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Biodiversity
Time For A Global Biodiversity Mechanism The Convention on Biological Diversity and the other international agreements concerned with biodiversity lack a mechanism akin to the one used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide clear scientific assessment and advice to governments and the public. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs California Aims to Save Fish, Via Poison The state's latest plan to rid Lake Davis of northern pike and protect species downstream raises concern. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs A Case of Mistaken Conservation Identity The story of the greenback cutthroat trout illustrates the difficulty of species specific management and the need for the utmost care in genetic identification. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Pareto Optimality in Environmental Management The Pareto approach provides decision-makers with a set of alternatives that estimates the full range of trade-offs among multiple objectives and provides a common ground from which dialogue can lead to an informed decision in environmental management problems. >Story >Post Comments Species Watch 16,306 Species on 2007 IUCN Red List; Increase of 180 Bird Life International to Save 189 Endangered Birds Two New Species of Salamander in Panama Homerus Swallowtail Butterfly Requires Captive Breeding Metagenetics Reveals Likely Recent Die Off Bee Virus Grevy's Zebras Saved From Anthrax Caused Extinction Iceland Renounces Commercial Whaling Tiger Numbers at Catastrophic Levels New England Marsh Grass Losses Due to Fusarium, Nematodes Australian Jellyfish Invades Southeastern U.S. Waters Again Solomon Islands to Promote Wild Dolphin Exports U.S. NOAA Signs New Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Plan Gorilla Killings Fueled By Charcoal Trade Libyan Vessel Seen With 96 Tons of Endangered Red Tuna (Fr.) Business
Corporations and
Finance
Cargill and Dow Pursuing Bioplastics Intensively In a field jump-started by skyrocketing oil prices, vegetables are the new plastics, but are they really green? >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Phillips and NAM Creating Bird-Friendly Lighting for Offshore Platforms Dutch Petrol company NAM is testing new lighting by electronics giant Philips to improve safety for migratory birds who can get disoriented by brightly-lit offshore platforms. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Investors Push Record Number of Companies to Address Climate Change Environmentally conscious investors forced a record 15 companies including ConocoPhillips, Wells Fargo and Hartford Insurance to make changes to their businesses in 2007 that they hope will help tackle the problem of climate change. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs World Bank Approves US$360M for Nile Dam The World Bank has agreed to extend to Uganda a loan to build a controversial 250MW hydropower station on the River Nile. The project at Bujagali ran into trouble after environmentalists expressed concern that the dam would drown the natural falls, and urged the government to preserve the falls by opting for less harmful and cheaper energy alternatives. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs
Climate
US Government Accountability Office Advocates Cap-and-Trade System Over Vehicle Efficiency A cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas levels could be more effective at curbing oil use than increasing vehicle fuel efficiency, according to a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). >Report (pdf) >Post Comments Blogger Proves NASA Wrong on Climate Change Some of America's top scientists have admitted that the calculations they used to show an increase in the country's temperatures were flawed, after a campaign by an amateur meteorologist using his blog. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs When Bivalves and Snails Ruled The World The Permian-Triassic extinction occurred about 275 million years ago (the more famous Jurassic extinction of dinosaurs happened about 200 million years later). The P-T extinction wiped out about 70% of land species and 90% of ocean species. Mostly bivalves and snails survived in the oceans due to their ability to tolerate the toxicity created by too much atmospheric carbon dioxide (C02). Estimates of C02 in the atmosphere at that time suggest they were from six to 10 times greater than they are today. >Story >Post Comments Climate Change and Freshwater Sources Several recent studies suggest that global warming may lead to increased continental water runoff and groundwater recharging, leading in turn to a greater abundance of freshwater in areas that receive rainfall. >Runoff >Groundwater Overview >Groundwater Study Treaty Negotiations Watch Sydney Declaration (pdf): Reforest and Reduce Intensity US, Australia Release Climate and Energy Joint Statement Basic Agreement on Rough Targets by 158 Nations in Vienna Western U.S. States Sign Climate Initiative The Forestry Eight Press for Forest Preservation Credits
Energy and Transportation
Lesser of Evils: Natural Gas or Advanced Coal? In a recent edition of the journal Environmental Science and Technology, researchers show that liquefied natural gas (LNG) imported from foreign countries and used for electricity generation could have 35 percent higher lifecycle emissions than coal used in advanced technologies and cost consumers billions in idle power plants and associated infrastructure systems. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Algeria Plans to Develop Solar Power for Export Algeria plans to make use of its hot southern desert to develop solar power for export and domestic consumption. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Toronto Turns to Lake Water for Air Conditioning The Toronto Dominion Center is the most distinctive set of office towers in the city's financial district. Three of the five black buildings were designed by Mies van der Rohe and built in the late 1960s. So was their air conditioning. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs US Bioenergy Research Grants Awarded: $383M The US Department of Energy awarded $375M to the Oak Ridge National Labs, in Tennessee; the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, in Wisconsin; and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California. The US Department of Agriculture's $8.3M will go to the University of Minnesota, $715,000; South Dakota State University, $420,000; Mississippi State University, $1.3 million; The University of Georgia, $400,000; Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, $1.2 million; The University of Florida, $750,000; The University of Delaware, $600,000; The USDA-Agricultural Research Service (Albany, Calif.) two awards, each of $600,000; The USDA-ARS (Cornell University), $700,000 and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, $1.04 million. >DOE >DOA >Post Comments >Related Blogs Wind Energy Watch Wind: Free, Plentiful, and Fickle World's Largest Wind Farm Approved for Thames Estuary Massive Offshore Wind Turbines Safe for Birds NY Utility Dumps Plans for Atlantic Ocean Wind Park, Cites Cost The Economic Case for Small-Scale Distributed Wind (pdf) Minimizing Avian Mortality in Siting Wind Turbines with GIS
