Water evaporation due to climate change is responsible for Lake Titicaca dropping an inch a week. Over two million people depend on this lake fed by glaciers rapidly melting. This is the canary in the coal mine of global warming.
I would also like to know why my picture was removed and why I can now not replace it.Water evaporation due to climate change is responsible for Lake Titicaca dropping an... more
Whether you’re concerned about national security or have green motivations as well, you might be eagerly awaiting electric cars and plug-ins in hopes of escaping your reliance on OPEC and foreign oil, but as of late there’s been plenty of coverage suggesting that future battery supply could be limited by control of lithium stores.
“The Saudi Arabia of lithium,” Bolivia, has about 50 percent of the world’s lithium deposits in its salt flats and now plans to produce its own batteries by 2016, reports the BBC, provided the demand is there.
What’s more, Bolivia’s mining minister, Luis Echazu, told the BBC that the South American country has been negotiating directly with Sumitomo and Mitsubishi, among other companies. In any agreement with a company, the Bolivian state will have the majority stake.
Those are among the pieces of information discussed in this week’s episode of Peter Day’s World of Business, on BBC Radio, which over a half-hour report goes into some depth on Bolivia’s plan to capitalize on its vast stores of lithium—necessary to produce the lithium-ion batteries that will permit satisfactory performance, range, and packaging.
The study will examine how plug-in hybrids are recharged and how this will affect marketing of these vehicles
The study will examine how plug-in hybrids are recharged and how this will affect marketing of these vehicles
Lithium-ion batteries are essential for both full electric vehicles (EVs), like the upcoming 2012 Nissan Leaf, or plug-ins like the 2011 Chevrolet Volt.Whether you’re concerned about national security or have green motivations as well,... more
Approximately 2.5 billion people in this world do not have adequate access to sanitation, with waterborne diseases being the number one killer of children in the developing world. This was a project performed to test the effects of solar disinfection of water to reduce childhood diarrhoea in rural Bolivia. It is studies like this that hopefully will bring better health to developing rural communities where sanitation and access to potable safe water is a daily life and death struggle.Approximately 2.5 billion people in this world do not have adequate access to... more
President Evo Morales
Bolivian president Evo Morales gets the last laugh after discussing everything from agrarian reform to global warming.President Evo Morales
Bolivian president Evo Morales gets the last laugh after... more
Drinking water is an abundant resource on the planet, but not equally. In temperate countries, water almost never lacks, while in those hotter happens quite often. And with global warming, the situation could deteriorate quickly in the coming years. The WWF has published a study showing that even those countries that have abundant water, in this case Germany, depend greatly on the availability of water in other countries.Drinking water is an abundant resource on the planet, but not equally. In temperate... more
L'acqua potabile è una risorsa teoricamente abbondante sul pianeta, ma non in ugual misura. Nei paesi temperati l'acqua non manca quasi mai, in quelli caldi può mancare anche molto spesso. E con il riscaldamento globale la situazione potrebbe peggiorare molto nei prossimi anni. Il Wwf ha pubblicato uno studio che mostra come anche i paesi che abbondano d'acqua, in questo caso la Germania, dipendano moltissimo dalla disponibilità d'acqua in altri paesi.L'acqua potabile è una risorsa teoricamente abbondante sul pianeta, ma non in ugual... more
Anyone who grew up on The Cat In The Hat and Green Eggs and Ham remembers the illustrations of one Mr. Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss. Trees with elongated trucks or with improbable collections of limbs, stark and scraggily landscapes with oddly balanced rocks and unlikely geometric shapes, buildings with unusual protrusions, awkward angles and with no two windows exactly the same—these were some of the hallmarks of world Dr. Seuss illustrated in his 60 children’s books.
Here’s a look at some places on Planet Earth—places you can visit on your next vacation—that resemble scenes from a Dr. Seuss illustration . . .Anyone who grew up on The Cat In The Hat and Green Eggs and Ham remembers the... more
Single mom Bolivian immigrant Ana Luisa Cornejo shares her thoughts about winning over poverty and rising from a janitor to a rental property manager in Arlington, Virginia.Single mom Bolivian immigrant Ana Luisa Cornejo shares her thoughts about winning... more
This is a short film I made while living with a family in the Amazon jungle. I chose to use no words since the beautiful imagery speaks for itself as it documents this Bolivian lifestyle.This is a short film I made while living with a family in the Amazon jungle. I chose... more
A Bolivian television network broadcast exclusive photographs of doomed Flight 447. The network apparently hadn't been keeping up with ABC's LOST, as the 'photographs' were just screen caps from scenes from the pilot episode.
Whoopsies.A Bolivian television network broadcast exclusive photographs of doomed Flight 447.... more
Scientists in Bolivia say that one of the country's most famous glaciers has almost disappeared as a result of climate change.
