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Malaysia eyes green science, technologies for entry into world’s developed country club; Global titans of science and business volunteer to help Malaysia pioneer an environmentally-sustainable path to high income

Office of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, Government of Malaysia /  and Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) May 17, 2011 New York — Resolved to enter the world’s exclusive club of “developed” countries by 2020, Malaysia is banking on innovative science and technologies, especially those related to the environment, to help more […]

US EPA joins alliance to curb global e-waste

United Nations University – Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP) 1 May 2011 The US Environmental Protection Agency is stepping up international efforts to help curb rising pollution, the waste of natural resources, and health problems associated with trashed electronics, announcing today a new agreement with the United Nations University. A five-year, $2.5 million grant to […]

Icy meltwater pooling in Arctic Ocean: A wild card in climate change scenarios

Project CLAMER (Flanders Marine Institute, (VLIZ) Oostende, Belgium, and             Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), Texel, Netherlands) 5-Apr-2011 Scientists inventory, synthesize 13 years of research on climate change and Europe’s marine environment A massive, growing pool of icy meltwater in the Arctic Ocean is a wild card in future […]

Canada’s role grows amid looming world water shortages in some places, more flooding in others

Canadian Water NetworkWaterloo, Ontario27-Feb-2011 $1 trillion global water market forecast for 2020; Global freshwater demand expected to exceed supply by 40 percent by 2030 Famed especially for the excellence of its peacekeepers and ice hockey players, Canada’s water experts are now increasingly needed to help countries elsewhere brace for drought, flood and unsafe water problems […]

Put Government Policy Options Through a Science Test First, Leading Biodiversity Experts Urge

Diversitas, Paris 17-Feb-2011 How should a new ‘IPCC for biodiversity’ work? Leading world scientists offer prescription In the journal Science this week, leading scientists say the new “IPCC for biodiversity” should offer practical scientific assessments of actual policy options confronting decision makers. “Hypothetical scenarios bear no relationship to the real options confronting policy makers now,” […]

Pollutants in aquifers may threaten future of Mexico’s fast-growing ‘Riviera Maya’

United Nations University, Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, Canada 6 Feb 2011 Pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, shampoo, toothpaste, pesticides, chemical run-off from highways and many other pollutants infiltrate the giant aquifer under Mexico’s “Riviera Maya,” research shows. The wastes contaminate a vast labyrinth of water-filled caves under the popular tourist destination on the Yucatan Peninsula. […]

Studies detail triumphs, troubles of African innovators creating products for local health needs

McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health 12 December 2010 Africans strengthen ability to meet health needs in sub-Sahara with homegrown science solutions, but many products stagnate in labs for want of commercialization know-how, support Global health experts today published a landmark collection of papers that together provide a unique microscope on the experience of countries, companies […]

Africa Can Feed Itself in a Generation

Harvard Kennedy School Cambridge,MA,USA 2-Dec-2010 Africa can feed itself. And it can make the transition from hungry importer to self-sufficiency in a single generation. The startling assertions, in stark contrast with entrenched, gloomy perceptions of the continent, highlight a collection of studies published today that present a clear prescription for transforming Sub-Saharan Africa’s agriculture and, […]

Speed installation of system to monitor vital signs of global ocean, scientists urge

Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans Plymouth, UK 1-Oct-2010 ‘It is past time to get serious about measuring what’s happening to the seas around us’ The ocean surface is 30 percent more acidic today than it was in 1800, much of that increase occurring in the last 50 years – a rising trend that […]

Continuing biodiversity loss predicted but could be slowed

Diversitas Paris, France Common approach urged to unify global biodiversity advice. A new analysis of several major global studies of future species shifts and losses foresees inevitable continuing decline of biodiversity during the 21st century but offers new hope that it could be slowed if emerging policy choices are pursued. Led by experts Henrique Miguel […]

First Census Shows Life in Planet Ocean is Richer, More Connected, More Altered than Expected

Census of Marine Life Washington DC, USA 4-Oct-2010 Culminating a 10-year exploration, 2,700 scientists from 80 nations report first Census of Marine Life, revealing what, where, and how much lives and hides in global oceans To measure changes caused by climate or oil spills, Census establishes a baseline New species discovered, marine highways and rest […]

