In a pilot project aimed at testing the use of electric taxis and buses, the city of Montevideo, Uruguay, has found that fuel costs for electric cabs as compared to those for gasoline- and diesel-powered taxis were nine times and seven times lower, respectively. However, the study also has determined that the purchase price of an electric-powered taxi is nearly four times greater than for a conventional cab, with an electric vehicle costing US$60,000 as compared to $17,000 for a diesel-powered taxi. The cost of an electric-powered bus also proved far higher than a diesel-fueled version—$500,000 versus $150,000. Gonzalo Márquez, an economist with the executive team of the Urban Mobility Plan, a transport-modernization program of the city...
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Deforestation of the Gran Chaco, the sprawling subtropical region of arid savanna and low woodlands that takes in parts of Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia, continues at a high rate but has eased slightly since shooting up dramatically in 2012. So says the latest annual land-clearing report by Guyra Paraguay, a leading Paraguayan environmental group, based on analysis of satellite imagery. Guyra says that last year, 502,308 hectares (1.2 million acres) of the Chaco were cleared, a quantity that equates to a rate of roughly one hectare every minute. The deforestation total was slightly lower than the 539,233 hectares (1.33 million acres) registered in 2012, but far higher than the land clearing rates of 2010 and 2011, when 560,684 hectares (1.38 million acres) were cleared...
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The vast majority of the nearly 100 zoos in Argentina are little more than “collections of live animals” that fail to pursue the conservation, educational and research objectives set in international zoo standards, a new report concludes. The report, issued this month by the Félix de Azara Foundation, an Argentine nonprofit that focuses on the study and conservation of the country’s natural resources, alleges numerous problems in Argentina’s public and private zoos. These problems, the Félix de Azara Foundation report says, include mistreatment of animals, animal-trafficking and direct contact between zoo patrons and wild animals. Most zoo employees lack sufficient training, and those who are properly trained lack the budgetary resources or policies to do their work adequately, the report says. “It is a...
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The consortium building Brazil’s huge US$13-billion Belo Monte dam has failed to minimize the project’s environmental impacts and offset its social impacts sufficiently through infrastructure upgrades in the cities and towns nearest the dam, says the nonprofit Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA). Six of the 20 social and environmental conditions required as part of the dam’s licensing remain unaddressed in whole or in part, according to a March 17 report by ISA, a respected Brazilian environmental group. Ibama, the licensing and enforcement arm of the Environment Ministry, set the 20 conditions when it issued Belo Monte’s preliminary and construction licenses in 2010 and 2011, respectively. The project timeline calls for Belo Monte to receive an operating license from Ibama in November 2014—a step...
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