by Haroon Siddique – guardian.co.uk
Containers of toxic waste that the Brazilian government claims were illegally exported from the UK to the South American country will arrive at a British port today.
The cargo ship MSC Serena will bring 71 of the 89 containers into Felixstowe, with the remainder returning at a later date.
The Environment Agency investigation into the contents of the cargo and its source is continuing. The Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Resources has alleged that some of them contain clinical waste including syringes and condoms.
The Environment Agency said it would carry out fumigations of the containers, expected to last a week, before fully investigating their contents.
Officers from [...]
Toxic waste shipment returns to UK from Brazil
Brazil’s former environment minister leaves ruling party over ‘destruction of natural resources’
by Tom Phillips – guardian.co.uk
Brazil’s former environment minister, the rainforest defender Marina Silva, has resigned from the ruling Workers’ party, paving the way for a 2010 presidential bid, which supporters hope will put the environment back on the political agenda of South America’s largest country.
For weeks speculation has been growing that Silva, who resigned from government last May after a dispute over the development of the Amazon region, would defect to the Green party in order to dispute the presidential elections next October.
Speaking at a press conference in Brasilia earlier today, Silva, who has been a Workers’ party member for over 30 years, said politicians had failed to give sufficient [...]
Brazil Amazon defender weighing presidential bid #MarinaSilva
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A former Brazilian environment minister who won fame as a staunch defender of the Amazon rain forest is considering running for the country’s presidency next year as the Green Party candidate, her office said on Wednesday.
Marina Silva’s candidacy would ensure that environmental issues get a high profile in the campaign and could also hold risks for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is backing his chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff, for the top job.
Silva, who has been a senator for Lula’s Workers’ Party since she resigned as environment minister last year, could attract votes from the left and from women, making it more difficult [...]
“Plastic Bags Stink” campaign is launched in Rio
To to the sound of popular Brazilian group AfroReggae – long involved with social movements -, the Ministry of the Environment’s “Plastic Bags Stink” campaign was launched last Monday (August 3) at the Cunha Canal Ecobarrier in Rio de Janeiro slum Maré. The idea was to stimulate recycling within the local community and in the city as a whole, urging people to substitute plastic bags for other versions made of recyclable materials. The Brazilian Minister of the Environment, Carlos Minc, attended the event.
On the same day campaign posters were put up in all stations of the Rio Subway (Metrô do Rio). The same will be done in subway stations [...]
Amazon deforestation speeds up: Brazil space agency
BRASILIA (AFP) – Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest in June was four times more devastating than the month before, further depleting what is seen as one of the biggest buffers against global warming, official data revealed Tuesday.
Satellite imagery analyzed by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research showed 578 square kilometers (223 square miles) of Amazon woodland was burned or cut down.
That was more than four times the devastation recorded in May, and roughly equivalent to the size of Switzerland’s Lake Geneva, or half the area of California’s biggest city of Los Angeles.
Most of the destruction was concentrated in the Brazilian states of Para and Mato Grosso. Ranchers and farmers regularly [...]
Timberland requires commitment of suppliers against deforestation
The footwear manufacturer Timberland today announced that it will not use more leather from animals raised in newly deforested areas in Amazonia. With the commitment, the company will require its suppliers to commit to a moratorium on the expansion of cattle on areas of recent deforestation, thereby ensuring that the leather used in their products does not contribute to further deforestation in the Amazon.
“With its release, the Timberland increased the level of environmental and social policies of purchasing leather suppliers that work in the Amazon. We hope that the new position of the company serves as a warning to Brazilian producers of leather and meat, which has no place in [...]
Nike just did it ➜ Nike establishes policy to protect the Amazon and the climate
International — Just a few short weeks after the release of Slaughtering the Amazon Nike has announced new standards for keeping leather made from Amazon destruction out of its shoes.
Following the release of our report, Nike contacted us because they wanted to work towards a new leather sourcing policy that didn’t contribute to the destruction of the Amazon or climate change. Now they’ll be adhering to those standards until there can be guarantees that none of the leather and other cattle products in Brazil are coming from deforested Amazon land.
“Nike has set a great precedent for Timberland, Adidas, Reebok, and Clarks to follow,” said Greenpeace forests campaigner Lindsey Allen. “Brazil’s cattle [...]
The Brazilian Minister of Environment returns garbage illegally imported from England
Rio Grande (3/8/2009) – The Minister of Environment, Carlos Minc, took part in last Saturday (1), the Port of Rio Grande, with the Superintendent of IBAMA in Rio Grande do Sul, Fernando da Costa Marques, and Head of the Office of the institute in Rio Grande, Sandro Klippel, the loading of the first batch of 40 containers containing garbage illegally exported from England to Brazil.
Before the start of shipment of cargo to be sent to England, the Minister met with representatives of the port Revenue Service, Federal Police, the Anvisa, Superintendent of the Port of Rio Grande, the TECON – Terminal of Containers and the Superintendency Ibama of Rio Grande [...]
Major brands implicated in Amazon destruction
Brazil — Just as protecting the world’s forests is rapidly becoming a recognized necessity for fighting climate change, we have discovered that major fashion, food and sports brand names are unwittingly driving the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
Our three-year investigation into Brazil’s booming cattle industry – the largest source of deforestation in the world and Brazil’s main source of CO2 emissions – has found that some of the brands that we all know and love could be implicated in the widespread deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. The investigation also uncovers how the Brazilian government is bankrolling the destruction and is undermining its own efforts to tackle the global climate crisis.
Dirty [...]