MEXICO CITY, Aug 1 2009 (IPS) – In the last two years a Mexico City hospital, kindergarten and municipal government office building have experimented with plant-covered rooftops. Today, workers and visitors are enjoying the benefits.
Employees and patients alike enjoy the green roof at the Belisario Domínguez Hospital. Credit: Verónica Díaz Favela/IPS
Eight months ago, the first nature roof w…
Daniela Estrada* – IPS/IFEJ
SANTIAGO, Aug 23 2009 (IPS) – A working-class neighbourhood on the outskirts of the capital, which stood united against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s and 1980s and today is doing so against climate change, is launching the country s first ecobarrio project.
Women working in the Cuatro Álamos garden. Credit: Daniela Estrada/IPS
An ecobarrio (eco-neighbourhood) is a place where people voluntarily join forces to revamp huma…
Matthew Cardinale
ATLANTA, Georgia, Sep 30 2009 (IPS) – Environmental groups across the southeast United States, from Georgia to the Appalachia region, are stepping up their opposition to a controversial but widespread practice by coal companies of removing the tops of mountains with explosives.
Valley fill – Mountaintop removal coal mining in Martin County, Kentucky. Credit: Flashdark/wikimedia commons
Atlanta-based activist Darci Rodenhi r…
Sanjay Suri
LONDON, Oct 13 2009 (IPS) – Unsafe abortions kill about 70,000 women a year, says a report by the U.S.- based Guttmacher Institute. An additional five million women are treated annually for complications arising from unsafe abortion, adds the report, based on a global survey.
The institute, which seeks to advance sexual and reproductive health through research and policy education, notes that the number of abortions worldwide fell from 45.5 million in 1995 to 41.6 million in 2003. But that has still not reduced the number of deaths.
Unsafe abortions, including deaths from unsafe abortions, have not changed, even though overall rates of abortion are declining, Sharon Camp, president of the Guttmacher Institute, told IPS in an interview.
The explan…
Mantoe Phakathi
NHLANGANO, Swaziland, Nov 16 2009 (IPS) – Seven-year-old Ntombi* frowns after swallowing the tablets her grandmother has given her. The HIV-positive child has contracted multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
An HIV-positive mother sits next to her 18-month-old baby girl at Kangcamphalala in southern Swaziland. Both mother and bab…
Kyra Ryan
SANTA ANA, New Mexico, Dec 5 2009 (IPS) – Some 8,000 kilometres from the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Native American environmental experts from 66 tribes came together at a summit here this week to address the most pressing needs in their communities problems, all emphasised, that know no geographic boundaries.
New Mexico is home to 19 Pueblos, two Apache tribes, and part of the Navajo Nation. Credit: …
Christi van der Westhuizen and Wambi Michael interview SISULE MUSUNGU, intellectual property rights expert
CAPE TOWN and KAMPALA, Jan 18 2010 (IPS) – Kenya and Tanzania have recently passed anti-counterfeit laws and regulations that risk blocking legitimate generic medicines instead of fake products, which is the purported purpose of these laws. Uganda is now considering a similar bill.
