Global Warming in Colombia
Colombian President: Illegal Drugs Contribute to Global Warming - 8/2/08
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Friday proposed that the anti-narcotics drive be added to the campaign against global warming, since drug traffickers destroyed jungles to make room for illegal plantations.
"Drugs are the great enemy of the jungle," Uribe said during a regional summit on Drugs, Security and Cooperation in Cartagena, some 700 km north of the Colombian capital Bogota. "I'd like to suggest the fight against illegal drugs be included in the battle against global warming," he said.
Jungles cover around 51 percent of Colombia's total territory of1.16 million square km, he said, pointing out that drug traffickers have destroyed more than two million hectares of jungle to create illegal coca plantations.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Colombia is the greatest world producer of cocaine with an annual output of 610 tons.
Plan Colombia Aerial Spraying Not Proven Safe for the Environment - 12/21/06
The Colombian government violated a bilateral accord with Ecuador when it sprayed a mixture of herbicides intended to destroy coca crops within 10 kilometers of the Ecuadorian border. Colombia is relying on studies by a team from the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the Organization of American States (OAS) to claim that the spray mixture is safe.
However, an independent review of CICAD's recent studies shows that the pesticide mixture being sprayed has not, in fact, been proven safe for the environment, and that Ecuador has substantial cause to oppose the sprayings.
According to the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), the first CICAD Environmental and Human Health Assessment of the Aerial Spray Program for Coca and Poppy Control in Colombia, released in 2005, did not assess many of the greatest potential ecological and human health risks posed by the aerial eradication program in Colombia.
Because of these original omissions and the potential environmental risk of the spraying, the U.S. Congress requested further studies to determine whether the mixture is truly harmful to the environment.
Many other key questions about the environmental impacts of the spray mixture also remain unanswered, despite the U.S. Congressional mandate to conduct the studies. For example, the State Department has not provided adequate information about the location of and risk to sensitive water bodies and has done nothing to address whether other threatened species are likely to be harmed.
Global Warming Treaties 'ineffective' - 2/16/02
Three days of talks involving environment officials from more than 100 countries have ended in Colombia with a top United Nations official admitting that global environment treaties are having little effect.
The head of the UN environment programme, Klaus Toepfer, told journalists that most protocols were proving ineffective because they were voluntary.
His comment came a day after US President George Bush outlined his alternative to the Kyoto treaty on climate change, saying he would give tax concessions to US businesses who reduce emissions.
Correspondents say Mr Bush's announcement overshadowed the Colombia gathering, which was held to discuss an agenda for the UN development summit later this year.
The warring sides agreed to assess the environmental damage done in the West Bank and Gaza Strip through pollution of water supplies and waste dumping.
Other Countries: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, United Kingdom.
