Environment

• Sunday, May 22nd 2011 - 22:59 UTC

  Amazon tribe first contacted in 1986 has no abstract concept of time

  

  Amazonian tribe has no abstract concept of time, say researchers. The Amondawa lacks the linguistic structures that relate time and space - as in our idea of, for example, “working through the night”.

• Sunday, May 22nd 2011 - 22:25 UTC

  The HydroAysén project and why Chile’s old institutional order can’t cope with change

  

  By José Aylwin - The Santiago Times Publisher Steve Anderson’s editorial note: There are many reasons for the ongoing Chilean national anguish about the US$7.5 billion HidroAysén dam in Patagonia and transmission line project.

• Monday, May 16th 2011 - 05:02 UTC

  Beijing promises more trade and investments but Argentina must respect Chinese exports

  

  China Trade Minister Chen Deming promised to further increase bilateral trade with Argentina which last year reached 13.5 billion US dollars but also asked for reciprocity regarding China’s exports.

• Friday, May 13th 2011 - 14:53 UTC

  Police with clubs is not the answer to Chile’s HidroAysén debate

  

  Following Monday’s questionable approval of Chile’s major HidroAysén dam project - a jerry-rigged vote if there ever was one - the administration of President Sebastian Piñera turned police loose on thousands of demonstrators protesting the Patagonia dam project later that evening.

• Thursday, May 12th 2011 - 19:07 UTC

  Baltic Sea patched with ‘dead zones’ reveals research expedition

  

  A research expedition in the Baltic Sea has yielded spectacular photos of surprisingly colourful life below the calm surface. But the images also reveal a more sinister reality -- the alarming spread of “dead zones” threatening aquatic life.

• Thursday, May 12th 2011 - 16:46 UTC

  EU votes for mandatory labeling or real fur or leather content in textiles

  

  Consumers will no longer risk inadvertently buying textiles that contain real fur or leather, thanks to new textile labeling rules approved by the European Parliament.

• Wednesday, May 11th 2011 - 07:52 UTC

  Torres del Paine Park must double protected area to meet UNESCO latest criteria

  

  Torres Del Paine National Park, in southern Chile’s Patagonia, is easily among the country’s most iconic natural attractions, hosting 170,000 tourists a year. Yet to maintain the park’s UNESCO classification as a biosphere reserve, Chile must greatly expand the protected areas to more than double the current boundaries.

• Monday, May 9th 2011 - 19:12 UTC

  Australia submits Japan’s Antarctic whaling program to the International Court

  

  The Australian government filed a written submission at the International Court of Justice in Netherlands calling for an end to Japan's Antarctic whaling program on the grounds that it breaches the international ban on commercial whaling. Australia made the official presentation of its case Monday at the ICJ.

• Thursday, May 5th 2011 - 08:18 UTC

  South Georgia rodents’ eradication campaign gets world headlines

  

  Conservationists say they are pleased with early efforts to kill rats on South Georgia, in what is the biggest rodent eradication campaign in history. No-one really knows how many rats inhabit the island in the South Atlantic, but it could be millions.

• Saturday, April 30th 2011 - 22:34 UTC

  Brazil furious with Human Rights Commission decision cuts all relations

  

  Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff decided to cut all relations with the Inter American Human Rights Court following on the CIDH decision to request that the construction of a huge dam in the Amazon be suspended, following an appeal from indigenous groups.