Media Mentions

UN Suspends Clean Energy Project Auditor

Monday, December 1, 2008
Originally published in Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - The U.N. climate change body has suspended one of the largest auditors of clean energy projects under Kyoto Protocol, a move highlighting problems long aired by critics of the climate pact's greenhouse gas trading scheme. Norway's DNV had their accreditation as project auditors suspended late last week for five "non-conformities" relating to its practices, the U.N. said after performing a spot check of the company's operations in early November. The suspension means DNV cannot file for project registration or request credits under the Clean De

Carbon Market Fundamentalism

Thursday, November 20, 2008
Originally published in the Multinational Monitor The waste-pickers of Delhi may soon rank among the world's endangered species if carbon markets continue their rise. Now numbering in the tens if not hundreds of thousands, waste-pickers have plied the garbage of Delhi's streets for decades. A disturbing spectacle, often including women and children in their ranks, they nonetheless provide a vital service: recycling. In a country like India, paper, plastic and metals are an increasingly valuable commodity. And for slum-dwellers, this may be their only source of income. And so they join the cows

Lao Dams Muddying the Waters

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Originally printed in Phnom Penh Post A SPATE of new hydropower projects slated for construction in southern Laos could wreak havoc downstream in Cambodia, according to environmental groups, but international agreements governing the sustainable development of the Mekong River basin lack the capacity to address the trans-boundary impacts of the dams.Six large dams are already under construction in Laos, with a further 12 at an advanced stage of planning, part of a long-term Lao government strategy to turn the country into the "battery of Asia" by exporting hydroelectricity to power-starved Tha

Washington Post: Doubt, Anger Over Brazil Dams

Tuesday, October 14, 2008
www.washingtonpost.com As Work Begins Along Amazon Tributary, Many Question Human, Environmental CostsPORTO VELHO, Brazil -- It is quiet here on the wrong side of progress. Hot wind blows dust across the dry bluffs. The brown river runs wide and placid.In his painted wooden skiff, Francisco Evangelista de Abreu, a fisherman, motors up-current. Two river dolphins crest and submerge. His mind is elsewhere. The dam is coming."I don't know what's going to happen," he said. "I don't have any experience outside of this."The task he and his neighbors are undertaking is to re-imagine their lives. They

Damming for Development: Lessons from Laos

Friday, June 27, 2008
Opinion piece published by Reuters AlertNet A Lao man, his face and hands hardened by the sun and years of fishing, tends his water buffalo by the Theun River and wonders what his life will be like "after the flood". That's how he referred to the water that has now started rising behind the Nam Theun 2 dam, turning an area more than four times the size of Paris - including the land his family has tilled for generations - into a stagnant reservoir. Will he, and the more than 6,000 others who have been displaced, be better off thanks to the Nam Theun 2 hydropower project, as the Lao government,

Nam Theun 2 Dam: Rising Water, Falling Expectations

Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Opinion piece published in Thailand's The Nation A Lao man, his face and hands hardened by the sun after years of fishing and farming, tends his water buffalo by the Theun River and wonders what his life will be like "after the flood". That's how he referred to the water that has now started rising behind the Nam Theun 2 dam in central Laos. Will he, and the thousands of others who have been displaced, be better off thanks to the Nam Theun 2 hydropower project, as the Lao government, the dam developers and the World Bank contend? Or will he and his children face an uncertain future of rice sho

NPR: Brazilian Tribes Say Dam Threatens Way of Life

Saturday, May 31, 2008
Julie McCarthy, NPR’s South American correspondent filed this in-depth, detailed and evocative feature about the struggle of the Amazonian Indians to stop the damming of the Xingu River. Her eyewitness report on the Xingu Encounter aired May 31 on Weekend Edition—NPR’s most widely listened to show.

Real News Online: Tensions Run High at Amazon Dam Protest

Saturday, May 24, 2008
The Real News interviews Glenn Switkes and Amazon Indigenous Indian protesters who say the social and environmental costs of the Belo Monte Dam, the world's third largest proposed dam, will destroy their way of life and wreck the Xingu River's ecosystem.

NPR Living on Earth: “Damming the Developing World”

Friday, May 23, 2008
Listen to Patrick McCully on the award winning NPR show “Living on Earth", as he discusses the failed carbon offset model to slow global warming and misguided dam projects in Africa and other parts of the developing world.

Christian Science Monitor: The Big Chill on Carbon Offsets

Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Up to two-thirds of the UN-approved projects do nothing to reduce carbon.Editorial published in the Christian Science Monitor, 29 May 2008Before Congress attacks global warming with a cap on greenhouse gases – and then allows firms to pollute if they buy "carbon offsets" elsewhere – lawmakers should consult the UN's abysmal record in this slippery type of trading.The UN set up its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to help companies in industrialized countries invest in projects in poorer nations that cut greenhouse-gas emissions as part of their countries' commitment under the Kyoto Protoc

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