The Chacaltaya glacier, 5,300m (17,400 ft) up in the Andes, used to be the world's highest ski run.
But it has been reduced to just a few small pieces of ice.
Many Bolivians on the highland plains, and in two cities, depend on the melting of the glaciers for their water supply during the dry season.
The team of Bolivian scientists started measuring the Chacaltaya glacier in the 1990s. Not long ago they were predicting that it would survive until 2015.
But now it seems, the glacier has melted at a much faster rate than they expected.
Photos taken in the last two weeks show that all that is left of the majestic glacier, which is thought to be 18,000 years old, are a few lumps of ice near the top.Scientists in Bolivia say that one of the country's most famous glaciers has almost... more
If anyone needs a reminder of the on-the-ground impacts of global climate change, come to the Andes mountains in Bolivia . At 17,388 feet above sea level, Chacaltaya, an 18,000 year-old glacier that delighted thousands of visitors for decades, is gone, completely melted away as of some sad, undetermined moment early this year.
"Chacaltaya has disappeared. It no longer exists,'' said Dr. Edson Ramirez , head of an international team of scientists that has studied the glacier since 1991.
Chacaltaya (the name in Aymara means ''cold road'') began melting in the mid-1980s. Ramirez, the assistant director of the Institute of Hydraulics and Hydrology at the Universidad Mayor de San Andres in nearby La Paz , documented its disappearance in March.
Approximately 35 miles from La Paz , it takes an hour and a half to drive the gravel and rock road up tortuous switchbacks to the top of the mountain of the same name. Visitors on a clear day -- and there are many such days -- can see the Bolivian highland plain, or altiplano, thousands of feet below, and the nearby Huayna Potosi and Illimani mountains, part of the Cordillera Real de los Andes.
Ten years ago Ramirez and his team of researchers concluded that the glacier would survive until 2015. But the rate of thaw increased threefold in the last decade, according to their studies. He believes the disappearance of Chacaltaya is an indication of the potent effects at higher elevations of the interaction of greenhouse gas accumulation and an increase in average global temperatures.
And he thinks other glaciers in the region also may be melting at a rate faster than previously known. Illimani, the colossal 21,200-foot mountain that looms over the city of La Paz and has served as the backdrop for postcard-perfect pictures since film was invented, is the home to several glaciers. They likely will melt completely within 30 years, he said.
''It's very probable that other glaciers are disappearing faster than we thought,'' he said. Researchers fear that Chacaltaya's fate will be shared by other glaciers in other areas of Bolivia , and in Peru and Ecuador as well, he said.
In May, the members of Ramirez's research team will gather here to honor the fallen glacier and to commemorate the end of 18 years of work.
end of excerptIf anyone needs a reminder of the on-the-ground impacts of global climate change, come... more
Bolivia’s Chacaltaya Glacier, once known as the world’s highest ski run at 17,388 feet, has completely melted away, serving as a vivid example of the effects of climate change on the glaciers around the globe.
More in the link...Bolivia’s Chacaltaya Glacier, once known as the world’s highest ski run at 17,388... more
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is an attempt to expand the failed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to every country in Central America, South America and the Caribbean, except Cuba. Negotiations began right after the completion of NAFTA in 1994 and were supposed to have been completed by January 1, 2005.
But an exciting thing happened: the FTAA was not signed on January 1st. Led by strong social movements across the hemisphere, countries like Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil have said NO to a model that has increased poverty across the globe, and are instead searching for a better model of regional integration.
Add your support to the thousands of people who are organizing to show that NAFTA should not be expanded but should be replaced with an international system of cooperation that fosters social equality, human rights, cultural diversity, environmental sustainability, and community well being. We've stopped the FTAA - for now. And now we MUST STOP CAFTA!!
Groups around the hemisphere have also been working together on an alternative agreement that will offer a workable vision of what a fair trade agreement would look like (see www.asc-hsa.org).The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is an attempt to expand the failed North... more
The IMF and World Bank are knocking on Latin America's door. A headline in Tuesday's Washington Post reads, "Latin America Appears to Warm to IMF." But that is not what Bolivia's Evo Morales--the country's first indigenous president--said last week when he spoke in front of the United Nations on Earth Day. Morales told reporters that the IMF had "blackmailed" his country and that privatization of basic services and natural resources was not an option.
GRITtv had a chance to sit down with Morales and discuss his equality agenda, socialism, and the Bolivian banking system.The IMF and World Bank are knocking on Latin America's door. A headline in Tuesday's... more
Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, spoke out on Earth Day urging other nations to protect the planet's 'right to life.' 'Not just human beings have rights, but the planet has rights,' he said. 'What's happening with climate change is that the rights of Mother Earth are not being respected.' Morales supports a sort of Universal Declaration of Rights for the planet.
