Eco-Briefs

	CHILE
	Environmental Opinions from the Poor

SANTIAGO, Jun 4 (Tierramérica).- Ninety-seven percent of the low-income residents of the capital say the city's environmental quality is "mediocre" or "very poor", 77.7 percent believe "environmental problems are not important to the politicians", and 86.2 percent think the environment is neglected due to "lack of education".

These are the results of a poll conducted by the private Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez Catholic University for the fourth year in a row.

"The poll shows that the poorest population in the region has a very complete and complex view about the issue that is reported in the media," Marcelo Yánez, in charge of the study released May 24, told Tierramérica.

"The respondents can identify all contaminant agents: from transportation to the industries of different areas of productivity," he said.

	LATIN AMERICA
	Airports as Source of Solar Energy

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 4 (Tierramérica).- A project for airports to generate solar energy is the upcoming initiative of the new Institute for the Development of Renewable Energy in Latin American (its Spanish acronym is IDEAL).

Airports represent a good option because of their vast horizontal surfaces, but they are part of a transportation system that contributes a great deal to global climate change, says Ricardo Ruther, the institute's technical director.

IDEAL, which officially opened its doors Apr. 27 in the southern Brazilian coastal city of Florianópolis, also supports legislation proposed in the national Congress that would allow people to sell solar energy produced in their homes, breaking the exclusivity of energy companies.

The German government is providing 10 million euros to promote the creation of an International Renewable Energy Agency, long a hope of the sector, said IDEAL's president Mauro Passos.

	VENEZUELA
	Tourists and Fishers on the Tail of the Orcas

CARACAS, Jun 4 (Tierramérica).- The Venezuelan ecological society Vida Marina has called on tourists and fisherfolk to help track the killer whales coming from the North Atlantic Ocean and arriving in the South Caribbean Seas.

The aim is to determine the possibilities of studying them here, executive director Jaime Bolaños told Tierramérica.

"Cetaceans of this species (Orcinus orca) can be nomads or sedentary, which opens the question about why they've come here; were they just following the cold currents of the Atlantic, or looking for food, or if this movement can be associated with climate change," Bolaños said.

Vida Marina is building links with entities of the neighboring French and Dutch islands, and of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to follow the nine-meter, six-ton black-and-white whales, who began to entertain sailors of the Venezuelan Caribbean in May.

	CUBA
	A Windy Hand from India

HAVANA, Jun 4 (Tierramérica).- A Cuban program for developing wind energy is among the beneficiaries of a broad cooperation agreement signed in Havana by India's minister of renewable energy, Vilas B. Muttemwar, and Cuba's Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.

The accord covers joint projects in research, scientific exchange in areas of renewable energy sources, and training for Cuban scientists in India.

Conrado Moreno, member of Cuba's Academy of Sciences, told Tierramérica that experts here have drawn up a wind map to determine "the most promising sites", where work began last year to set up stations to measure wind power.

India is among the four world leaders in generation of wind energy, after Germany, Spain and the United States.

*Source: Inter Press Service.