European dairy farmers spilled three million litres of milk in the past month protesting against low prices. EU ministers refused emergency aid and set up an experts’ panel to explore how to check price volatility. Milk prices have dropped 30 per cent since November 2008 when the ministers decided to phase out milk quotas, that limit production, by 2015.
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To avoid trial, oil trading company Trafigura offered US $47.8 million in compensation to 31,000 people in Ivory Coast who fell ill after a ship dumped Trafigura’s toxic waste in the commercial capital of Abidjan in 2006.
Swiss multinational Nestle said it would stop buying milk from a farm owned by the wife of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe after human rights activists threatened to boycott its products.
The tiny island nation of Palau, near the Philipines, plans to create the world’s first shark sanctuary, banning commercial shark fishing in its waters. Sharks are increasingly under threat as the demand for shark-fin soup has risen worldwide.
China has approved the construction of two thirdgeneration nuclear power plants in its coastal province of Shandong. The reactors, with US-based Westinghouse Electric’s AP 1000 technology, will have a capacity of 1,250 megawatts each.
Tropical storm Ketsana swept through the Philippines, China and Vietnam in the last week of September, leading to landslides and severe flooding in the region. The Philippines was the worst hit.
The number of people affected by H1N1 virus in UK jumped in the last week of September, indicating the start of a second wave of the flu as the winter approaches, health officials said.
Martinique, the French island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, banned fishing after it found high levels of chlordecone, a carcinogenic pesticide, in its river and some coastal areas. The pesticide was used on banana plantations until it was banned in 1993.
Brazil proposed a ban on sugarcane plantations in environmentally sensitive areas and food-growing farms. The plan comes amid concerns that the country’s biofuel industry is fuelling Amazon’s deforestation.
Human rights groups in Peru demanded the government authorize therapeutic abortions. Though it is legal since 1924, there is no government document granting authorization to hospitals due to opposition by the Catholic church.
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Indigenous people across Ecuador are protesting the proposed water use and management law, which allows multinational mining companies to control the country’s water supplies. Ecuador, rich in petroleum and gold reserves, is rewriting policies to attract foreign investment.
The Argentine government created a new agriculture ministry to quell a year-long protest by farmers who are angry over the farm tax policies of President Cristina Fernandez.
G-20 government leaders at the Pittsburgh summit in USA on September 24-25 agreed to end subsidies to fossil fuel industry, but set no firm timetable to do so. The move, they said, would help curb GHG emissions.
The largest coal-fired power plant, Mountaineer, in the US has begun capturing its own CO2 emissions and injecting into the rock strata underneath. It is the first commercial demonstration of carbon capture and sequestration technology. Over five years, the 30-yearold plant would sequester half a million tonnes of CO2.
Two dust storms swept through Australian states, Queensland and New South Wales, in the last week of September. Met officials said the dust storm, carrying 75,000 tonnes of dust every hour, originated from South Australia. They link it to decades of drought.
Australia announced a US $87 million plan for the country’s commercial-scale smart grid, which uses twoway digital communications to deliver electricity. This will help reduce home energy bills and minimize energy loss, said the government.
Non-profit Greenpeace slammed the World Bank for financing fossil fuel based energy projects in developing countries. In 2007-2009, the Bank allocated US $2.2 billion to such projects and US $783 million to renewable projects.
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