Green Options

In Peru, the government has acted on the financially troubled and environmentally challenged Doe Run Peru smelter. Their response to the closure of the site has been to give the operators a 30-month extension on their previous environmental clean-up deadline.

September isn’t usually the silly season, but this week’s environmental protests are all weird, wonderful, whacky or … missing!

It’s rare that a city sets out to create a new tourist attraction and is able to do so with terrific success– but Lima, Peru has done it.

The Magical Fountain amazes visitors with its rapid changes and height.

While Lima is generally trashed by Peru guidebooks as the place everyone must dreadfully pass through on their way to other destinations like Machu Picchu, in the past few years great strides have been made to improve the city’s offerings, such as “The Magic Circuit of Water” in Lima’s Parque de la Reserva.

Technological innovations can solve some of the world’s biggest problems right? That’s what a firm of Chilean architects would like us to believe. They’ve come up with a creative idea for how land-locked Bolivia could regain access to the ocean. It was not too long ago, in 1883 to be exact, that Bolivia lost the little coastline it had in a war with Chile. Since it’s only be gone for a short time, now’s the perfect time to get it back!

Japan has agreed to supply Peru with a $120 million loan to help protect approximately 136 million acres of the Amazon Rainforest from deforestation.

The loan will have an annual interest rate of 0.1% and won’t need to be repaid for 40 years. It is part of a plan to help Peru reach a rate of zero deforestation in the next 10 years. Peru’s Minister of the Environment says that the amount of forest that will be protected help store 20 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, aiding in efforts to combat global climate change.

A jaguar recently swam onto an island located in the Panama Canal. It then triggered a hidden camera that took its picture. This is the first time a jaguar has been photographed in the 86 year history of 3,707 acre Barro Colorado Island– one of the most well-researched tropical ecosystems in the world.

The hidden camera had been set up as part of an annual effort to inventory mammals that live on Barro Colorado Island. According to the researchers who set up the cameras, the finding is exciting given that jaguars are already considered rare throughout the entire country of Panama (see photo below).

So just how far did the jaguar have to swim?

A device invented by Peruvians known as the “Super Tree” has recently made its debut in Lima, a city plagued with extreme air pollution. The Super Tree acts like 1200 real trees, purifying the air for approximately 20,000 people a day, at the cost of only about $6.

The company Tierra Nuestra (Our Earth) is behind the Super Tree, and hopes to begin exporting the technology. The company’s goal is to promote conservation through the development of new technologies and renewable energy.

Earlier this month, one of Peru’s major newspapers reported that Disney might open a park about an hour south of Lima on Peru’s coast. Would a Disney theme park be good or bad for Peru?

That’s the question that is now on many peoples’ minds. Comment threads on popular Peruvian and expatriate websites show a diversity of opinions. Some people think a Disney theme park would be great for providing jobs in a country that needs them, while others think it would amount to exploitation.

A project that trained medical personnel to install solar power at hospitals and mobile clinics along the war-torn border of Burma has won the top prize at this year’s Energy Globe environmental awards.

The medical centers provide crucial aid to approximately 200,000 refugees who have fled Burma because of the catastrophic, genocidal efforts [...]

A new grass mouse was discovered in the high altitude mountain forests of Peru.

Peru is sponsoring a project to divert river water from one region to another by constructing a 12.5 mile long tunnel through a 6000 foot high mountain. Is this a crazy abuse of human power, or a wonderful use of our capabilities?

The tunnel is part of the Olmos-Tinajones Hydroelectric-Irrigation Project and will divert water from the Huancabamba River of Peru’s Cajamarca region to the neighboring region of Lambayeque. It will be completed by year’s end, and will irrigate approximately 150,000 hectares of land (~ 375,000 acres) and generate up to 600 MW of electricity.