Terry Collins and Associates

Canadian girl, 16, invents disease-fighting, anti-aging compound using tree particles

Posted on May 8, 2012 by admin

Bioscience Education Canada, Toronto

8-May-2012

Powerful anti-oxidant discovered in tree pulp; Grade 12 researcher wins top honors at national biotech science competition

OTTAWA — An Ontario girl, 16, who invented a disease-fighting, anti-aging compound using nano-particles from trees, won top national honours today in the 2012 Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada (SBCC).

Her super anti-oxidant compound could one day help improve health and anti-aging products by neutralizing more of the harmful free-radicals found in the body. Her research is detailed below.

Janelle Tam, a Grade 12 student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, was awarded the $5,000 first prize by an impressed panel of eminent Canadian scientists assembled at the Ottawa headquarters of the National Research Council of Canada.

In all, some 13 brilliant students in Grades 11 or 12, all just 16 to 18 years old, took part in the national finals. They were top prize winners of nine regional SBCC competitions conducted nationwide in March and April, events that showcased youthful Canadian talent in the fast-growing field of biotech science.

News release in full: click here

Sample coverage, by Agence France Presse, click here, by Huffington Post, click here

Coverage summary: click here

Posted in Bioscience Education Canada, Biotalent Canada, Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Pharmaceutical Science, Researchers, Sanofi-Aventis Biotalent Challenge | Tagged Bioscience Education Canada, Biotalent Canada, Biotechnology, Marshall Zhang, National Research Council, Pharmaceutical Science, Research, Researchers, Sanofi-Aventis Biotalent Challenge, Science Media | Comments Off

Beyond GDP: Experts preview ‘Inclusive Wealth’ index at Planet under Pressure conference

Posted on March 28, 2012 by admin

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 focus on economic capital is flawed, scientists and economists at the conference argue. Natural capital, the sum of a country’s assets, from forests to fossil fuels and minerals, declined 46% in Brazil and 31% in India, according to a new “Inclusive Wealth Indicator” designed to augment GDP as a measure of economic progress.

When measures of natural, human and manufactured capital are considered together to obtain a more comprehensive value, Brazil’s “Inclusive Wealth” rose just 3% and India’s rose 9% over that time.

“The work on Brazil and India illustrates why Gross Domestic Product is inadequate and misleading as an index of economic progress from a long-term perspective,” says Professor Anantha Duraiappah, Executive Director of UNU-IHDP.

“A country could completely exhaust all its natural resources while posting positive GDP growth. We need an indicator that estimates the wealth of nations – natural, human and manufactured and ideally even the social and ecological constituents of human well-being.”

The first Inclusive Wealth Report, to debut in full at a joint UNU-IHDP and United Nations Environment Programme event at June’s UN “Rio+20″ summit in Brazil, will describe the “inclusive wealth” of 20 nations: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria, Norway, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, USA, United Kingdom and Venezuela. The 20 nations featured in the report represent 72% of world GDP and 56% of global population.

Authored by 17 specialists from the UK, USA, Chile, Malaysia, India, Germany and Australia, the Inclusive Wealth Indicator is undertaken by UNU-IHDP with UNEP support and in collaboration with the UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC) and the Natural Capital Project of Stanford University.

News release in full, click here

Example coverage, by Reuters, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Additional coverage of note: By the New York Times, click 1) here and 2) here; by the International Herald Tribune, click here

Posted in Diversitas, Environment, Green economy, Office of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Political Science, sustainable development | Comments Off

Cities forecast to expand by area equal to France, Germany and Spain combined in less than 20 years

Posted on March 27, 2012 by admin

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 to 9 billion by 2050, translating into some 1 million more people expected on average each week for the next 38 years, with most of that increase anticipated in urban centres. And ongoing migration from rural to urban living could see world cities receive yet another 1 billion additional people. Total forecast urban population in 2050: 6.3 billion (up from 3.5 billion today).

The question isn’t whether to urbanize but how, says Dr. Michail Fragkias of Arizona State University, one of nearly 3000 participants at the conference, entitled “Planet Under Pressure”. Unfortunately, he adds, today’s ongoing pattern of urban sprawl puts humanity at severe risk due to environmental problems. Dense cities designed for efficiency offer one of the most promising paths to sustainability, and urbanization specialists will share a wealth of knowledge available to drive solutions.

How best to urbanize is one among many “options and opportunities” under discussion by global environmental change specialists today, Day 2 of the four-day conference March 26-29, convened to help address a wide range of global sustainability challenges and offer recommendations to June’s UN “Rio+20″ Earth Summit.

News release in full, click here

Example coverage, by Reuters, click here, by United Press International, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Posted in Diversitas, Environment, Green energy, Political Science, Researchers, sustainable development | Comments Off

Top priorities in biodiversity science agreed: Paris-based DIVERSITAS to spearhead global investigation into the ’5 Ws’ of biodiversity loss and how to mitigate it

Posted on March 26, 2012 by admin

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 understand the “5 Ws” — who, what, where, when and why — of biodiversity loss, and how humanity might mitigate it.

Human well-being depends on ecosystems like forests and coral reefs continuing to provide “ecosystem services” – including food, pollution treatment and climate regulation, scientists say. Many ecosystems “are underpinned by biodiversity,” the losses of which “severely undermine the delivery of these ecosystem services.”

News release in full, click here

Example coverage, by the New York Times, click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Diversitas, Researchers | Comments Off

State of the Planet: Scientists describe humanity’s global impact as ‘The Great Acceleration’ and offer ominous outlook: An uncertain future on a much hotter world

Posted on March 26, 2012 by admin

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 day of the four-day conference opening with the latest readings of Earth’s vital signs.

In subsequent days at the meeting, nearly 3,000 experts spanning the spectrum of interconnected scientific interests, will examine solutions, hurdles and ways to break down the barriers to progress. The conference is the largest gathering of experts in development and global environmental changes in advance of June’s UN “Rio+20″ summit in Brazil.

“The last 50 years have without doubt seen one of the most rapid transformations of the human relationship with the natural world,” says speaker Will Steffen, a global change expert from the Australian National University.

News release in full, click here

“Welcome to the Anthroposcene” video, click here

Example coverage, by the Agence France Presse, click here, by the New York Times, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Climate, Diversitas, Energy sources, Environment, Fisheries, Green economy, Green energy, Office of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Political Science, Researchers, Scientists, sustainable development, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations University, UNU, Water | Comments Off

Plug ‘leaks,’ create ‘cradle to career’ education system to meet world challenges: Top US educator

Posted on February 29, 2012 by admin

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 confronting humanity in decades to come, says a leading American educator.