Report casts world’s rivers in ‘crisis state’

DIVERSITAS, Paris 29 Sep 2009 The world’s rivers are in a crisis of ominous proportions, according to a new global analysis to be published Sept. 30 in the journal Nature. The report is the first to simultaneously account for the effects on the health of the world’s rivers of such things as pollution, dam building, agricultural […]

Global health vs. global wealth: Looming choice for health firms in developing countries

McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health 14 September 2010 The lure of greater profits elsewhere in the world may divert bio-pharmaceutical firms in developing countries from the creation and distribution of affordable drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for illnesses of local concern, undermining the health prospects of millions of poor people, experts warn.   And they call […]

Census of Marine Life publishes historic roll call of species in 25 key world areas

Census of Marine Life Washington, DC 2-Aug-2010 Representing the most comprehensive and authoritative answer yet to one of humanity’s most ancient questions — “what lives in the sea?” — Census of Marine Life scientists today released an inventory of species distribution and diversity in key global ocean areas. Scientists combined information collected over centuries with […]

Reports detail global investment and other trends in green energy

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Division of Technology Industry and Economics Paris 15-Jul-2010 In 2009, for the second year in a row, both the US and Europe added more power capacity from renewable sources such as wind and solar than conventional sources like coal, gas and nuclear, according to twin reports launched today by the […]

Relaunch of Calypso among year of plans to mark centennial of Jacques Cousteau’s birth

Cousteau Society Paris 8 June 2010 Year-long plans include re-launch of iconic vessel Calypso for education tour; new Cousteau Divers program. Documentary with National Geographic to contrast conditions in Mediterranean today with Cousteau’s films of the 1940s. Legendary marine explorer, inventor, innovator, filmmaker and environmental activist Jacques Cousteau was born June 11, 1910 in Saint […]

Cheaper drugs, vaccines forecast as collaborations grow between developing countries’ biotech firms

McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health 10 May 2010 ‘South-South’ biotech collaborations boost health, economies: Study The availability of more affordable drugs, vaccines and diagnostics that would help countless people worldwide is the foremost benefit expected from a growing number of collaborations between biotech firms in developing countries, according to a study to be published Mon. […]

Explorers Inventory Hard-to-See Sea Life: Tiny but Mighty Microbes, Plankton, Larvae, Burrowers — Keys to Earth’s Food and Respiratory Systems

Census of Marine Life Washington DC 18-Apr-2010 Microbial mat the size of Greece found on oxygen-starved South American seafloor; Scientists puzzle out Neptune’s riotous diversity of tiny creatures; “In no other ocean realm has discovery been as extensive”; Explorers yet to find any lifeless place on Earth below 150 Release of historic global ocean Ocean […]

Saskatchewan Science Prodigy, 14, Astonishes Canada’s Scientific Elite with Research on Crop-Killing Disease, Wins National Biotech Competition

Biotalent Canada / Bioscience Education Canada Ottawa / Toronto 27-Apr-2010 Research by a 14-year-old science prodigy from Saskatoon into the molecular fingerprint of a disease that has devastated lentil crops in Canada, Asia and Africa has earned the top national prize of the 2010 Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge (SABC). Grade 9 student Rui Song, the youngest-ever […]

Finishing the job of polio eradication worldwide is an ethical obligation: Experts

McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health Apr 20, 2010 55th anniversary of first polio vaccine Failure to pursue eradication of polio worldwide given the capacity and opportunity to do so is a violation of ethical principles, foremost among them a “duty to rescue” those in distress, according to ethicists writing in this week’s edition of the Lancet. […]

Greater access to cell phones than toilets in India: UN

United Nations University 14-Apr-2010   UNU-INWEH report offers 9-point prescription for achieving Millennium Development Goal for sanitation Far more people in India have access to a cell phone than to a toilet and improved sanitation, according to UN experts who published today a 9-point prescription for achieving the world’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for sanitation […]

Urgent need to prepare developing countries for surge in e-wastes: UN

22-Feb-2010 United Nations University, Tokyo / United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi Rocketing sales of cell phones, gadgets, appliances forecast in China, India, elsewhere Sales of electronic products in countries like China and India and across continents such as Africa and Latin America are set to rise sharply in the next 10 years. And, unless action is stepped […]