It's an interesting approach to environmentalism, giving the Earth a set of rights, but one that may be useful.Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, spoke out on Earth Day urging other nations to... more
I'm surprised by this - footballers' warm up routines are specifically designed to avoid stiffness. This is encouraging it.
A Bolivian football team's former physiotherapist says he gave players the sex drug Viagra to help them play at high altitude in the main city.
Rodrigo Figueroa told La Prensa newspaper he had prescribed Viagra, which oxygenates the blood, to at least nine players in his team, Blooming.
The team from Santa Cruz, 400m (1,300ft) above sea level, were playing at more than 3,500m in La Paz.
Players were unaware of what they were taking, the physiotherapist said.
He stressed that Viagra was not on the list of banned drugs.
"We prescribed it for several players, especially those who suffered most from altitude," said Mr Figueroa.
He had, he explained, administered the product by mixing it with fruit juice.
Asked about his former side's results using the product, Figueroa, who is now with Bolivar in La Paz, replied:
"At altitude you win, you draw, you lose. The best results came when the team relied on strong tactical nous."I'm surprised by this - footballers' warm up routines are specifically designed to... more
Bolivian security forces were involved in a shootout with would be assassins. Three men were killed after plotting to assassinate Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia. The men were said to be Hungarian and Irish.Bolivian security forces were involved in a shootout with would be assassins. Three... more
Bolivia accounts for a tiny fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions. But it will soon be paying a disproportionately high price for a major consequence of global warming: the rapid loss of glaciers and a subsequent decline in vital water supplies.
by carolyn kormann
Earlier this year, the World Bank released yet another in a seemingly endless stream of reports by global institutions and universities chronicling the melting of the world’s cryosphere, or ice zone. This latest report concerned the glaciers in the Andes and revealed the following: Bolivia’s famed Chacaltaya glacier has lost 80 percent of its surface area since 1982, and Peruvian glaciers have lost more than one-fifth of their mass in the past 35 years, reducing by 12 percent the water flow to the country’s coastal region, home to 60 percent of Peru’s population.
And if warming trends continue, the study concluded, many of the Andes’ tropical glaciers will disappear within 20 years, not only threatening the water supplies of 77 million people in the region, but also reducing hydropower production, which accounts for roughly half of the electricity generated in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.
Chances are that many of Bolivia’s Aymara Indians heard little or nothing about the report. But then the Aymara — who make up at least 25 percent of Bolivia’s population — don’t need the World Bank to tell them what they can see with their own eyes: that the great Andean ice caps are swiftly vanishing. Those who live near Bolivia’s capital city of La Paz need only glance up at Illimani, the 21,135-foot mountain that looms over the city, and watch as its ice fields fade away. Their loss adds to a growing unease among the Aymara — and many Bolivians — who realize that the loss of the country’s glaciers could have profound consequences.
The Aymara worship the ice-draped mountains as Achachilas, or life-giving deities, whose meltwater is vital to a region that suffers a five-month dry season and relies on agriculture to survive. Now, as greenhouse gas emissions heat the earth, the Aymara are bracing for a future in which glaciers no longer can be counted on to supply life-sustaining water.
In recent decades, 20,000-year-old glaciers in Bolivia have been retreating so fast that 80 percent of the ice will be gone before a child born today reaches adulthood. So far this melting has brought temporary increases in stream flow and contributed to massive Amazonian floods that forced several hundred thousand people from their homes last year.
But within the next decade, scientists predict that this torrent of meltwater will turn into a trickle as glaciers shrink, meaning that the age-old source of water during the dry season will steadily dwindle. Some highland farmers near La Paz already report decreased water supplies.
“Here you have precipitation only part of the year,” said French glaciologist Patrick Ginot as he stood at 16,500 feet next to Zongo glacier last year. “But it’s stored on the glacier and then melting throughout the year, and so you have water throughout the year. If you lose the glacier, you have no more storage.”
In effect, underdeveloped countries such as Bolivia are paying dearly for the massive energy consumption of the United States and the industrialized world. The so-called “carbon footprint” of the average Bolivian peasant is negligible, yet Bolivia’s poor are not only among the first to feel the harsh effects of climate change, but also are sorely lacking the resources to adapt to it.
“The grand question here is, who compensates,” says Oscar Paz, director of Bolivia’s National Climate Change Program, “because we are not culpable for climate change. It’s not fair that a country like Bolivia, which emits 0.02 percent of global greenhouse emissions, already has annual economic losses from the impacts of climate change equivalent to four percent of our GDP.”
More at the linkBolivia accounts for a tiny fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions. But it will... more
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