Addressing a Malaysian forum on entrepreneurial education, Nancy L. Zimpher, Chancellor of the State University of New York, noted the rate of kids completing education in her US state was little better than in the developing nation she was visiting.

For every 100 New York kids entering high school, just 57 graduate, 41 immediately enter college, 31 of those are still enrolled in 2nd year, and just 19 graduate with a post-secondary degree of some sort within six years.

By comparison, rough data show that for every 100 Malaysian children, approximately 97 attend (and 78 finish) primary school, 66-69 enter (and 55 graduate) upper secondary school, an estimated 33-37 go on to post-secondary education, and about 10 graduate.

“Such rates of attrition aren’t going to build for us innovative societies,” says Dr. Zimpher, part of an all-star team of international experts counseling Malaysia in its drive to become a developed country.

News release in full, click here

Example coverage: The Star, Malaysia, click here, New Straits Times, Malaysia, click here

Posted in AH Zakri, Malaysia, Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) | Comments Off

Create effective new global environmental agency, ministers urged

Posted on February 21, 2012 by admin

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 global environmental agency, says one of the world’s leading scientists.

In a keynote address to government ministers meeting Tuesday in Kenya, Zakri Abdul Hamid, Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia and former co-chair of the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, says the world cannot afford the “overlapping mandates, funding requests and a lack of coordination and coherence,” that characterizes today’s “sprawling, decentralized regime” of global environment-related conventions and organizations.

Resources needed for effective program implementation are spent instead on administration, says Prof. Zakri.

“Besides making our limited resources work harder, we need to move beyond negotiating problem statements to capacity building and implementing solutions,” he told the Ministerial Roundtable Discussion on the Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development, meeting at the Nairobi headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme.

News release in full: click here

Example coverage, by the Indian Express, click here, by Our Planet magazine, click here

Posted in AH Zakri, Environment, Malaysia, Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), Political Science, sustainable development, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Comments Off

Study quantifies impact of unsafe water and poor sanitation on child and maternal mortality

Posted on February 12, 2012 by admin

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 the United Nations University and McMaster University analyzed data on access to safe water and adequate sanitation across 193 countries.

Using regression analysis techniques to factor out other variables like income and average children per mother, they compared safe water and sanitation rates with maternal and child deaths in those countries.

Dividing the 193 countries into four tiers (“quartiles”), they found that countries ranked in the bottom 25% in terms of safe water had about 4.7 more deaths per 1,000 children under five years old compared to countries in the top 25% tier.

The researchers estimate that, when related to safe water access, the difference in mortality between each 25% tier is 1.17 deaths per 1,000 children under five.

Similarly, when judged on access to adequate sanitation, countries ranked in the bottom 25% tier had about 6.6 more deaths per 1,000 children under five years old compared to countries in the top 25% tier.

Put another way, with respect to the availability of adequate sanitation, the difference in mortality between each of the four tiers of countries is estimated at 1.66 deaths per 1,000 children under five.

News release in full: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage: by USA Today, click here, by the EFE newswire, Spain, click here

Posted in Environment, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, Institute for Water Environment and Health, Public Health, Scientists, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Environment, Institute for Water Environment and Health, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Comments Off

Eyeing resources, India, China, Brazil, Japan, other countries want a voice on Arctic Council

Posted on January 15, 2012 by admin

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 for admission as permanent observers.

The issue has divided existing members, with Russia and Canada most strongly opposed. It is among the major questions with which Canada will have to grapple as it prepares to chair the Council next year.

It will also feature prominently on the agenda of a two-day meeting on the future of the Arctic Council, January 17-18 in Toronto: The 2nd annual Munk-Gordon Arctic Security Conference, which has attracted the participation of several experts, national ambassadors and indigenous leaders — more than 100 participants from 15 nations in all.

Example coverage: The Canadian Press, click here; Globe and Mail op-ed, click here; United Press International, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Full news release, click here

Posted in Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Political Science, Walter and Duncan Fordon Founcation, Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation | Tagged Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Political Science, Science Media | Comments Off

Historic ‘Grand Challenge’ launched: Create low-cost devices for rapid disease diagnosis

Posted on December 16, 2011 by admin

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 tools to help developing country health workers rapidly diagnose diseases in rural communities. The expected result: more timely and appropriate treatment of illnesses in poor countries, potentially saving countless lives.

“Imagine a hand-held, battery-powered device that can take a drop of blood and, within minutes, tell a healthcare worker in a remote village whether a feverish child has malaria, dengue or a bacterial infection,” says Peter A. Singer, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada. “More rapid diagnosis of malaria alone could prevent 100,000 deaths a year. We believe this and other life-saving opportunities are within our reach.”

The five research areas of this Grand Challenge break the diagnostic problem down into its component parts: Draw blood (or other biological sample) and prep it for analysis, analyze the sample to identify disease, develop the technologies to obtain and transmit data and receive back results, and ensure the device will work in the field where there is often no electricity or refrigeration.

“The project is analogous to software developers creating new apps for smart phones and tablet computers,” says Rebecca Lackman, PhD, Grand Challenges Canada Program Officer for Diagnostics. “Researchers have accepted the challenge to create novel sampling and testing systems that can be plugged into a standardized analyzer that can test for malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and a variety of tropical diseases. The ‘Integrated Innovation’ approach means they will also investigate the social and business innovations needed for successful product delivery and use.”

“This initiative is unique in many respects: it will allow health workers to identify multiple diseases and pathogens from one patient specimen; plug-and-play platforms will allow best-in-class components to be developed and integrated in a diagnostic device; and we are creating a common application platform; thereby, reducing both commercialization costs and regulatory issues, making it more attractive for industry to invest in diagnostics for global health.”

Example coverage: The Associated Press, click here; Agence France Presse, click here, EFE (Spanish), click here

Coverage summary, click here

Full news release, click here

Posted in Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Grand Challenges Canada, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Pharmaceutical Science, Researchers, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Grand Challenges Canada, Health in Developing Countries, malaria, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter Singer Toronto, Science Media | Comments Off

Quack medicines, insect immigrants, and what eats what among secrets revealed by DNA barcodes

Posted on November 27, 2011 by admin

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 halt agricultural and forestry pests at borders, among other applications across a wide array of public interests.

The explosion of creative new uses of DNA “barcoding” — identifying species based on a snippet of DNA — will occupy centre stage as 450 world experts convene at Australia’s the University of Adelaide Nov. 28 to Dec. 3.

DNA barcode technology has already sparked US Congressional hearings by exposing widespread “fish fraud” — mislabelling cheap fish as more desirable and expensive species like tuna or snapper. Other studies this year revealed unlisted ingredients in herbal tea bags.

