Daniela Brik News Today

By Daniela Brik Loja, Ecuador, Jul 6 (EFE).- A pioneering project in Ecuador to synthesize graphene is starting to yield promising results in the removal of pollutants from water. Dubbed the ‘material of the future’, graphene — a microscopic hexagonal mesh of carbon atoms — is a highly resistant but very flexible material with a …

By Daniela Brik Quito, May 26 (EFE).- Guardians of nature whose survival is threatened is how Alex Lucitante and Alexandra Narvaez define themselves. The young indigneous pair were awarded the Goldman 2022 Environmental Prize for the legal precedent their community set in Ecuador against unauthorized extractive activities in the Amazon. “The day on which the …

By Daniela Brik Loja, Ecuador, May 2 (EFE).- A UNESCO initiative is striving to instill a culture of peace and strengthen the social fabric in Tierras Coloradas, a violent crime-racked neighborhood of this southern Ecuadorian city. And the focus of those efforts is on the community’s children, who are seen as the best hope for …

By Daniela Brik Quito, Mar 24 (EFE).- “I’m Arianna and I’m 18 years old. I’m Venezuelan.” Those are the opening lines of “Del otro lado” (From the Other Side), a film produced by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and funded by the European Union that examines the struggles of …

By Daniela Brik Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Feb 7 (EFE).- Conservation experts from Ecuador and Israel starting Monday are participating in a symposium to analyze environmental protection activities and solutions for the Galapagos Islands after the expansion of the marine preserve around the archipelago some 900 kilometers (560 miles) west of the Ecuadorian mainland. The meeting …

By Daniela Brik Quito, Dec 21 (EFE).- The Christmas season provides the occasion for showcasing the tradition of creating nativity scenes combining European and indigenous elements that flourished in Quito in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Museo San Francisco, erected on the foundation of the first Franciscan church in what would become Ecuador’s capital, …

Quito opens up to LGBTIQ+ tourism with Morganna Love as campaign cheerleader 3 minutes read By Daniela Brik Quito, Jul 14 (EFE).- Quito has launched a campaign to show itself to the world as a tourist destination for the LGBTIQ+ community, a campaign featuring a variety of activities and establishments and headlined by influential Mexican transsexual artist Morganna Love. The initiative kicked off in June and will last until September with the plan being to present the Ecuadorian capital as a...

New algae species found in Ecuador glacier 2 minutes read By Daniela Brik Quito, May 4 (EFE).- An investigation seeking to determine if radiation and other contaminating agents could be contributing to glacial melting has resulted in the discovery of new species in one of Ecuador’s seven glaciers. The find was made by a team from the Universidad Internacional SEK (UISEK) in Quito in collaboration with Spain’s University of Leon, who since 2016 have been researching watersheds and glaciers...

2 minutes read By Xavier Montalvo and Daniela Brik Tulcan, Ecuador, Apr 17 (EFE).- Every morning at 6:00, Valentina Arellano sets out with her mother on an arduous hike across the Carchi River into neighboring Colombia to the home of a relative who has a computer and internet so the 9-year-old can continue her education with schools shut down by the Covid-19 pandemic. Though Valentina is a Colombian citizen, she and her widowed mother live with a family member next to a rather grand abandoned...

The Galapagos, the tortoise breeding ground 1 minute read Daniela Brik Galapagos, Ecuador, Mar 10 (efe-epa).- For millions of years, different types of tortoises adapted to dominate their habitats on isolated volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from the American continent. Today, it is human beings who are working to prevent their extinction in the famous archipelago to which the chelonians give their name: the Galapagos. Made up of 13 large islands, six smaller ones and...