Mexico and Central America during the 60s and 70s, but the sprayings were gradually discontinued during the 80s and 90s. The remaining stockpiles of DDT still present in the countries represent a permanent threat for the human health and the (…)

In case after case around the world, water has been turned into a profit-making commodity – preventing people access to the most essential element on Earth. Private ownership of water and water delivery systems has severely compounded the abuse, neglect, mismanagement and exploitation of water (…)

In this report, makeITfair provides a critical analysis of the e-waste trade flows to developing countries and offers solutions to exacerbate the negative effects. As the consumption of electronics has increased rapidly the last years, so has the waste made up of discarded products. Waste from (…)

Agrofuels, which rely on large scale industrial monocultures, are a cause of global warming, not part of a solution. Promoted as a means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they are in fact resulting in greater emissions because they promote deforestation and the destruction of other ecosystems (…)

In this 100th issue of the ETC Communiqué we update Oligopoly, Inc. – our ongoing series tracking corporate concentration in the life industry. We also analyze the past three decades of agribusiness efforts to monopolize the 24% of living nature that has been commodified, and expose a new (…)

A human catastrophe threatens the Congo In Kivu, in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo, war has broken out again, bringing atrocities and displaced persons in its wake. At stake: the control of the fabulous reserves of coltan, a highly prized mineral fought over by all the major (…)

Although Amazonia is a concentrate of all possible dangers, not only to its inhabitants but also for the planet’s ecological balances, it also represents a territory for life and the future. The game is not over. In this dawning of the twenty-first century, it is poised to become one of those (…)

A dangerous new waste stream is rapidly emerging.
The UN estimates that some 20 to 50m tonnes of e-waste are generated worldwide each year, comprising more than 5% of all municipal solid waste. The fate of large quantities of this so-called e-waste is unknown. This “hidden flow” is the e-waste (…)

This edition of SoE illustrates the immense challenges facing the mining sector in India: how to ensure ecological security together with inclusive development. It assesses the sector’s efficacy in promoting ’growth’ in mineral-rich areas, while scrutinising government initiatives in (…)

Winemakers in Spain could soon find themselves scrambling for juicy red grapes. People may also find olives and cheese missing from their salad plates.
The olive and grape farms that thrived in the balmy Mediterranean could become relics of the past with countries like Spain facing the (…)

In a bid to tackle the problem of electronic-waste (e-waste) in South Africa, the e-Waste Association of South Africa (eWASA) hosted a one-day conference on 7 November 2008 in Johannesburg.
The conference was aimed at providing a platform to discuss the successes and lessons learnt while (…)

Brazil’s agribusiness is lobbying to make the case, but people and the environment are paying the price.
In spite of overwhelming criticism of agrofuels as a ’solution’ to climate change, sugarcane ethanol is often seen as the one more positive exception. The Brazilian government is lobbying (…)

Since the 1960’s, pineapple production has quadrupled and export has tripled worldwide. While profits for some have tremendously expanded under such development, this report demonstrates how pineapple workers, their families and communities, and the environment in the largest pineapple producing (…)

A new report on the social impacts of the agrofuels boom.
Do the majority of farmers and peasants find themselves being assisted out of poverty? Does the production of soy,sugarcane and palm oil increase employment? Are the crops grown sustainably and without competing with food production? (…)

In failing to tackle climate change with urgency, rich countries are effectively violating the human rights of millions of the world’s poorest people. Continued excessive greenhouse-gas emissions primarily from industrialised nations are – with scientific certainty – creating floods, droughts, (…)