Example coverage: Associated Press, click here; Canadian Press, click here, Agencia EFE (Spanish) click here

Coverage summary: click here

Full news release: click here

Posted in Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Consortium for the Barcode of Life, DNA Barcoding, Environment, Global Health, Malaysia, Marine Biology, Paul Hebert, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Scientists, sustainable development | Tagged Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Jesse Ausubel, Research, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Sloan Foundation | Comments Off

Environmental troubles growing in Mid-East Gulf region due to rapid coastal development

Posted on November 16, 2011 by admin

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 ecosystems shared by eight Gulf countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – warns a new report today by the United Nations University.

The report, by UNU’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health, says fisheries and a broad range of other valuable resources and services provided by the Gulf’s ecosystems are at risk of being lost because of inadequate environmental management.

Launched at UN headquarters in New York, the report is based on direct research and experience in the Gulf, and published literature. It says coastal development in wealthy Gulf countries has been so extensive and swift that “there has not been enough time to develop adequate regulatory, technical, and monitoring capacity to guide this growth appropriately.”

Consequences include “severe loss and degradation of important habitats, including mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs,” greater pollution, and other environmental setbacks, says the report, warning of potential health problems and “the permanent loss of nursery grounds for commercial shellfish and fish species,” among the troubles foreseen.

“Though focussed on the Gulf region, with its enormous new artificial islands and waterways, waterfront cities, ports and marinas, the report is relevant to other parts of the Middle East, to China, parts of South-East Asia, and elsewhere in the world where rapid coastal development is also underway,” says co-author Peter F. Sale, Assistant Director of UNU-INWEH, citing UNEP predictions that as much as 91% of all temperate and tropical coasts will be heavily impacted by development by 2050.

Example coverage: Agence France Presse, click here; Nature, click here; UPI, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Full news release text, click here

Posted in Environment, Fisheries, Institute for Water Environment and Health, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Researchers, sustainable development, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Biodiversity, Environment, Fisheries, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Oceanography, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, Water, Zafar Adeel | Comments Off

Creating an ‘electronic nose’ to sniff out tuberculosis from a patient’s breath

Posted on November 7, 2011 by admin

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 determine whether the Electronic Nose is able to detect TB immediately and non-invasively from the patient’s breath, in order to replace time-consuming testing with sputum.

It is estimated that up to 400,000 lives a year can be saved in the developing world by early diagnosis, immediate treatment and reduced transmission of this killer disease.

TB has been all but eliminated in the developing world, but in poor countries it claims close to 1.7 million lives yearly and is second only to HIV/AIDs as the world’s most deadly infectious disease.

“This important discovery is testimony to the power of innovation to save lives,” said Dr. Peter Singer, CEO of Grand Challenges Canada. “Diagnosing TB and other pulmonary disease simply by testing a patient’s breath is a bold idea with potentially big impact.”

Full news release text, click here

Example coverage, by the Globe and Mail, click here, by Agence France Presse, click here, by Reuters AlertNet, click here, by The Guardian, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Posted in Abdallah Daar, Biotechnology, Grand Challenges Canada, Health in Developing Countries, Peter A. Singer, Public Health | Tagged Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Grand Challenges Canada, Health in Developing Countries, malaria, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter Singer Toronto, Science Media | Comments Off

High toxic levels found at school, market neighboring informal e-waste salvage site in Africa

Posted on October 30, 2011 by admin

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 degrees, all neighbours of the Agbogbloshie scrap metal site, where electronic trash is scavenged for valuable metals – especially copper. Schoolchildren as young as six work around bonfires of circuitry, plastic and other leftover high-tech trash.

Ironically, experts say critical metals and other elements in all that destroyed equipment — much of it castoffs from Europe and North America — may soon be in short supply, which threatens to drive up the cost of products ranging from flat-screen TVs and mobile phones to electric cars and wind turbines.

The contamination test results were shared by Ghana researcher Atiemo Sampson at this year’s Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP-Initiative) Summer School, hosted in Europe by Philips and Umicore for 20 of the field’s most promising international graduate researchers.

Full news release text: click here

Example coverage, by The NY Times click here, by TIME click here, by The Earth Times click here, by the EFE newswire, Spain, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Posted in e-waste, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Political Science, Public Health, Scientists, Stop the eWaste Problem, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Atiemo Sampson, Disease in the Developing World, e-waste, Environment, EPA, Global Health, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Ruediger Kuehr, Science Media, Stop the eWaste Problem, United Nations, United Nations University | Comments Off

Major threats foreseen due to Europe’s changing marine environments

Posted on September 15, 2011 by admin

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 citizens, whose biggest related top-of-mind concerns are sea level rise and coastal erosion, are taking personal actions to reduce carbon emissions. However, they largely blame climate change on other groups of people or nations and assign governments and industry responsibility for mitigating the problem (though they perceive government and industry as ineffective on the issue).

Those are among the conclusions after scientists synthesized an extensive collection of academic papers published since 1998 on climate change and Europe’s marine environments, combined with a groundbreaking companion poll of Europeans on the issues, commissioned as part of Project CLAMER, a collaboration of 17 European marine institutes.

The 200-page synthesis of more than 100 EU-funded projects, the public survey, a new book based on the scientific findings, and a major new documentary film will be featured at CLAMER’s wrap-up meeting Sept. 14-15 in Brussels.

News release in full, click here

Example coverage, by The Associated Press, click here, by Reuters, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Climate, Environment, Fisheries, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Uncategorized | Tagged Biodiversity, CLAMER, Climate, Environment, Fisheries, Marine Biology, Marine Science, NIOZ, Oceanography, Science Media, VLIZ | Comments Off

Redesigned and vastly expanded, Encyclopedia of Life Version 2 offers information on 1/3rd of known species

Posted on September 5, 2011 by admin

Encyclopedia of Life (EOL.org)

Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

5 September 2011

Glasswing butterfly - Credit- Kibuyu

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 use, to personalize, and to interact with fellow enthusiasts worldwide. It is also vastly expanded, offering information on more than one-third of all known species on Earth.

The new interface makes it easy for users to find organisms of interest; to create personal collections of photos and information; to find or upload pictures, videos and sounds; and to share comments, questions and expertise with users worldwide who share similar interests.

EOLv2 offers more than 20 times as many pages with content than the EOL.org launched 30 months ago — up from the original 30,000 pages in February 2008 to 700,000 today. The global partnership of 176 content providers behind EOL.org is progressing towards an aspiration of 1.9 million pages — one for every species known to science.

It also now contains more than 600,000 still images and videos — 20 times the number available in August 2009. EOL photos are also showcased online at www.flickr.com/groups/encyclopedia_of_life.