Forests and
Agriculture
2007 US Farm Bill: Position Paper on Payment Limitations and Commodity Reform "While a variety of reforms are needed to reduce or eliminate the negative impacts of current commodity programs, the single most effective first step Congress could take in the 2007 Farm Bill is to cap subsidies to mega farms through Payment Limitation Reform." >Story (pdf) >Post Comments >Related Blogs Peru Energy Project Saves Rainforest Defying conventional assumptions, a vast natural gas project has helped to protect 1.5 million hectares of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Power Shortages Cause Deforestation: Zimbabwe >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs The Sustainability of Subsistence Hunting A case study of the Matsigenka Native Communities in Manu National Park, Peru reveals little or no evidence that any of five major prey species had become depleted, other than locally, despite a near doubling of the human population since 1988. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Agriculture and GM Watch Agricultural Work and Pulmonary Disease Link Bolstered EU to Clear New GMO Beet Seed Companies Offer Precision Agriculture Advice to Farmers Biotech Propels Malaysia's Growth Philippine Court Orders Halt to Imports of GM rice Eco-Tilling Detects Herbicide Resistance Early Update on Reintroduction of American Chestnut Transgenic Maize More Susceptible to Aphids Finnish Retailers' Lobby Slams Voluntary GMO Labeling India Allows First Large Trials of GM Food Crop: Brinjal
Nutrition, Health, and Wealth
Uganda on Course in Achieving Millennium Goals The United Nations Millennium Campaign was set up in 2002 to fast track the achieving of the millennium development goals (MDGs). The UN recently cited Uganda as one of the countries that have made tremendous progress towards achieving the MDGs. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Common IV Drugs Have Dangerous Sequelae A few of the most commonly used IV drugs, each containing propylene glycol, have been associated with acute kidney injury, hyperosmolality, and metabolic acidosis. The list of medications includes: Lorazepam, Phenobarbital, Diazepam, Pentobarbital, Phenytoin, Etomidate, Nitroglycerin, and Esmolol. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs |
 Allahabad, India: A worker pushes a layer of polluted foam from a drain near where the Ganges River and the Yamuna River meet. Polluting industries along the river, as well as large amounts of untreated human waste, have made the river hazardous. Dams built for irrigation have also hindered the river's flow. So far, only NGOs like the International Rivers Network are seeking to catalyze river revivals worldwide. There appears to be no global freshwater pollution mechanism since inland waters are traditionally viewed as a local issue. Under these circumstances, a Global Hydrological Convention along the lines of the climate and biodiversity frameworks seems inevitable. (Credit: National Geographic) Nutrition, Health,
and Wealth, cont'd
Using Wastewater to Study Urban Drug Use Estimating a city's drug use has been notoriously difficult and unreliable. Epidemiologists usually conduct personal surveys or track hospital emergency room visits and calls to poison-control centers In this study researchers studied wastewater samples from 10 cities throughout the United States, testing for 14 illicit, prescription, and nonprescription drugs including heroine, cocaine, meth, and oxycodone. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Environmental Exposures and Gene Regulation in Disease Etiology Pharmaceuticals, pesticides, air pollutants, industrial chemicals, heavy metals, hormones, nutrition, and behavior can change gene expression through a broad array of gene regulatory mechanisms. This literature review study shows that genetic predisposition for disease is best predicted in the context of environmental exposures. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Disease Watch River Blindness Parasite Developing Immunity 160 Italian Towns Infected by Chikungunya Virus Rabies Halted For First Time After Infecting Brain Ten Minute Cancer Test Human-to-Human Spread of Avian-Flu in Indonesia in 2006 Baxter and British Sign Bird Flu Vaccine Deal Kenyan Malaria Success With Bed Nets for Children Nanoparticle Anthrax Vaccine Shows Efficacy in Rodents Adequate Vitamin D3 Levels Lower Risk of Colon, Breast Cancers H5N1 Bird Flu at German Poultry Farm Avastin Approved for Lung Cancer in EU New and/or Noteworthy Media
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming Book by Bjorn Lomborg Time magazine has called the Danish statistician one of the 100 most influential people in the world. His latest book makes a controversial argument: that the environmental movement has greatly exaggerated the dangers of climate change, and, as a result, distracted public attention from more urgent global crises. >MP3 Interview With Author The 11th Hour Film by Leonardo DiCaprio A call to action on the environment, and way more than a powerpoint for tree huggers. >Audio Film Review The Weathermakers Book by Tim Flannery "With The Weather Makers, Tim Flannery delivers an almighty wallop to [the climate] debate. The general reader can absorb it and feel enlightened; the scientific reader can, and must, use it as a springboard for further research." >Book Site Science and Policy
Frontiers
YouTube For Scientists Launched A website being dubbed the YouTube for scientists has been launched, raising new hopes of bringing science closer to the people. >Story >Post Comments >Related Blogs Citizen Scientists Help Monitor Nation's Rivers Day after day, Chauncey Moran leaves his backwoods cabin, packs his pickup with gear and embarks on a scientific mission: checking the health of the Yellow Dog River. |
