Central and South America

A small village founded in Colombia in the 1960s as an experiment in sustainable agriculture is still thriving. Experts like Amory Lovins are paying Gaviotas a visit to learn their secrets.

October 19, 2009 - The New York Times

This article reviews the lengths Rio and Chicago went to show the Olympic Committee their green ambitions. Hint: both planted trees.

October 16, 2009 - Fast Company

Rio de Janeiro has been named the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics. Now, the city has to start making its Olympic promises come true.

October 11, 2009 - USA Today

Drawn to the Galapagos Islands by their booming tourism industry, thousands of poor Ecuadorians are being booted from the sensitive ecosystem to counteract the negative impact of the rising human population.

October 7, 2009 - The New York Times

Rio de Janeiro has been selected as the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics. This analysis from NPR looks at why the Brazilian city was the obvious choice.

October 5, 2009 - NPR

As the International Olympic Committee prepares to announced the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics this week, South Americans are hoping it's finally their time. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is one of four finalists, but some say the city isn't ready.

September 29, 2009 - Time

A new report from the International Olympic Committee has evaluated the four host candidates for the 2016 Summer Olympics and found many places for improvement ahead of its October 2 decision.

September 3, 2009 - The Chicago Tribune

Susanna Diaz reviews a new book covering the history and thought of urban planning in Brazil, edited by Profs. Vicente del Rio and William Siembieda of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

September 3, 2009 - Vicente del Rio

This video from the BBC looks inside some of the 200 urban farms that provide vegetables for Havana and the rest of Cuba.

August 29, 2009 - BBC

New public space has opened in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in an unlikely place. The new park sits a few feet above the contaminated grounds of a deactivated municipal incinerator.

August 4, 2009 - Metropolis

It's going to cost Brazil more than $42 billion in infrastructure costs to host the 2014 soccer World Cup, according to a recent report.

July 24, 2009 - Associated Press

Bogota, Colombia's bus rapid transit system is seen as a shining example of how buses can make up a good public transportation system in cities. It's also being looked at as a model for fighting climate change.

July 10, 2009 - The New York Times

The Brazilian government has just approved a measure that would grants legal land rights to squatters in the Amazon.

June 28, 2009 - Guardian

Author Greg Gardin travels from Michigan to the Amazon to show how the Fordist economy's reductionistic search for efficiencies led to its own -- and Detroit's -- downfall.

June 25, 2009 - TomDispatch.com

Utopian modernism turned on its head in Caracas, where residents have made fifty-year-old superblock housing projects into the locus of sprawling improvised settlements.

May 14, 2009 - Triple Canopy

This piece from Utne Reader looks at Ecuador's recent extension of inalienable rights to nature and why other countries should follow this lead.

May 13, 2009 - Utne Reader

GOOD provides a glimpse of TransMilenio, a Colombian bus rapid transit system and shining example of BRT done right.

April 22, 2009 - GOOD Magazine

Taking a hint from heightened interest in Brazil's favelas, a German developer plans to build 10 villas in a Rio de Janeiro slum, which he'll market as the new tourist hotspot.

March 18, 2009 - International Herald Tribune

As part of a special issue on food, Yes! Magazine profiles the Brazilian city of Belo, which has, by working with farmers and communities, put an end to hunger.

March 16, 2009 - Yes! Magazine

A new plan is taking form in Brazil to regularize titles to rainforest land -- an effort the government hopes will fight deforestation.

February 28, 2009 - The Economist