Full news release text, click here

Sample coverage by The Guardian, click here, by Reuters, click here

Posted in Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Encyclopedia of Life, Jesse Ausubel | Tagged Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Encyclopedia of Life, Environment, Jesse Ausubel, Marine Biology, Research, Researchers, Science Media, Sloan Foundation | Comments Off

How many species on Earth? 8.7 million

Posted on August 23, 2011 by admin

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) dwelling in the ocean depths.

Announced today by Census of Marine Life scientists, the figure is based on an innovative, validated analytical technique that dramatically narrows the range of previous estimates. Until now, the number of species on Earth was said to fall somewhere between 3 million and 100 million.

Furthermore, the study, published today by PLoS Biology, says a staggering 86% of all species on land and 91% of those in the seas have yet to be discovered, described and catalogued.

Full text, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Sample coverage: stories by The Associated Press, click here; the Washington Post, click here, and the New York Times, click here. New York Times editorial, click here.

Posted in Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Census of Marine Life, DNA Barcoding, Environment, Jesse Ausubel, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged Biodiversity, Census of Marine Life, Environment, Jesse Ausubel, Marine Biology, Science Media | Comments Off

Ongoing global biodiversity loss unstoppable with protected areas alone: Study

Posted on July 28, 2011 by admin

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 protected land and marine areas worldwide – today totalling over 100,000 in number and covering 17 million square kilometers of land and 2 million square kilometers of oceans – biodiversity is in steep decline.

Expected scenarios of human population growth and consumption levels indicate that cumulative human demands will impose an unsustainable toll on the Earth’s ecological resources and services accelerating the rate at which biodiversity is being loss.

Current and future human requirements will also exacerbate the challenge of effectively implementing protected areas while suggesting that effective biodiversity conservation requires new approaches that address underlying causes of biodiversity loss – including the growth of both human population and resource consumption.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage, by BBC Online: click here, The Canadian Press, click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Climate, Environment, Fisheries, Marine Biology, Marine Science, United Nations, United Nations University, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Biodiversity, Camilo Mora, Climate, Environment, Fisheries, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Oceanography, Peter Sale, protected areas, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, university of hawaii, Water, Zafar Adeel | Comments Off

Unlisted ingredients in teas and herbal brews revealed in DNA tests by high school students

Posted on July 20, 2011 by admin

Rockefeller University, New York

20 Jul 11

L-R: Grace Young, Catherine Gamble, Rohan Kirpekar

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 genetic variation between broad-leaf teas from exported from India versus small-leaf teas exported from China.

Guided by DNA “barcoding” experts at The Rockefeller University, an ethno-botanist at Tufts University and a molecular botany expert at The New York Botanical Garden, co-authors Catherine Gamble, 18, Rohan Kirpekar, 18, and Grace Young, 15, of Trinity School in Manhattan, published their findings today in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.

The unlisted ingredients included weeds such as annual bluegrass and herbal plants such as chamomile. The surprise ingredients are mostly harmless but could affect a tiny minority of consumers with acute allergies. Three (4 percent) of the 70 tea products tested and 21 (35 percent) of 60 herbal products had unlisted ingredients.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage, by The New York Times (includes video): click here. By Scientific American: click here

Posted in Biotechnology, DNA Barcoding, Jesse Ausubel, Paul Hebert, Researchers, Rockefeller University | Tagged Biotechnology, DNA Barcoding, Grace Young, Jesse Ausubel, Katie Gamble, Paul Hebert, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Rohan Kirpekar, Science Media, Trinity School | Comments Off

Smelly socks could be a key to preventing malaria deaths in the developing world

Posted on July 13, 2011 by admin

Grand Challenges Canada, Toronto

13 Jul 11

Fredros Okumu, Tanzania

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 spraying programs and bed nets in reducing malaria and perhaps other mosquito-bourne diseases like elephantiasis and leishmaniasis.

The grant, from Grand Challenges Canada and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is detailed in the news release below.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage, by The Washington Post: click here, The Associated Press: click here, CNN click here

Posted in Abdallah Daar, Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Grand Challenges Canada, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Public Health | Tagged Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Grand Challenges Canada, Health in Developing Countries, malaria, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter Singer Toronto, Science Media | Comments Off

South East Asian nations meet on reforms to international environmental governance

Posted on July 12, 2011 by admin

Office of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, Malaysia, and the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT)

12 July 2011

AH Zakri

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 recommend needed reforms.

Convened by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the ASEAN Secretariat, Office of the Science Adviser to the Prime Minister of Malaysia and the Centre for Global Sustainability Studies at Universiti Sains Malaysia (CGSS@USM), the deliberations form part of preparations for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (“Rio+20,” 4-6 June 2012, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Says Zakri Abdul Hamid, Science Adviser to the Prime Minister of Malaysia: “ASEAN countries increasingly recognize that their medium to long-term economic interests will be jeopardized unless environmental protection is linked with economic development. A green economy, however, relies on a functioning governance framework.

“The international environmental governance framework currently in place no longer serves the interests of governments.”

Full news release: click here

Example coverage, by the New Straits Times click here, by Bernama News Agency click here, other sources, click here

Posted in AH Zakri, Environment, Malaysia, Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), Office of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Political Science | Tagged AH Zakri, Environment, Malaysia, Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), Office of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Science Media | Comments Off

Data revealing migrations of larval reef fish vital for designing networks of marine protected areas

Posted on July 11, 2011 by admin

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 international journal Oecologia sheds new light on the dispersal of marine fish in their larval stages, important information for the effective design of marine protected areas (MPAs), a widely advocated conservation tool.

Using a novel genetic analysis, researchers at the University of Windsor, Canada, and the United Nations University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) studied dispersal and connectivity among populations of the bicolor damselfish — a species common to Caribbean coral reefs and a convenient proxy for many coral reef fish species with similar biology, including a typical 30-day larval stage.

Full news release: click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Environment, Fisheries, Marine Biology, Marine Science, United Nations, United Nations University, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Biodiversity, Environment, Fisheries, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Oceanography, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, Water, Zafar Adeel | Comments Off

Global investments in green energy up nearly a third to $211 billion

Posted on July 7, 2011 by admin

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 report on renewable energy investment trends issued by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

Last year, investors pumped a record $211 billion into renewables — about one-third more than the $160 billion invested in 2009, and a 540% rise since 2004.

For the first time, developing economies overtook developed ones in terms of “financial new investment”–spending on utility-scale renewable energy projects and provision of equity capital for renewable energy companies.

On this measure, $72 billion was invested in developing countries vs. $70 billion in developed economies, which contrasts with 2004, when financial new investments in developing countries were about one quarter of those in developed countries.

