I'm still not dead yet

I swear. I've just been struggling to keep my head above water at work. I'll soon rise from the ashes like the Phoenix. Wait, that would contradict the idea that I'm not dead.

I've got some stuff in the pipeline. Thanks for remembering me.

Nordic journeys in financing tropical environmentalism

Find a worthy environmental cause around the world, a group of tropical do-gooders looking for cash, a well-intentioned project to fight global warming, you can bet the Norwegians have it on their radar screen. I honestly find it commendable. Someone asks for help protecting the environment and Norway – with generous income available due to its offshore oil operations – raises its hand. It’s sure a nice contrast to America’s “what’s in it for me?” approach or Canada’s “we’re part of the deal until we’re not” plan.

But my hunch is the Norwegians are getting antsy. They’ve put up funds for environmental projects around the world and the going is slow.

Boring Amazon coverage

Bloggers love to pick on reporters, so here we go.

This latest New York Times story on Brazil sliding back into deforestation oblivion is just plan dull and lazy. I would note that for a fancy newspaper correspondent it shouldn't be that tough to get on a plane and at least walk through some part of sketchy deforested southeastern Para. This most recent story seems almost entirely based on an interview with former environment minister Marina Silva and a few phone calls to some environmental types.

Hey, who’s been putting fungicide in my OJ?

Brazil, apparently. The price of orange juice hit an all-time high this week because of a flap over US imports of OJ from Brazil. The culprit: the chemical carbendazim, a chemical used to kill fungus that in high enough quantities has been linked to infertility.

Breathe free and easy, Venezuela, refinery emissions are under control

I have to admit being a bit puzzled after stumbling over this press release from Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA. The company for no apparent reason in late December put out a statement trumpeting the fact that the El Palito refinery’s emissions are up to code, based on a study done by a company that is not identified.

Sao Paulo’s plastic bag war and its discontents

Brazil’s biggest city is jumping on the plastic-bag-banning-bandwagon. We’ll, actually it’s trying to. The municipal government of the 20 million strong city of Sao Paulo last year issued a decree blocking supermarkets from passing out plastic bags for free, a move backed by the state’s environment ministry. That follows bans and taxes in cities around America including Seattle and Washington D.C. and much more comprehensive efforts in European countries such as Italy and Ireland.

Sugar slavery is still big business – even with mechanization

The most effective criticism of Brazil’s biofuels program has not been the food vs. fuels diatribe but rather the excoriation of abhorrent and retrograde conditions of sugar workers. Descriptions of workers cutting cane from dawn to dusk with little access to water and frequent exposure to dangerous crop fires has left the sugar cane ethanol industry with a major public image problem.