Environment

• Tuesday, October 25th 2011 - 04:06 UTC

  Brazil ignores OAS meeting due to dispute over hydroelectric dam

  

  Brazil will not take part in the annual meeting of the Organization of American States in Washington on Wednesday due to a dispute over a giant hydroelectric plant, said opponents of the scheme.

• Monday, October 24th 2011 - 23:21 UTC

  Falklands in partnership with UK is creating a network of protected areas

  

  Conservation of penguins, rat eradication and creating a network of protected areas in the Falkland Islands are some of the projects currently under implementation by the UK Overseas Territories Environment Program, OTEP with local organizations.

• Monday, October 24th 2011 - 14:31 UTC

  Biting ants invade by the millions Florida, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana

  

  It sounds like a horror movie: Biting ants invade by the millions. A camper's metal walls bulge from the pressure of ants nesting behind them. A circle of poison stops them for only a day, and then a fresh horde shows up, bringing babies. Stand in the yard, and in seconds ants cover your shoes.

• Saturday, October 22nd 2011 - 11:14 UTC

  Germany sets aside 130bn dollars for renewable energy to replace 28% nuke power

  

  German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on 30 May that Germany, the world's fourth-largest economy and Europe's biggest, would shutter all of its 17 nuclear power plants between 2015 and 2022, an extraordinary commitment, given that they currently produce about 28% of the country's electricity.

• Saturday, October 22nd 2011 - 10:49 UTC

  Ozone hole over Antarctica reached its ninth largest on record in September

  

  The Antarctic ozone hole, which yawns wide every Southern Hemisphere spring, reached its annual peak on September 12, stretching 10.05 million square miles, the ninth largest on record and equivalent to three times the area of Brazil: 3.3m.

• Saturday, October 22nd 2011 - 04:23 UTC

  Bolivia’s Morales yields to Amazon Indian protests and scraps plan to build highway

  

  President Evo Morales said Friday that he was scrapping plans to build a highway through a nature reserve in Bolivia's jungle lowlands, bowing to public pressure after a two-month protest march by Amazon Indians.

• Thursday, October 20th 2011 - 06:48 UTC

  Repsol invites US to check its oil rig standards before drilling in Cuban waters

  

  Repsol YPF SA, which is scheduled to begin exploratory drilling in Cuban waters, has offered US agencies an opportunity to inspect the vessel and its equipment before it arrives at the well site, US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Director Michael R. Bromwich said.

• Tuesday, October 18th 2011 - 18:42 UTC

  As volcanic ash cloud recedes air traffic returning to normal in Argentina and Uruguay

  

  Regular operations have gradually resumed at the main airports of Buenos Aires and in Montevideo’s Carrasco air terminal, where most flights had been cancelled since Sunday due to ash cloud generated from Chile's volcano eruption, authorities said.

• Tuesday, October 18th 2011 - 13:50 UTC

  New environmental forum brings Falklands’ oil industry and environmentalists together

  

  Representatives of local conservation organisations, the oil industry, and the Falkland Islands Government recently attended the first meeting of the Falkland Islands Offshore Hydrocarbons Environmental Forum held on the 27th September in Stanley.

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 21:46 UTC

  Spanish corporation will construct 70ml bio-ethanol plant in Uruguay

  

  Spain’s Abengoa has announced that it will construct a bio-ethanol plant in the department of Paysandu, Uruguay, for Alcoholes de Uruguay, or ALUR. The contract, which includes the construction of an adjoining power cogeneration plant, is worth 120 million dollars.