The report, Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2011, has been prepared for UNEP by London-based Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage, by The Associated Press: click here

Posted in Achim Steiner, Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Green energy, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Tagged Achim Steiner, Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Green energy, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Comments Off

Prodigal plankton species makes first known migration from Pacific to Atlantic via Pole

Posted on June 26, 2011 by admin

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 human tribes were learning to make fire – a tiny species of plankton called Neodenticula seminae went extinct in the North Atlantic.

Today, that microscopic plant has become an Atlantic resident again, having drifted from the Pacific through the Arctic Ocean thanks to dramatically reduced polar ice, scientists report.

The melting Arctic has opened a Northwest Passage across the Pole for the tiny algae. And while it’s a food source, it isn’t being welcomed back by experts, who say any changes at the base of the marine food web could, like an earthquake, shake or even topple the pillars of existing Atlantic ocean life.

The discovery represents “the first evidence of a trans-Arctic migration in modern times” related to plankton, according to the UK-based Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, whose researchers warn that “such a geographical shift could transform the biodiversity and functioning of the Arctic and North Atlantic marine ecosystems.”

The tiny marine plant’s migration parallels, near the extreme opposite end of the ecological weigh scale, the arrival last year of a Pacific gray whale spotted off the coasts of Spain and Israel, a species that vanished from the Atlantic three centuries ago, likely because of over-hunting. Scientists believe the ice-reduced Arctic allowed the whale to cross into the North Atlantic, from where it wandered its way to the Mediterranean Sea.

These are among a number of reports about the marine life upheaval underway in the North Atlantic due to climate change, findings being captured and cataloged by project CLAMER, a collaboration of 17 marine institutes in 10 European countries.

The project is synthesizing the results of almost 300 EU-funded climate change-related research projects over 13 years in Europe’s oceans and near-shore waters, as well as the Mediterranean, Baltic and Black Seas.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage, by The Associated Press (via Globe and Mail): click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Climate, Environment, Fisheries, Marine Biology, Marine Science | Tagged Biodiversity, CLAMER, Climate, Environment, Fisheries, Marine Biology, Marine Science, NIOZ, Oceanography, Science Media, VLIZ | Comments Off

Teeming with life, Pacific’s California current likened to Africa’s Serengeti Plain

Posted on June 22, 2011 by admin

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

Tracking the paths of ocean predators Many species of Pacific predators stick to familiar routes each season, according to new findings of a decade-long study that tracked 23 types of marine animals. The two most heavily trafficked corridors are the California Current along the West Coast of the U.S. and the North Pacific Transition Zone, where cold and warm water meet halfway between Alaska and Hawaii.

Like the vast African plains, two huge expanses of the North Pacific Ocean are major corridors of life, attracting an array of marine predators in predictable seasonal patterns, according to final results from the Census of Marine Life Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) project published today in the journal Nature.

The paper culminates the TOPP program’s decade-long effort to track top marine predator movements in the Pacific Ocean. It presents for the first time the results for all 23 tagged species and reveals how migrations and habitat preferences overlap — a remarkable picture of critical marine life pathways and habitats.

The study found that major hot spots for large marine predators are the California Current, which flows south along the US west coast, and a trans-oceanic migration highway called the North Pacific Transition Zone, which connects the western and eastern Pacific on the boundary between cold sub-arctic water and warmer subtropical water — about halfway between Hawaii and Alaska.

“These are the oceanic areas where food is most abundant, and it’s driven by high primary productivity at the base of the food chain — these areas are the savanna grasslands of the sea,” say co-authors and project originators Barbara Block of Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station and Daniel Costa, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

“Knowing where and when species overlap is valuable information for efforts to manage and protect critical species and ecosystems.”

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage, by Washington Post: click here; more sources, click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Census of Marine Life, Climate, Environment, Fisheries, Ian Poiner, Jesse Ausubel, Marine Biology, Marine Science | Tagged Barbara Block, Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Census of Marine Life, Climate, Dan Costa, Environment, Fisheries, Ian Poiner, Jesse Ausubel, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Oceanography, pacific ocean, Randy Kochevar, Science Media, sharks, TOPP | Comments Off

Founded on science, world cooperation in Antarctica a model for meeting climate, other challenges

Posted on June 16, 2011 by admin

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 overfishing, says the editor of a new book on science diplomacy.

Since the end of the Second World War science has become an important tool of diplomacy, not only for issues involving environmental management, but for peace in the world we live in, says Paul Berkman, former Head of the Arctic Ocean Geopolitics Programme, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UK, and Research Professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California Santa Barbara.

Says Dr. Berkman, keynote speaker at an international conference on Antarctica being held in Malaysia: “For half a century, it has become increasingly obvious that we face planetary-scale phenomena that cannot be solved by any one nation or region, nor solved quickly. Today and forever after, national and international interests need to find the type of balance practiced today under the Antarctic Treaty.”

Full news release: click here

Example coverage, by EFE newswire, Spain: click here

Posted in AH Zakri, Antarctica, Climate, Environment, Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), Political Science | Tagged AH Zakri, Antarctica, Climate, Environment, Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), Paul Berkman, Political Science, Science Media | Comments Off

The top 5 actions parents can take to reduce child exposure to toxic chemicals at home

Posted on June 15, 2011 by admin

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 toxic substances in and around the home.

Controlling house dust; switching to less-toxic, fragrance-free cleaners; taking extreme care with renovation projects; avoiding certain types and uses of plastics; and choosing fish that are low in mercury are the five priority actions recommended by the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment (CPCHE) to reduce common sources of toxic exposure associated with child health risks.

“If parents take simple actions in these five areas, they can significantly reduce their children’s exposures to toxics – and even save money,” says Erica Phipps, CPCHE Partnership Director.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage, by TIME Magazine Online: click here, more sources, click here

Posted in Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, Public Health | Tagged Canadian Partnerships for Children's Health & Environment, CPCHE, Erica Phipps, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, Public Health, Science Media | Comments Off

Higher density means world forests are capturing more carbon

Posted on June 6, 2011 by admin

Rockefeller University, New York / University of Helsinki

06 Jun 11

Forests in many regions are becoming larger carbon sinks thanks to higher density, US 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 by Aapo Rautiainen of the University of Helsinki, Finland, and published by the online, open-access journal PLoS One. These photos from the same spot in Finland, taken in 1893 (l) and in 1997 (r) show that while the forest area is the same, the trees are larger in the later photo. I.K. Inha (1893) and K.A. Ennola (1997)

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 by Aapo Rautiainen of the University of Helsinki, Finland, and published in the online, open-access journal PLoS One.

Even in the South American nations studied, more density helped maintain regional carbon levels in the face of deforestation.

