Divide and dump waste

A paper and pulp mill, operating in southern Chile, has pitted a group of fisherfolk against its neighbours and is trying to get away by installing a controversial pipeline to dump waste water from its mill into the Pacific ocean. In the past few weeks the groups in Mehuin and Missisipi villages have clashed violently. Authorities have deployed special police forces in the area to keep the situation under control.

Chile's Mapuche tribe renew fight for land rights

Faced by mounting protests and a 110-day-long hunger strike by a jailed indigenous rights activist, Chile's government has agreed to create a high commission for the rights of the indigenous Mapuche communities. The commission will work with the parliament to achieve full constitutional recognition of the native people. Activist Patricia Troncoso called-off

In short

>> More than 100,000 tonnes of rotting garbage are lying on the roadsides of the southern Italian city of Naples, after garbage trucks stopped operating since the last week of December 2007 because all landfills are full. Authorities fear the stinking heaps could spread disease. >> Bolivia, Chile and Brazil have agreed to facilitate a Pacific to Atlantic corridor by 2009.

Reviewing website

http//ewasteguide.info/ Did you know that the annual amount of waste generated from end-of-life electrical and electronic products is estimated to be a few million tonnes? And many predict that this will double in the coming decades?

News snippets

>> Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary The 11th Hour opened in theatres on August 17. The film starts with a bleak outlook on issues like global warming. Much of the roughly 90-minute movie is, however, not bleak. It suggests ways to heal the environment with human, government and corporate action.

Five million-year-old whale fossil found

Chilean scientists recently identified fossils of whales believed to have died around five million years ago. The fossils were discovered a month back by some teenagers while on a field trip near Los Maitenes village, about 160 km from the capital Santiago. They found jawbones, backbones and ribs of four whales. Geologists are hoping to find more whale fossils in the area.

Environmental alert in Santiago

A ir pollution in the cities of Santiago and Chilln in Chile recently reached an extreme with cold winter conditions and lack of wind. Chilln, a city known for its skiing and thermal baths, now ranks as the fourth most contaminated city in Chile. In Santiago, an environmental alert was issued on June 27, the fifteenth of its kind over the past six weeks. An air-quality pre-emergency situation

Polynesians might have discovered the Americas before Columbus

Columbus may not have been the first to discover the Americas. Scientists have found evidence that the Polynesians landed in the Americas probably a century ahead of Columbus.

South Pacific nations agree to stop bottom trawling

The South Pacific nations recently agreed to stop bottom trawling to protect corals and other marine life. Bottom trawling is a fishing method where boats tow heavy trawl nets along the sea floor. This destroys coral reefs and stirs up the sediments suffocating marine life. The agreement, reached on May 5, 2007, in Reaca, Chile, comes into force from September 30, 2007, in more than 20 South Pacific countries. It

First expedition in Intenational Polar Year 2007-08 begins

Polar Research us, Sweden, Chile