BP settles $7.8bn Gulf of Mexico oil spill claims

BP has reached definitive agreements with more than 100,000 private plaintiffs to resolve claims for economic, property and medical damages resulting from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill

The Telegraph | 18 Apr 2012

Friday marks the two-year anniversary of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Photo: Reuters

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After the Castros: The biological factor

Who and what will follow Raúl?

Special Report The Economist | Mar 24th 2012

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War for water in Chile's Atacama Desert: Vines or mines?

Chile's Copiapo Valley should be a picturesque grape-growing region. Instead, there is mile after mile of rows of withered vines along this stretch of the Atacama Desert

By Katia Moskvitch | BBC News | 23 March 201

In the Atacama Desert, farmers and mining firms fight for water

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Protesting natives shut down Ecuador capital

Protesting natives supported by opponents of President Rafael Correa brought Ecuador's capital to a standstill Thursday, demanding an end to policies they say will open the Amazon rainforest to vast mining projects and ravage the environment

AFP in Yahoo! News | Mar 22, 2012

Ecuadorean natives march to protest policies by President Rafael Correa they say will result in more mining in the Amazon region.

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Drilling for Oil in Eden: Initiative to Save Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador Is Uncertain

The most biologically diverse habitat in the western hemisphere, the Yasuní rainforest in Ecuador, is under threat. One hectare contains more species of trees than all of North America, but hidden beneath this Garden of Eden lies temptation: oil worth billions

By R. Douglas Fields | Scientific American | March 17, 2012

Pumping gasoline in Quito, Ecuador. Oil drilling threatens the Yasuní rainforest. Petroleum is Ecuador's primary source of income, but the country's reserves will be depleted in 15-20 years.

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In Limón, a sustainable community takes shape

First in a two part series on how EARTH University is innovating new ways to improve the environment in Costa Rica and beyond

By Matt Levin | TicoTimes.net | March 16, 2012

Allan Chávez, EARTH University program development  coordinator, explains how manure from a pigpen is converted into heat energy through a tool known as a biodigestor. Photo: Matt Levin

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Mexico withers under worst drought in 71 years

Some 2.5 million Mexicans are affected by this extreme drought, which could cause widespread hunger for years to come

By Sara Miller Llana | Christian Science Monitor | March 9, 2012

Farmworker Juan Manuel Ramirez in San Luis de la Paz, Mexico, takes a break from irrigating dry land. A drought is affecting agriculture in the state of Guanajuato, one of the biggest growers of produce in the country. Since October 2010, there has been no significant rainfall. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

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BP reaches $7.8 billion deal over Gulf of Mexico spill

BP Plc has reached an estimated $7.8 billion deal with plaintiffs suing over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the company said on Friday, but the oil giant still faces claims by the U.S. government, Gulf states and drilling partners

By Andrew Longstreth | Reuters | Mar 3, 2012

Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon, off Louisiana, in this April 21, 2010 file handout image. Credit: Reuters/U.S. Coast Guard/Files/Handout

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Venezuela's Opec stand is a win for climate change campaigners

Environmentalists who support developing countries' fight against polluters should also back their struggle for control of oil

Mark Weisbrot | guardian.co.uk | 2 March 2012

Pablo Fajardo, the lead Ecuadorian lawyer in indigenous peoples' case over pollution against oil company Chevron. Photograph: Jose Jacome/EPA

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Bolivia: Challenges face Morales' goal of 'governing by obeying the people'

A new twist in the turbulent saga surrounding a proposed roadway through Indigenous land has reignited a debate raging throughout Bolivia since the middle of last year

By Federico Fuentes | Green Left Weekly | February 19, 2012

A march by indigenous group Conisur in favour of a controversial highway being built through Indigenous lands.

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Venezuela: The spectre of Big Oil

“Never again will they rob us — the ExxonMobil bandits. They are imperial, American bandits, white-collared thieves. They turn governments corrupt, they oust governments. They supported the invasion of Iraq.”"Never again will they rob us — the ExxonMobil bandits. They are imperial, American bandits, white-collared thieves. They turn governments corrupt, they oust governments. They supported the invasion of Iraq"

By Paul Kellog | Green Left Weekly | February 29, 2008

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Indigenous communities in Peru condemn the further adventures of an Australian carbon cowboy

In April 2011, the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon (AIDESEP) published the Declaration of Iquitos which opposed the proposed forest carbon trading activities of a Hong Kong registered company called Sustainable Carbon Resources Limited

By Chris Lang | REDD-Monitor | 31st January 2012

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Cuba seeks new socialist model

The Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), held in April, “endorsed for the first time a fundamental change in the political and economic model”, said Cuban political scientist and Temas editor Rafael Hernandez

By Marce Cameron | Green Left Weekly | January 28, 2012

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Finance for biodiversity is a “new face for capitalism”: Sign on letter to CBD from Acción Ecológica

“Conserving the planet’s species and habitats is central to sustainable development yet the global decline in biodiversity is accelerating,” says UN Secretary General, Ban-Ki Moon

By Chris Lang | REDD-Monitor | 27th January 2012

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Mexico pipeline oil spill may take month to clean

Two weeks after a pipeline leak in coastal Mexico sent oil gushing into a river, state oil monopoly Pemex has recovered about two-thirds of the spilled crude, but the full clean-up could take another month

By Julie Gordon | Reuters | Jan 14, 2012

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With $116 Million Pledged, Ecuador Moves Forward With Plan to Protect Rainforest

After receiving pledges totaling more than its goal of $100 million by a year-end deadline, the Ecuadorian government last week announced that it would move forward with the so-called Yasuni ITT Initiative, an innovative plan to leave untapped more than 900 million barrels of crude oil beneath a pristine Amazonian nature reserve, in exchange for annual international donations

by Eric Marx | Science Insider | 13 January 2012

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Revisiting the Deepwater Horizon Plumes

Maybe the plumes were really clouds. I am talking about the famous plumes from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the event that roiled the Gulf Coast and scrambled energy politics in mid-2010. Many readers will remember reports, first carried in this newspaper, that a considerable volume of hydrocarbons released in the spill did not reach the surface of the gulf. Instead they dissolved into deep water, forming what appeared at the time to be enormous plumes of dissolved oil and gas

By JUSTIN GILLIS | The New York Times | January 9, 2012

ReutersOil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico in June 2010.

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Nigeria's oil disasters are met by silence

The global media have had little to say on Nigeria's latest oil spill and the hundreds of others that have destroyed so many lives

Michael Keating | guardian.co.uk | 9 January 2012

A man covers his hands in crude oil during a Nigerian protest against Shell after last month's spill. Photograph: George Esiri/EPA

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Ecuador court upholds $18 billion ruling against Chevron

An Ecuadorean appeals court on Tuesday upheld a ruling that Chevron Corp should pay $18 billion in damages to plaintiffs who accused the U.S. oil giant of polluting the Amazon jungle and damaging their health

By Victor Gomez | Reuters | Jan 3, 2012

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Protests Resume Against Peru Gold Mining Project

Demonstrators in Peru resumed their protests on Monday against plans to develop a $4.8 billion gold mine, saying they fear the mine will harm their water supplies

The Associated Press in the Street | January 2, 2012

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