The researchers analyzed information from 68 nations, which together account for 72 percent of the world’s forested land and 68 percent of reported carbon mass. They conclude that managing forests for timber growth and density offers a way to increase stored carbon, even with little or no expansion of forest area.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage, by Reuters: click here

Posted in Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate, Environment, Forestry, Jesse Ausubel, Pekka Kauppi, Rockefeller University | Tagged Biodiversity, Climate, Environment, forestry, Jesse Ausubel, Pekka Kaupi, Rockefeller University, Science Media, University of Helsinki | Comments Off

How to supply sustainable electricity to world’s billions of ‘energy poor’ people

Posted on June 2, 2011 by admin

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 bring clean, reliable electricity to two remote, impoverished South American communities could light a path to be followed around the world.

In Argentina’s Patagonia region a 86-kilowatt hydroelectric station will provide power to the tiny rural community of Cochico, while a wind and diesel hybrid system of the same size will supply the isolated village of Chorriaca. Both communities now make do with inadequate and polluting diesel generators that operate sporadically.

The new electricity sources are the result of co-operative efforts between the communities, Patagonia’s provincial government and members of the Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership, a non-profit organization created by several of the world’s largest utilities to promote sustainable energy development and human capacity building in developing and emerging nations.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage, by Reuters: click here

Posted in Climate, E8, Energy sources, Environment, Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership, United Nations | Tagged Climate, E8, Energy sources, Environment, Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership, International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, Kandeh K. Yumkella, Science Media, UNIDO, United Nations | Comments Off

Void in leadership on world water crisis cited by 20 former heads of government

Posted on May 31, 2011 by admin

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 issues.

Saying that “international water leadership is virtually nonexistent,” the retired leaders say the panel will work to elevate the issue’s political prominence in an effort to avert a looming “water crisis.”

The 20 members of the InterAction Council attending this year’s three-day annual meeting in Quebec City included former US President Bill Clinton, former Mexican Presidents Vicente Fox and Ernesto Zedillo, and former prime ministers Yasuo Fukuda (Japan) and Gro Brundtland (Norway). Co-chairing the meeting: former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and former Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky.

At the meeting’s conclusion, the group urged a new international water ethic and offered today’s political office-holders some 21 recommendations for world water management moving forward.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage, by Agence France Presse: click here

Posted in Climate, Environment, Political Science, Water | Tagged Bill Clinton, Climate, Environment, InterAction Council, Jean Chrietien, Political Science, Science Media, Water | Comments Off

Dramatically raising low metal recycling rates part of path to green economy: UNEP

Posted on May 26, 2011 by admin

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 boost recycling of metals world-wide.

According to a report released today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), recycling rates of metals are in many cases far lower than their potential for re-use.

Less than one-third of some 60 metals studied have an end-of-life recycling rate above 50 per cent and 34 elements are below 1 per cent recycling, yet many of them are crucial to clean technologies such as batteries for hybrid cars to the magnets in wind turbines, says the study.

“In spite of significant efforts in a number of countries and regions, many metal recycling rates are discouragingly low, and a ‘recycling society’ appears no more than a distant hope,” states the Recycling Rates of Metals: A Status Report, compiled by UNEP’s International Resource Panel.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage, by BBC Online: click here

Posted in Climate, Environment, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Tagged Environment, International Resource Panel, International Resources Panel, Science Media, Tom Graedel, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Comments Off

Humanity can and must do more with less: UNEP

Posted on May 22, 2011 by admin

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 the United Nations Environment Programme.

A labourer carries coal in a basket to load it in a truck at a coal store in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh October 25, 2010. REUTERS/Ajay Verma/Files

Citizens of developed countries consume an average of 16 tons (ranging up to 40 or more tons) of those four key resources per capita. By comparison, the average person in India today consumes four tons per year.

With the growth of both population and prosperity, especially in developing countries, the prospect of much higher resource consumption levels is “far beyond what is likely sustainable” if realized at all given finite world resources, warns the report by UNEP’s International Resource Panel.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Coverage by Reuters: click here

Posted in Achim Steiner, Energy sources, Environment, Green economy, Green energy, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Tagged Achim Steiner, decoupling, Energy sources, Environment, Green economy, Green energy, International Resource Panel, International Resources Panel, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Comments Off

Student, 16, invents new drug cocktail to fight cystic fibrosis, wins Canadian biotech competition

Posted on May 22, 2011 by admin

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.

Marshall Zhang, 16, has found a promising treatment for cystic fibrosis.

The Grade 11 student at Bayview Secondary School in Richmond Hill so impressed eight eminent scientists at the National Research Council of Canada laboratories in Ottawa they awarded him first prize today in the 2011 Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Coverage by the Toronto Star: click here, by CTV Canada AM: click here

Posted in Bioscience Education Canada, Biotalent Canada, Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Science, Researchers, Sanofi-Aventis Biotalent Challenge | Tagged Bioscience Education Canada, Biotalent Canada, Biotechnology, Marshall Zhang, National Research Council, Pharmaceutical Science, Research, Researchers, Sanofi-Aventis Biotalent Challenge, Science Media | Comments Off

US EPA joins alliance to curb global e-waste

Posted on May 22, 2011 by admin

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 UNU’s Institute for Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP) will help authorities track shipments of North American e-waste and provide support to nations in both Africa and Asia coping with e-waste imports.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary, click here

Coverage by The Economist: click here

Posted in Disease in the Developing World, e-waste, Environment, Global Health, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Stop the eWaste Problem, United Nations, United Nations University | Tagged Disease in the Developing World, e-waste, Environment, EPA, Global Health, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Ruediger Kuehr, Science Media, Stop the eWaste Problem, United Nations, United Nations University | Comments Off

Former national leaders: Water a global security issue

Posted on May 22, 2011 by admin

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 prospect of future water conflicts.

A traditional Egyptian ''Felucca'' boat sails on the Nile river in the southern Egyptian city of Aswan about 879 km (549 miles) south of Cairo November 8, 2010. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

The InterAction Council (IAC), co-chaired by the Rt. Hon. Jean Chretien, former Prime Minister of Canada, and H.E. Dr. Franz Vranitzky, former Chancellor of Austria, makes recommendations related to long-term issues facing humankind and holds its annual plenary this year in Quebec City May 29-31.

Full release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Coverage by Reuters: click here

Posted in Environment, Institute for Water Environment and Health, InterAction Council, Political Science, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Environment, Institute for Water Environment and Health, InterAction Council, Political Science, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Comments Off

Avoid risking children’s health during home energy retrofits, renovations, experts urge

Posted on May 22, 2011 by admin

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 insulation and other toxic materials in older buildings put the health of all — especially children — living there at risk of serious health impacts.

