Analysis: Environment

Cancún Climate Summit: Time for a New Geopolitical Architecture

By Nikolas Kozloff, Nov 24th 2010

As we approach crucial climate change negotiations in Cancún, Mexico, the key question on many people's minds is this: What nation or nations will have the courage to stand up to the United States, which still represents the key obstacle to a binding agreement on global warming?

From Agribusiness to Agroecology? An Analysis of Venezuela’s Nationalization of AgroIsleña

By Juan Reardon – Venezuelanalysis.com, Oct 19th 2010

A bicyclist passes by an AgroIsleña distribution center (Globovision)

With the nationalization of AgroIsleña, the Venezuelan state has taken an important step in the struggle to bring social and economic factors under greater control of the Venezuelan people and out of the hands of private, profit-driven firms. What is yet to be understood is what ecological factors will be considered as the AgroPatria project moves forward.

“Sowing Light” Part 1: Bringing Solar Power to Rural Venezuela

By James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com, Aug 30th 2010

A solar system for an adobe-walled home

Suggett visits the isolated rural village of El Quinó, where the government and community have worked together to install solar power, bringing electricity to the town for the first time, along with other social benefits.

Moving Toward Land Reform, Food Sovereignty and Agroecology in Venezuela

By Alan Broughton - Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network, Aug 23rd 2010

A massive transformation of agriculture is occurring in Venezuela, a transformation that has lessons for every other country in the world.

Oil in Venezuela: The Lesser of Two Evils

By Anthony W. Persaud, Jul 13th 2010

Venezuela´s oil riches have enabled its government to begin building a new society, enabled it to help its neighbours and stand up for itself in the world, demonstrating to the world that many positive outcomes are possible even from a resource with such potential for destruction

Venezuelan Tree Mission Launches Community-Led Reforestation Campaign

By Juan Reardon – Venezuelanalysis.com , Jul 8th 2010

In Venezuela, the Environment Ministry has launched a year-long, nationwide weekend tree-planting campaign through the Misión Arbol, or “Tree Mission”, an integral reforestation and conservation effort that depends largely on grassroots participation.

Bolivarian Ecosocialism

By Sam McGill, May 30th 2010

An interview with Natalie Lazaro Barrios on the Indo-Bolivarian Ecosocialism forum, the Mother Earth Mission, and environmental work in Venezuela post the climate summit in Cochabamba.

The Eco-Socialist Alternative: Capitalist Destruction or New Civilization?

By Gustavo Fernández Colón - Another Green World, May 28th 2010

The most serious aspect of the crisis facing the global capitalist system is not the bankruptcy of financial corporations, or the global economic downturn, or the discrediting of its institutions of political control. It is the environmental crisis caused by the irrational destruction of nature, to the point of jeopardizing the ability of self-regeneration of the ecosystems on which our survival depends.

Venezuela: Revolution in the Electrical Industry

By Federico Fuentes - Correo del Orinoco International, Mar 28th 2010

Workers in the electrical sector are set to embark on nationwide consultation process to elaborate strategic and immediate solutions for the electricity crisis. Alongside proposals for improving the sector and energy-saving measures, discussions will focus on introducing workers' participation in the management of the state-owned electricity company, Corpoelec.

ALBA Declaration on Copenhagen Climate Summit

By ALBA countries, Dec 28th 2009

The following is the statement issued by the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) on 18 December in response to the results of the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on How to Tackle Climate Change: “We Must Go from Capitalism to Socialism”

By Amy Goodman - Democracy Now!, Dec 23rd 2009

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spared no criticism of the climate conference in Copenhagen. Well, shortly after the news conference, I caught up with President Chavez for a few minutes.

Venezuelan President’s Speech on Climate Change in Copenhagen

By Hugo Chavez, Dec 17th 2009

A translation of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s speech on December 16, 2009 at the XV International Conference of the United Nations Organization on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Venezuelan Environmentalist: "Tomorrow is too late"

By Federico Fuentes - Green Left Weekly, Aug 23rd 2009

Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network national co-convenor Frederico Fuentes spoke to Heryck Rangel, an environmental activist and leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela Youth (JPSUV), about the challenges that the global environment crisis poses for Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution, and the planet.

Land Reform Conflict in Venezuela’s Strategic Water Source

By James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com, Aug 11th 2008

Cooperativist ecological farmers supported by the Venezuelan government’s land reform programs were attacked last Thursday by armed and masked men who, the farmers say, were hired by large estate owners in the area to cut short the changes heralded by the “Bolivarian Revolution” in their rural Andean Mountain valley.

Will the Bolivarian Revolution End Coal Mining in Venezuela?

By James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com, May 29th 2008

The Wayúu, Yukpa, and Barí indigenous communities who would have been displaced by the coal mining projects in their lands cautiously interpret the Chavez government's suspension of these projects as a temporary sign of relief. But their struggle against coal mining has lasted a quarter of a century and will not conclude until mining concessions are repealed for good.