United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies, Yokohama, Japan 10-Nov-2007 Report says ban on human reproductive cloning, coupled with restricted therapeutic research, is global compromise most likely to succeed The world community quickly needs to reach a compromise that outlaws reproductive cloning or prepare to protect the rights of cloned individuals from potential abuse, prejudice […]
Carbon Disclosure Project London 24-Sep-2007 ‘Climate Disclosure Leadership Index’ launched, President Clinton to speak New York / London — The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a collaboration of over 315 institutional investors with assets under management of more than $41 trillion, releases its 5th annual global report, providing the largest and most comprehensive database of strategies […]
Consortium for the Barcode of Life, Smithsonian Institution 14-Sep-2007 Major advances foreseen in health, consumer and environment protection, more About 350 DNA barcoding experts from 46 nations will converge in Taipei amid spiralling interest from health officials, government agencies and others beginning to realize potential applications in a range of areas — from consumer protection […]
McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, Toronto 10 Sep 07 The first comprehensive examination of the ethical, social and cultural (ESC) challenges faced by major science programs in developing countries has identified a complex assortment of issues with the potential to slow critical global health research if left unaddressed. The findings are published in this week’s […]
Soil Conservation Service of Iceland, Reykjavik, and United Nations University 30 Aug 07 Protecting soils claimed as an immediate fix to counter climate change; 150 world experts meet in Iceland on ‘silent crisis’ To meet the needs of a rapidly rising human population, the planet needs to produce more food over the coming decades than […]
Census of Marine Life, Washington DC 5-Aug-2007 Historians detail collapse of bluefin tuna population off northern Europe; Tagging reveals migration, breeding secrets of declining population Ocean historians affiliated with the Census of Marine Life have painted the first detailed portrait of a burst of fishing from 1900 to 1950 that preceded the collapse of once […]
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 […]