Lead exposure can potentially lead to lowered intelligence and worse; asbestos exposure can potentially lead to debilitating long term illness, and certain materials used in renovation can increase other health risks, experts warn in a new report by the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA).

CELA and fellow members of the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment (CPCHE) have launched a multi-year project to promote healthier home energy retrofits. They strongly encourage retrofits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and home energy costs but urge government co-operation to ensure such work is done without damaging the vulnerable health of children.

Full release: Click here

Coverage by Reuters: Click here

Posted in Global Health, Public Health | Tagged Canadian Partnerships for Children's Health & Environment, CPCHE, Erica Phipps, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, Public Health, Science Media | Comments Off

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

Posted on May 17, 2011 by admin

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 than double per capita income from US$6,700 in 2009 to US$15,000 in the next nine years.

Najib Razak

Today in New York, Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak met for the first time with a newly-formed 42 member council comprised of titans of economics, business, science and technology, each volunteering to help Malaysia up the development ladder – lighting a path to a green, high-income economy

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Coverage by Agence France Presse: click here; by the BBC: click here

Posted in AH Zakri, Environment, Green economy, Malaysia, Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), Office of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Political Science, sustainable development, United Nations | Tagged AH Zakri, Ellis Rubinstein, Environment, Green economy, GSIAC, Malaysia, Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), New York Academy of Sciences, Office of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Political Science, Razak, Science Media, sustainable development | Comments Off

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

Posted on April 5, 2011 by admin

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 climate scenarios, European researchers said today.

Estimated in 2009 at more than 7,500 cubic km – twice the volume of Africa’s Lake Victoria – and growing, the water could flush quickly into the Atlantic with unpredictable effect when prevailing atmospheric patterns shift, as occurred most recently in the 1960s and 1990s.

The situation is one of many disquieting findings captured by project CLAMER, a collaboration of 17 institutes in 10 European countries to inventory and synthesize the research of almost 300 EU-funded projects over 13 years related to climate change and Europe’s oceans and near-shore waters, and the Baltic and Black Seas.

Full news release, click here

Sample coverage, by The Associated Press, click here, by MS-NBC, click here

Coverage summary, click here

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

Posted on March 3, 2011 by admin

Canadian Water Network
Waterloo, Ontario
27-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 looming on a 15 to 20 year horizon.

Within a single generation, recent studies show, water demand in many countries will exceed supply by an estimated 40%, with one-third of humanity having half the water required for life’s basics. In flood-prone places, meanwhile, catastrophic flood events normally expected once a century – similar to those recently witnessed in Pakistan and Australia – can now be expected every 20 years instead.

The anticipated crises create a fast-growing need for technologies and services to discover, manage, filter, disinfect and/or desalinate water, improve infrastructure and distribution, mitigate flood damage and reduce water consumption by households, industry and agriculture – the biggest water user by far at 71% worldwide.

And Canada is well positioned to mobilize and share worldwide its extensive experience gained stewarding 9% of the world’s freshwater supply.

Representing an important step in that process, some 300 scientists, policy-makers, economists and other stakeholders convene in Ottawa Mon. Feb. 28 to Thurs. March 3 for an international meeting hosted by the Canadian Water Network (CWN) showcasing latest world research findings as well as proven news tools, ideas and best practices for optimizing water management.

Full news release text:click here

Coverage by Agence France Press: click here

Coverage summary, click here

Posted in Climate, Environment, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Institute for Water Environment and Health, Public Health, sustainable development, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Bernadette Conant, Canadian Water Network, Climate, Environment, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Institute for Water Environment and Health, Public Health, Science Media, sustainable development, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Leave a comment

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

Posted on February 17, 2011 by admin

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,” argues Charles Perrings, Professor of Environmental Economics at Arizona State University, co-author of the paper with Prof. Hal Mooney of Stanford University, Anne Larigauderie, Executive Director of Paris-based DIVERSITAS, and Anantha Duraiappah, Executive Director of the International Human Dimensions Program on Global Environmental Change, based at the United Nations University’s offices in Bonn.

In their article, the scientists also urge that IPBES assessments pay “at least as much attention” to social sciences as to natural sciences – estimating, for example, the value of ecosystem services in economic terms to help societies make better-informed development choices. Economists recently estimated, for instance, that an average hectare of coral reef provides services to humans valued at US $130,000, and in some places as much as $1.2 million, per year.

Full news release text, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Example coverage by Reuters, click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Diversitas, Environment, Researchers, Scientists, United Nations Environment Programme | Tagged Anne Larigauderie, Biodiversity, Charles Perrings, Diversitas, Environment, Hal Mooney, IPBES, Research, Researchers, Science Media, Scientists, UNEP, United Nations Environment | Leave a comment

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

Posted on February 7, 2011 by admin

United Nations University
Institute for Water, Environment and Health
Hamilton, Canada

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. The polluted water flows through the caves and into the Caribbean Sea. Land-sourced pollution may have contributed, along with overfishing, coral diseases, and climate change, to the loss since 1990 of up to 50% of corals on the reefs off the region’s coast.
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Posted in Agriculture, Biodiversity, Environment, Health in Developing Countries, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Researchers, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Environment, Institute for Water Environment and Health, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Peter Sale, riviera maya, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Leave a comment

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

Posted on December 12, 2010 by admin

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

Invented by Moses Musaazi of Makerere University, Uganda, this easy‑to‑use, inexpensive, WHO‑approved portable medical‑waste incinerator could help solve the problem of hospital waste management in rural areas, especially during mass polio immunization and similar programs. The incinerator requires no fuel other than the medical waste and achieves temperatures of 800 degrees C. It is one of 25 technologies MRC researchers discovered stagnating in health research institutions in Africa ‑‑ products with the potential to improve local health but which exist only in a lab due to a failure of commercialization or support. Credit: Ken Simiyu, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health

Global health experts today published a landmark collection of papers that together provide a unique microscope on the experience of countries, companies and organizations in sub-Saharan Africa addressing neglected health problems with homegrown drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and other creative scientific and business solutions.

The first-of-its kind study chronicles the triumphs and troubles of entrepreneurs, institutes and firms in Africa creating innovative, affordable technologies that bring hope to many sufferers of local diseases. While some have yet to succeed, several organizations cleared major hurdles to finance and create products, some of which may expand into global markets one day.

It is the first research offering a broad range of evidence and concrete examples of African innovation to address local health concerns. The papers draw on the experiences of authorities, researchers and entrepreneurs in Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. In addition to efforts involving health products, the experiences of health venture capital funds in African and other developed countries are profiled.

