Environment

Iran: The flamingos return to Lake Urmia

Nama Jafari has published a 70's film showing the flamingos in Lake Urmia (Rezayieh). There were several demonstrations in recent weeks to save this dying lake. The blogger says that this lake 30 years ago was a tourist attraction and now a dying one.

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Brazil: Report Reveals Unsustainable Practices of Biofuel Industry

Biofuel has been acclaimed as the best way out for the world’s struggle for energy resources. It has also been pointed out as a ‘green' alternative which can reduce carbon emissions. An analysis made by the NGO Reporter Brasil [pt], last May, of the Brazilian ethanol chain of production reveals however that biofuels can have a high socio-environmental cost:

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Uruguay: Controversy Over Open-Pit Iron Ore Mining Project

A project to build an open-pit iron ore mine in Centro Chato - a village of 3,144 inhabitants according to the 2000 census [es] - in central Uruguay has divided Uruguayans. While some see it as an opportunity for employment and economic growth, others are concerned about the environmental consequences and question whether the country will actually benefit from the mine’s profits.

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Japan: Sanka, legendary gypsies living in the wild

Sometimes forgotten issues, people or stories come up from oblivion and awake something in the collective imagination. Sometimes also the protagonists in those stories become part of a legend, whose historical origins are difficult to track down.
This is more or less what happened to a group of people who are said to have lived in the remote mountains and plains of the Japanese archipelago until the 1970s. They are the Japanese gypsies or sanka [ja], written as 山家 (people of the mountains) or 山窩 (mountains nomads).

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Brazil: Friends and Advocates of a Street Full of Trees

The Amigos da Rua Gonçalo de Carvalho's blog (Friends of Gonçalo Carvalho Street) [pt] explains how a group of people in Porto Alegre, Brazil, mobilized an advocacy campaign against the plan for a new development construction in that street. Gonçalo de Carvalho Street is nowadays considered historical, cultural, ecological and environmental heritage.

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