Environment

• Wednesday, July 20th 2011 - 22:15 UTC

  Volcanic ash ‘downs’ retailing and tourism activity in Argentine Patagonia

  

  Retail sales in the Patagonian region, which suffered the full impact from fumes and ashes spewed by a neighbouring Chilean volcano, plummeted 49.3% during the first half of July compared to a year ago, according to a survey from the Argentine Confederation of medium sized companies, CAME.

• Wednesday, July 20th 2011 - 11:30 UTC

  Fantastic fund raising helped clear rodents from 600 hectares in South Georgia

  

  A fantastic £60,000+ of funding was raised for the SGHT Habitat Restoration Project on South Georgia in the 2010-2011 season thanks to the many visitors who sponsored a hectare.

• Wednesday, July 20th 2011 - 07:01 UTC

  Chile’s tsunami victims protest violently demanding government honours aid promises

  

  Residents of Dichato, Chile, capped off a week of demonstrations with violent protests to demand the government revamp assistance efforts for victims of the tsunami that devastated the area in February 2010.

• Wednesday, July 20th 2011 - 06:47 UTC

  Punta Arenas supply route cut by snow storms; some food shortages feared

  

  Many trucks loaded with perishables and other food products heading for Punta Arenas extreme south of Chile are stranded in border crossings with Argentina blocked by the snow that has accumulated during the last storms.

• Wednesday, July 20th 2011 - 01:47 UTC

  Beef scare in Japan: caesium contaminated meats reached consumers

  

  Japan has imposed a ban on all beef coming from the prefecture of Fukushima, where three nuclear reactors melted down following the March 11 magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami. The Japanese government is also apologizing for its delayed response to radioactive meat reaching the market.

• Tuesday, July 19th 2011 - 13:16 UTC

  Northeast Brazil invests in wind energy, operational by December 2012

  

  Denmark-based Vestas has secured an order from a consortium created by Brennand Energia and Companhia Hidro Eletrica do Sao Francisco in the north east of Brazil to supply turbines with a total capacity of 90MW for three wind energy projects.

• Tuesday, July 19th 2011 - 04:49 UTC

  First aircraft lands in Bariloche over a month after the Puyehue volcano eruption

  

  Over a month after the eruption of the Caulle-Puyehue volcano in Chile, a first flight landed in the airport of Argentina’s ski resort Bariloche. The chartered flight arrived from Sao Paulo with 120 Brazilian tourists.

• Tuesday, July 19th 2011 - 01:26 UTC

  Chilean rescued miners file 16 million dollars compensation lawsuit

  

  Thirty-one of the 33 Chilean miners rescued last year from the bottom of the San José mine filed a lawsuit late last week against the government agency that was supposed to have monitored the safety of the mine. The 33 miners were miraculously rescues after surviving nearly two months underground.

• Monday, July 18th 2011 - 10:04 UTC

  Animal rights organizations claim Japan is corrupting the Whaling Commission

  

  Animal rights organizations claim Japan has been handing out generous grants to African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to support turning the International Whaling Commission into a “toothless paper tiger” undermining the whaling-moratorium.

• Saturday, July 16th 2011 - 07:11 UTC

  IMO agrees mandatory energy efficiency measures for international shipping

  

  The International Maritime Organization (IMO) agreed on Friday on energy efficiency design standards for new ships to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but developing countries will probably delay implementation by using a waiver, delegates said.