United Nations University 27 Jun 07 Desertification, exacerbated by climate change, represents “the greatest environmental challenge of our times” and governments must overhaul policy approaches to the issue or face mass migrations of people driven from degraded homelands within a single generation, warns a new analysis from the United Nations University. In the analysis for […]
United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, Paris 20 Jun 07 Renewables shed fringe image — Transactions leap to record $100 billion in 2006, says UNEP study Climate change worries coupled with high oil prices and increasing government support top a set of drivers fueling soaring rates of investment in the renewable […]
United Nations Environment Programme Risoe Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development, Denmark 29-Apr-2007 UNEP-led project expands to other developing countries Life for an estimated 100,000 people in poverty-stricken rural India has been improved dramatically by several hours of reliable solar-powered lighting every night, made available by a UN-led pilot project to facilitate household financing […]
May 8, 2007 Canadian Biotechnology Education Resource Centre A Manitoba student has a first-ever Triple Crown of high school science, his project seeking a potential alternative to chemotherapy sweeping first-place finishes in sanofi-aventis sponsored biotech challenges held at national, international and regional levels over 17 days. Seven distinguished health and science experts at the National […]
McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health / Program on Life Sciences, Ethics and Policy 9-Apr-2007 India’s health biotech firms are emerging as a major global player, with growing means and know-how to produce innovative as well as generic drugs and vaccines at costs small relative to those of giant Western firms, according to ground-breaking Canadian research […]
19-Mar-2007 United Nations University Book catalogues unethical research, gene theft in Pacific countries The Pacific region has experienced some of the world’s worst examples of unethical bio-research and patenting of genes by international companies, according to a new book launched by co-publishers Call of the Earth Llamado de la Tierra, and the United Nations University. […]
6-Mar-2007 United Nations University Growing need for elements in high-tech scrap –- often incinerated in poor countries Standardizing recycling processes globally to harvest valuable components in electrical and electronic scrap (E-scrap), extending the life of products and markets for their reuse, and harmonizing world legislative and policy approaches to e-scrap are prime goals of a […]
19 July 2006 DIVERSITAS, Paris Warning that Earth is on the verge of “a major biodiversity crisis,” 19 of the field’s most distinguished scientists and policy experts today called for a new global coordinating mechanism to provide a united, authoritative scientific voice to inform government decision-making internationally. And they called upon the wider scientific community […]
26 June 06 Dalhousie University Ocean Tracking Network Scientists and resource managers could soon have a highly detailed picture of marine conditions and the migrations of fish and ocean animals throughout the world, according to international experts convening a landmark conference in Canada June 27-30. Academics, scientists and technical experts at the meeting aim to […]
May 4, 2006 Census of Marine Life Zooplankton DNA Sequenced at Sea; scientists census tiny species with starring role in food chain, world climate Census of Marine Life scientists trawled rarely explored tropical ocean depths between the southeast US coast and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to inventory and photograph the variety and abundance of zooplankton – […]
25-Feb-2007 Census of Marine Life Deep-sea species at unusually shallow depths on uncapped seabed (photo (c) Julian Gutt, AWI) Once roofed by ice for millennia, a 10,000 square km portion of the Antarctic seabed represents a true frontier, one of Earth’s most pristine marine ecosystems, made suddenly accessible to exploration by the collapse of the […]
Rockefeller University / University of Guelph 18-Feb-2007 Scientists complete DNA portrait of US, Canadian bird species, Guyanese bats At unprecedented levels of difficulty involving highly biodiverse and continent-sized landscapes, scientists have successfully tested their ability to identify and DNA “barcode” entire assemblages of species — the prelude to a genetic portrait of all animal life […]
University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics 22-Jan-2007 Public health trumps individual human rights, medical ethics experts say Medical ethics and other experts say tough isolation measures, involuntary if need be, are justified to contain a very deadly, highly-contagious and drug-resistant mutant strain of tuberculosis and to prevent “a potentially explosive international health crisis” brewing […]
14-Dec-2006 United Nations University Joint International Conference Algiers, Dec. 17-19 About 200 experts from 25 countries are convening in Algiers Dec. 17-19 to advise shifts in world policies needed to cope with the causes and growing consequences of desertification – a creeping environmental crisis that threatens an estimated 2 billion people living in arid places, […]
Census of Marine Life 10-Dec-2006 A host of record-breaking discoveries and revelations that stretch the extreme frontiers of marine knowledge were achieved by the Census of Marine Life in 2006, highlights of which were released today. They include life adapted to brutal conditions around 407ºC fluids spewing from a seafloor vent (the hottest ever discovered), […]
5-Dec-2006 United Nations University The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of global household wealth according to a path-breaking study released today by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER). The most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken also reports that the […]
13-Nov-2006 University of Helsinki / Rockefeller University, New York ‘Growing stock’ expanding in most forested nations, even with modest prosperity An increasing number of countries and regions are transitioning from deforestation to afforestation, raising hopes for a turning point for the world as a whole, according to researchers advancing a more sophisticated approach to measuring […]
24 Oct 06 United Nations University Some 300,000 combatants under age 18 – some as young as six and 40% of them girls – are illegal recruits in more than 30 conflicts around the world, experts say in a new United Nations University book that explores accountability for war crimes by children without indirectly exposing […]
National Forest Congress, Ottawa www.nfc-cfn.ca Sept. 24, 2006 Create National Accounting Systems To Reflect All Values Of Boreal Forests: Economist It’s time to create a comprehensive accounting system for natural capital to recognize the full value of ecosystem services provided by boreal forests, an ecological economist will urge delegates to Canada’s 10th National Forest Congress […]
11-Sep-2006 University of Toronto Joint Center for Bioethics Experts rank top 10 ways of improving health in poor countries from emerging stem cell and related technologies Eliminating the need for costly insulin injections for diabetics, regenerating heart muscle after it fails, and improving resistance to disease by engineering immune cells top a list of 10 […]
31 July 2006 Census of Marine Life A startling revelation about the number of different kinds of bacteria in the deep-sea raises fundamental new questions about microbial lifeand evolution in the oceans.In a paper published in the USA by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal (July 31, online early edition), scientists reveal […]
29 May 06 United Nations Environment Programme / World Bank Without significant gains from energy efficiency efforts, China, India and Brazil within a single human generation (by 2030) will more than double their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in major impacts on global energy markets and climate. However, experts estimate that cost-effective retrofits […]