July 7th, 2010 | By Mary Stucky
Gold mining in El Salvador: Pacific Rim verdict expected in August 2010
As we get closer to our trip to Central America, we will be blogging about some of the most important issues facing the region. One of the most contentious issues facing the country of El Salvador is gold mining. Is it an economic boon or an environmental disaster? From journalist Ambar Espinoza, the latest on the case involving the so-called Pacific Rim mine.
February 13th, 2010 | By Mary Stucky
Now, a month after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, I’m reminded of the many conversations I had with people in Mexico City over recent weeks. While I struggled to comprehend what it might have been like to feel the earth shake and buildings topple, many Chilangos, as residents of Mexico City sometimes call themselves, were eager to tell me what had happened and how it had felt in 1985 when a massive earthquake killed at least 4500 people – most likely many more.
(Photo of Mexico City earthquake: Wikimedia)
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November 6th, 2009 | By Round Earth Media
The Mekong River flows through six countries. | Photo by Mary Stucky
In the United States, Canada and Europe, some old hydroelectric dams are being torn down, rejected as environmentally destructive or too expensive to repair or replace. But that’s not the case in parts of the developing world, including Southeast Asia. There dams are being built along the biologically rich Mekong River and its tributaries. In just one small country, Laos, seven large dams are currently under construction, and over 50 more are on the drawing board. Some see this as a major threat to biodiversity.
May 6th, 2008 | By Round Earth Media
Papa Lisa in the market in Cochabamba, Bolivia | All photos by Don Losure
By Mary Stucky
Nowhere is the lowly potato more revered than in the Andes of South America. This is where potatoes originated. In just two countries — Peru and Bolivia — there some 10,000 different varieties of potatoes, in colors ranging from green to black to pink. Each has a unique taste and culinary purpose.
November 30th, 2007 | By Mary Losure
The Bataburo lodge is situated in the Ecuadorian rainforest. | Photo by Don Losure
By Mary Losure
“There!” Our guide, Cirilo Tapui, points with his machete. “A gigantic woodpecker.”
I follow his gaze. Gigantic is right.
A ray of sun backlights the bird’s brilliant red crest as it pounds its huge beak on a dead tree — THWOK! THWOK! THWOK! Here in the Ecuadorian Amazon, immense and flashy birds like this still thrive, along with monkeys, tapirs, caimans and even, here and there, a jaguar.
And it’s possible, with a reasonable amount of trouble and expense, to see this rain forest wilderness firsthand. It’s not always easy or comfortable, but if you like nature (in rather large doses), it’s worth everything it takes to get there, and then some.
November 26th, 2007 | By Mary Losure
Flower plantation worker Elvia Ordonez. | Photo by Don Losure
Planning to buy a bouquet of roses for someone you love?
If, like 90 percent of the roses sold in the U.S. today, they’re imported, they may have a dark history. The workers who grew them might have been child laborers. The blooms might have been exposed to deadly, environment-polluting pesticides.
But those scenarios are beginning to change. Move over, fair-trade coffee. Now, there are fair-trade flowers.
September 3rd, 2007 | By Round Earth Media
Ana Luna Derente and her husband Vicente Fijueroa sell maca liquor in the market in Junin. | All photos by Don Losure
Long before the drug Viagra, Indians in Peru had their own libido enhancer — an unassuming root called maca.
Maca caught the attention of a U.S. company, which got a patent on this so-called natural Viagra. And just a few months ago, Wal-Mart started selling the tonic.
But Peru is crying foul, claiming maca was stolen from the people who knew about it first.
June 1st, 2007 | By Round Earth Media
Flower plantation worker Elvia Ordonez. | Photo by Mary Stucky
A trade deal with several South American countries expires tomorrow. But President Bush is expected to sign an eight-month extension — which would be a rosy deal for a country like Ecuador. We’ve had this pact with Peru, Columbia, Bolivia and Ecuador for 16 years. They send goods to the U.S. duty-free.In exchange, they’re supposed to crack down on the production of cocaine and other drugs. It’s a rosy deal for a country like Ecuador. Ecuador provides a quarter of the roses sold in this country. Mary Stucky reports.
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January 1st, 2007 | By Round Earth Media
A woman washes clothes in an irrigation ditch like the one the village is hoping for. | All photos by Don Losure
Ever since Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, took office a year ago, he has promised to raise the standard of living for people in the poorest country in South America.
Many Bolivians take that promise seriously; in a country with an indigenous majority, Morales is an Aymara Indian — the first indigenous president Bolivia has ever had. The landslide vote for the left-leaning Morales was widely seen as a call for change and a sign of the need to solve many of the country’s long-entrenched problems.
A look at everyday life in Bolivia shows how difficult that may be. It’s a place where things work differently, nothing is predictable and the future is up for grabs.
July 1st, 2001 | By Round Earth Media
A market in Cuba where growers sell what they don’t keep themselves. | Photo: Mary Stucky
While organic farming is growing across the U.S., the number of farmers in the Great Lakes using organic methods is still quite small. Not so, though, in Cuba. In the past decade that island nation has embraced small-scale organic farming and urban gardens. Production of vegetables has soared… which has attracted attention from experts in the Great Lakes region who are visiting Cuba in increasing numbers. Mary Stucky went along with one group to find out what the Cubans can teach Midwest farmers about farming.
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