Elizabeth Whitman
NEW YORK, Jul 20 2011 (IPS) – Survey your surroundings and you ll discover that coal ash waste from coal burned to produce electricity is more present in everyday life than you might expect. To name a few places: toothpaste, cosmetics, wallboard, cement, and agricultural and winter de-icing products.
Coal ash, also known as coal combustion residues (CCRs), and its beneficial uses recycling it in commercial, consumer, or agricultural products- have lately been an area of controversy between those who seek greater regulation of coal ash reuse and those who unwaveringly promote it as economically and environmentally beneficial.
The U.S. (EPA) promotes the beneficial use of coal ash, but reports indicate that the agency is not fully aware of the potenti…
Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI, Aug 24 2011 (IPS) – If India s powerful central government that rules over the destinies of 1.2 billion people quails before a slight 74-year-old man, it is because he is armed with a weapon that has rarely failed in this country extreme renunciation through a fast-unto-death.
Doctors continuously monitor the health of Anna Hazare, sitting on a protest fast-unto-death. Credit: Anjan Mitra/IPS
The present expone…
BUDAPEST, Jan 20 2012 (IPS) – Protests in Hungary and Romania are the first signs of anti-systemic mobilisation in the Eastern half of the continent. While protests in both countries indicate dissatisfaction with their governments’ authoritarian turn, their origins differ, as does the European Union’s reaction to them.
Romania, EU member since 2007 and Hungary, which joined in 2004, have both been badly hit by the economic crisis.
Romanian and Hungarian protesters of various social and ideological backgrounds have poured into the streets this month, demanding fundamental changes in their political systems, and accusing the political elite of degenerating into authoritarianism while ignoring growing poverty.
Comparisons with 1989 are rife among demonstrators. Aro…
MADRID, Mar 1 2012 (IPS) – Though Vitoria-Gasteiz, capital of the Basque Country, was elected the European Green Capital of 2012 – an award presented by the European Union to promote and reward efforts to mitigate climate change – Spain still has a long way to go to earn the label of ‘sustainable’ for others cities around the country.
The air that the citizens of Vitoria-Gasteiz breathe is of the highest quality, according to the score given by the European Union, thanks to campaigns to increase bicycle use around the city and the promotion of a new bus network together with tram routes and new parking regulations.
In contrast, cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla or Bilbao have been consistently exceeding standard levels of pollution as a result of a lack o…
WASHINGTON, Apr 7 2012 (IPS) – Days before the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, anti- poverty advocates staged their own egg hunt in Lafayette Park to urge President Obama to find political will to end global hunger during the upcoming G8 Summit at Camp David.
Hunger advocates call on President Obama to pledge a commitment to global hunger at the G8 summit. Credit: ActionAid USA
Sponsored by , the activists held banners that rea…
Manipadma Jena interviews WENDY-WATSON WRIGHT, executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC).
YEOSU, South Korea, Jun 22 2012 (IPS) – Oceans, seas and coasts provide over 200 million jobs globally, while 4.3 billion people get 15 percent of their intake of animal protein from the seas. Travel and tourism, ports and energy production use oceans and seas to create jobs and economic and social benefits for millions of people.
Wendy Watson-Wright, executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Ocean…
KIGOMA, Tanzania, Aug 3 2012 (IPS) – At the Kakonko Health Centre, about 250 kilometres from the nearest hospital in Kigoma Region, Western Tanzania, assistant medical officer Abdu Mapinduzi prepares to operate on Joanitha, a young pregnant mother.
She has given birth via caesarean section three times before at a regional hospital. But now, for her fourth child, she is able to have the baby at her nearest medical health centre.
Despite the fact that the Kakonko Health Centre is 150 km away from Joanitha’s home village, it is still closer than her nearest regional hospital, which is the only other facility able to conduct caesareans. Health centres here cater for 50,000 people, approximately the population of one administrative division, but are not equipped to…
Stevia, a natural sweetener with significant health benefits, could create income opportunities in the depressed Spanish economy.
The field where the Unemployed Workers Movement of Málaga has planted 2,000 stevia seedlings. Credit: Inés Benítez/IPS
MÁLAGA, Spain, Sep 26 2012 (IPS) – On a parcel of land a few kilometres outside the southern Spanish city of Málaga, unemployed activists are growing 2,000 seedlings of stevia, a plant used by the Guaraní indigenous people for centuries as a natural sweetener that is awakening ever greater interest in Spain.
Stevia rebaudiana bertoni, called ka a he e or “sweet herb” by the Guaraní, originates from the Amamb…
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 14 2012 (IPS) – The cyclists riding in the bicycle lanes along the beachfront avenue of this Brazilian city pass the car drivers stuck in rush hour traffic.
The Rio de Janeiro city authorities are encouraging this simple, cheap and non-polluting solution for the growing problems of urban transport.
The sight of commuters on bicycles is increasingly common in Rio because of strong economic growth, easy credit and incentives designed to boost auto sales.
Bicycling in Rio de Janeiro. Credit: Courtesy of ITDP
I sold my car because it was so difficult to park, parking lot…
WASHINGTON, Mar 5 2013 (IPS) – Civil society opposition here has strengthened against a U.S.-proposed free trade zone that would include some dozen countries around the Pacific Rim.
As negotiators head into a 16th round of talks this week in Singapore, around 400 organisations are urging the U.S. Congress to demand greater transparency in the proceedings.
On Monday, the first day of the negotiations, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), a humanitarian group, called on President Barack Obama’s administration to “end its stall tactics and revise its proposals for what otherwise promises to be the most harmful trade deal ever for access to medicines in developing countries.”Look at who has a seat at the table, with the public shut out and more than 600 corporate lobbyists.…