United Nations University, Solving the E-waste Problem initiative 30-Oct-2011 Tests at a school beside an informal electronic waste salvage site in Ghana’s capital Accra reveal contamination due to lead, cadmium and other health-threatening pollutants over 50 times higher than risk-free levels. A produce market, a church headquarters and a soccer field are likewise polluted to varying […]
Project CLAMER (Flanders Marine Institute, (VLIZ) Oostende, Belgium, and Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), Texel, Netherlands) 13 September 2011 Sea levels, erosion top public concerns Europeans face greater risk of illness, property damage and job losses because of the impacts of climate change on the seas around them. Worried […]
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL.org) Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 5 September 2011 Landmark global online collaboration now offers trusted information on 700,000+ species, 35 million+ pages of scanned literature, 600,000+ photos and videos The second edition of the free, online collaborative Encyclopedia of Life debuts today with a redesign and new features making it easier to […]
Census of Marine Life, Washington DC 23 Aug 2011 Eight million, seven hundred thousand species (give or take 1.3 million). That is a new, estimated total number of species on Earth — the most precise calculation ever offered — with 6.5 million species found on land and 2.2 million (about 25 percent of the total) […]
United Nations University – Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, Canada 28 Jul 11 Continued reliance on a strategy of setting aside land and marine territories as “protected areas” is insufficient to stem global biodiversity loss, according to a comprehensive assessment published today in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. Despite impressively rapid growth of […]
Rockefeller University, New York 20 Jul 11 Take a second look at your iced or steaming tea. Guided by scientific experts, three New York City high school students using tabletop DNA technologies found several herbal brews and a few brands of tea contain ingredients unlisted on the manufacturers’ package. The teen sleuths also demonstrated new-to-science […]
Grand Challenges Canada, Toronto 13 Jul 11 Tanzanian researchers are awarded a two-year grant to further develop a device that uses human foot odor to lure disease-spreading mosquitos into a trap. The odor (both natural and synthetic) creates a bait that attracts four times more mosquitoes than a live human being. Such outdoor devices could one day complement indoor […]
Office of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, Malaysia, and the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) 12 July 2011 Amid growing concerns about the inadequacy of today’s inter-governmental structures for effective global environmental co-operation, member states of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will convene in Kuala Lumpur July 14-15 to […]
United Nations University – Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, Canada 11 Jul 2011 Networks of biologically-connected marine protected areas need to be carefully planned, taking into account the open ocean migrations of marine fish larvae that take them from one home to another sometimes hundreds of kilometers away. Research published today in the […]
United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi / Paris 07 Jul 11 China, developing countries are now biggest investors in large-scale renewables while Germany surges ahead on rooftop solar Wind farms in China and small-scale solar panels on rooftops in Europe were largely responsible for last year’s 32% rise in green energy investments worldwide according to the latest annual […]
Project CLAMER (Flanders Marine Institute, (VLIZ) Oostende, Belgium, and Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), Texel, Netherlands) 26 Jun 11 Microscopic plant disappeared from North Atlantic 800,000 years ago; unwanted return of several climate change symptoms already apparent throughout European oceans Some 800,000 years ago – about the time early […]
Census of Marine Life, Washington DC / Tagging of Pacific Palagics project, Pacific Grove, CA 22 June 2011 Decade of electronic tagging, tracking of 23 top Pacific Ocean predators reveals remarkable homing by marine animals, well-defined highways Like the vast African plains, two huge expanses of the North Pacific Ocean are major corridors of life, attracting […]
Office of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, Malaysia and Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) 16 Jun 11 The success of world co-operation based on science and practiced since the Cold War by nations operating in Antarctica offers a model to humanity as it confronts challenges to common interests like climate change, biodiversity loss and […]
Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment, Toronto 15-Jun-2011 If parents do just 5 things to safeguard their kids’ health: Dust, use green cleaning products, do renos carefully, avoid certain plastics, serve low-mercury fish Leading Canadian health and environmental experts today issued a list of the top five ways parents can protect their children from […]
Rockefeller University, New York / University of Helsinki 06 Jun 11 Forests in many regions are becoming larger carbon sinks thanks to higher density, U.S. and European researchers say in a new report. In Europe and North America, increased density significantly raised carbon storage despite little or no expansion of forest area, according to the study, led […]
Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership, Montreal 02 Jun 11 UN Summit to launch 2012 as ‘International Year of Sustainable Energy for All’ New York – How can the world’s 2.5 billion people with little or no access to electricity get hooked up to an affordable, sustainable supply? Projects created by a combination of public and private resources to […]
InterAction Council, Tokyo 31 May 2001 Clinton, Fox, Zedillo, Chretien, Brundtland among 20 former leaders urging greater effort to avert looming water crisis Former heads of government from around the world today agreed at a meeting in Canada to establish a new panel to help fill a serious void in leadership related to global water […]
United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi / Paris 26-May-2011 Less than one-third of 60 metals studied have end-of-life recycling rate above 50 percent; 34 are under 1 percent Smarter product designs, support for developing country waste management schemes, and encouraging developed country households not to ‘squirrel away’ old electronic goods in drawers and closets could help […]
United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi / Paris 12 May 2011 By 2050, humanity could consume an estimated 140 billion tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per year – three times its current appetite – unless the economic growth rate is “decoupled” from the rate of natural resource consumption, warns a new report from […]
BioTalent Canada, Ottawa 10 May, 2011 While many 16-year-olds are content with PlayStation, Toronto-area student Marshall Zhang used the Canadian SCINET supercomputing network to invent a new drug cocktail which could one day help treat cystic fibrosis. The Grade 11 student at Bayview Secondary School in Richmond Hill so impressed eight eminent scientists at the […]
InterAction Council / United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health 20 March 2011 Water as an “urgent security issue” tops the agenda this year for a council of 37 former heads of state and government convening in Canada 10 weeks from now, with a preliminary meeting of international experts this week on the […]
Canadian Environmental Law Association, Toronto Training, caution essential to avoid release of brain-damaging lead, other toxic substances Home energy retrofits tackle climate change and when done right they should make homes healthier, while aiding families struggling with utility bills. Without adequate training and precaution, however, renovators, energy retrofitters and do-it-yourselfers who disturb lead-based paint, asbestos […]