Earth System Science Partnership, Paris 28-Mar-2012 Brazil and India pay a high price for rapid economic growth, according to experts speaking at a major international meeting in London, Planet Under Pressure. Between 1990 and 2008, the wealth of these two countries as measured by GDP per capita rose 34% and 120% respectively. But a myopic […]
Earth System Science Partnership, Paris 27-Mar-2012 Unless development patterns change, by 2030 humanity’s urban footprint will occupy an additional 1.5 million square kilometres – comparable to the combined territories of France, Germany and Spain, say experts at a major international science meeting underway in London. UN estimates show human population growing from 7 billion today […]
DIVERSITAS, Paris 26-Mar-2012 Concluding a four-year global consultation, international experts have agreed on key efforts needed to reduce the on-going loss of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. On Day 2 of the Planet under Pressure conference in London (planetunderpressure2012.net) March 27, leaders of the global biodiversity research programme DIVERSITAS described the urgent need to better […]
Earth System Science Partnership, Paris 26-Mar-2012 Time is running out to minimize the risk of setting in motion irreversible and long-term climate change and other dramatic changes to Earth’s life support system, according to scientists speaking at the Planet Under Pressure conference, which began in London today. The unequivocal warning is delivered on the first […]
Office of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, Malaysia / Malaysian Industry‑Government Group for High Technology, Kuala Lumpur 29-Feb-2012 Educational challenges, remedies common worldwide: Experts Plugging major “leaks” of students exiting formal education prematurely is a top priority in all countries — developed and developing alike — to successfully address a suite of problems […]
Office of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, Malaysia / Malaysian Industry‑Government Group for High Technology, Kuala Lumpur 21-Feb-2012 ‘Conditions right for important reform of environmental governance’ With environmental threats on the rise and more than 120 countries now in favor of reforming international environmental governance, conditions are right to create a new, specialized […]
United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, Canada 14-Feb-2012 The impact of unsafe water and sanitation on the death rates of children under five and mothers in the year after childbirth has been quantified for the first time by Canadian-based researchers. In a paper published in the UK journal Environmental Health, researchers at […]
Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, Toronto 15-Jan-2012 International experts to recommend key issues as Canada prepares to assume Arctic Council chair With an eye on rapid changes in the resource-rich Arctic, countries like China, India and Brazil, which have no Arctic territories, are nonetheless knocking on the door of the increasingly influential Arctic Council looking […]
Grand Challenges Canada, Toronto 16-Dec-2011 Grand Challenges Canada and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invest almost $32 million in the discovery and development of new and improved diagnostics at point-of-care Grand Challenges Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have teamed up on an unprecedented global effort to discover and develop affordable, easy-to-use […]
Consortium for the Barcode of Life, Smithsonian Institution 27-Nov-2011 Global ‘barcode blitz’ accelerates; 450 experts converge on Adelaide Nov. 28-Dec. 3 The newfound scientific power to quickly “fingerprint” species via DNA is being deployed to unmask quack herbal medicines, reveal types of ancient Arctic life frozen in permafrost, expose what eats what in nature, and […]
United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, Canada 16-Nov-2011 Sustainable coastal management, regional coordination and long-term, holistic viewpoint needed to protect fragile ecosystems The rapid, large scale coastal development underway in the Middle East must be better planned and managed to avoid aggravating already “severe” degradation and losses in the fragile marine […]
Grand Challenges Canada, Toronto 7-Nov-2011 A new hand-held device called the Electronic Nose, which has the potential to diagnose tuberculosis (TB) in symptomatic patients, was awarded a $950,000 grant from Grand Challenges Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today to support further development and testing of this ground-breaking technology. The funding will help […]
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 […]