Alan Garcia

By Teresa Bo in Americas on December 16th, 2009
Photo from AFP

Alan Garcia will not be attending the Copenhagen meeting for global warming. Many here say he has more important things to do. On Tuesday I climbed the Ausangate glacier with a specialist from the area. He says that in 30 years these tropical glaciers and others will be gone.

It wouldn't be an enormous problem if entire communities did not depend on the water that comes down from the glaciers. They use it for their crops, mostly potatoes, and for their cattle.

What shocked me the most is that the indigenous people that have barely access to electricty knew about the meeting in Copenhagen. The told me "we hope they can help us build dams or other ways to save water for when the glacier is gone". It also surprised me that the pray to the mountain and call it "Apu". They know that their livelihood depends on the water coming down from there.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on November 28th, 2009
Photo by AFP
It was billed as a summit of presidents of Amazon countries. But most of the presidents didn’t bother to show up, making the ‘summit of presidents’ in Manaus one with few actual presidents in attendance.
 
About half of the mysterious place called "the Amazon" is in Brazil. The other half is divided between 8 other countries - Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
 
So Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's president, organised Thursday's one-day summit of Amazon countries as a chance for them to come together a forge a common agenda ahead of the all important Copenhagen climate change summit starting on December 7 - which is being billed as the biggest climate change meeting in generations.

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