The papers were produced by Canada’s McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health (MRC), at the University Health Network and University of Toronto, and published as a special supplement in the UK-based open-access journal publisher BioMed Central Dec. 12 (with full public access atwww.biomedcentral.com/bmcinthealthhumrights/10?issue=S1). One of the papers was published earlier in the journal Science.

Full news release text, click here

Special McLaughlin-Rotman Centre website: click here

Coverage summary, click here

Example coverage, by Nature Magazine, click here, by Agence France Presse, click here, Coverage by PostMedia News, Canada: click here

Posted in Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Pharmaceutical Science, Public Health, Researchers | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Political Science, Public Health, Research, Researchers, Science Media | Comments Off

Africa Can Feed Itself in a Generation

Posted on December 2, 2010 by admin

Young Boy Fishing 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, by doing so, its economy.

The strategy calls on governments to make African agricultural expansion central to decision making about everything from transportation and communication infrastructure to post-secondary education and innovation investment.

The approach is outlined in an independent study, “The New Harvest, Agricultural Innovation in Africa,” led by Harvard University professor Calestous Juma.
Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Calestous Juma, Climate, Environment, Global Health, Harvard Kennedy School, Health in Developing Countries | Tagged Africa, Agriculture, Belfer Center, Calestous Juma, Climate, Environment, Food, Global Health, Harvard Kennedy School, Health in Developing Countries, Science Media | Leave a comment

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

Posted on November 2, 2010 by admin

Ocean's Research 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 could both harm coral reefs and profoundly impact tiny shelled plankton at the base of the ocean food web, scientists warn. Despite the seriousness of such changes to the ocean, however, the world has yet to deploy a complete suite of available tools to monitor rising acidification and other ocean conditions that have a fundamental impact on life throughout the planet.

Marine life patterns, water temperature, sea level, and polar ice cover join acidity and other variables in a list of ocean characteristics that can and should be tracked continuously through the expanded deployment of existing technologies in a permanent, integrated global monitoring system, scientists say.
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Posted in Census of Marine Life, Environment, Jesse Ausubel, Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans | Tagged Census of Marine Life, Environment, Oceanography, Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans, Science Media | Leave a comment

Continuing biodiversity loss predicted but could be slowed

Posted on November 2, 2010 by admin

Animal Collage 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 Pereira and Paul Leadley, the 23-member scientific team from nine countries, under the auspices of DIVERSITAS, UNEP-WCMC and the secretariat of the CBD compared results from five recent global environmental assessments and a wide range of peer-reviewed literature examining likely future changes in biodiversity.
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Posted in Biodiversity, Diversitas, Environment | Tagged Anne Larigauderie, Biodiversity, Diversitas, Science Media | Leave a comment

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

Posted on October 5, 2010 by admin

Life in Planet Oceans 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 stops mapped, diminished abundance documented

Online Census directory allows anyone to map global addresses of species

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage: by the Associated Press, click here; by the Wall Street Journal, click here; by Agence France Presse Television, click here; by the BBC World Service TV, click here; by CNN, click here, by Brazil’s O Globo TV, click here; by Scholastic Science World for students, click here; by TIME for Kids, click here

For additional examples of CoML coverage in October, 2010, click here

Posted in Census of Marine Life, Environment, Fisheries | Tagged Biodiversity, Census of Marine Life, Climate, Environment, Fisheries, Ian Poiner, Jesse Ausubel, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Oceanography, Science Media | Leave a comment

Report casts world’s rivers in ‘crisis state’

Posted on September 29, 2010 by admin

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 runoff, the conversion of wetlands and the introduction of exotic species. The resulting portrait is grim, revealing that nearly 80 percent of humans live in areas where river waters are highly threatened, posing major problems to both human water security and aquatic environments where thousands of species of plants and animals are at risk of extinction.

The report was authored by an international team led by Charles J. Vörösmarty of the City University of New York, an expert on global water resources, and Peter B. McIntyre, a professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Limnology and an expert on freshwater biodiversity.

The work underpinning the study was funded by the Earth System Science Partnership, an international scientific consortium that supports research on global environmental change; the Bonn-based Global Water System Project, an interdisciplinary research effort to articulate human-water interactions; and Paris-based DIVERSITAS, an international collaborative whose mission includes providing accurate scientific information related to issues of biodiversity. The work was also supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Global Environmental Facility, and the Society for Conservation Biology’s Smith Fellowship Program.

Full news release, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Sample coverage, by Reuters, click here, by the BBC Online, click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Diversitas, Environment, Fisheries, Science Media, Water | Tagged Biodiversity, Diversitas, Environment, Researchers, rivers, Science Media, Scientists, Water | Comments Off

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

Posted on September 14, 2010 by admin

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 for a series of measures to bolster international support for continuing the success of firms finding homegrown solutions to immediate health concerns in developing countries.

In a commentary published by the journal Nature Biotechnology, researchers Rahim Rezaie and Peter A. Singer at Canada’s McLaughlin Rotman Centre for Global Health say biotech companies in China, India, South Africa and Brazil are making important, innovative contributions to address health problems in the south.

Biotech firms in emerging economies are putting into the hands of countless people affordable products to prevent, diagnose and remedy illnesses of local concern.

Most famously, perhaps, a hepatitis B vaccine developed by Shantha Biotechnics of Hyderabad, India, helped cause a domestic price reduction from about $15 for a comparable imported product to roughly $0.25 today. Experts credit Shantha’s innovative, efficient manufacturing process and well as subsequent local competition.

Full news release, click here

Paper at Nature Biotechnology, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Example coverage, by New Scientist, click here

Posted in Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Science Media | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, Political Science, Public Health, Research, Researchers, Science Media | Comments Off

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

Posted on August 5, 2010 by admin

Prehistoric Fish 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 data obtained during the decade-long Census to create a roll call of species in 25 biologically representative regions — from the Antarctic through temperate and tropical seas to the Arctic.

Their papers help set a baseline for measuring changes that humanity and nature will cause.

Full news release text: click here

Coverage summary, click here

Coverage by the Agence France Presse, click here, by CBS News, click here; other sources, click here and here

Posted in Census of Marine Life, Researchers, Science Media | Tagged Biodiversity, Census of Marine Life, Climate, Environment, Fisheries, Ian Poiner, Jesse Ausubel, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Oceanography, Patricia Miloslavich, Paul Snelgrove, Ron O'Dor, Science Media | Leave a comment

Reports detail global investment and other trends in green energy

Posted on July 16, 2010 by admin

Wind Farm United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) a 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 United Nations Environment Programme and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21).

Renewables accounted for 60 per cent of newly installed capacity in Europe and more than 50 per cent in the USA in 2009. This year or next, experts predict, the world as a whole will add more capacity to the electricity supply from renewable than non-renewable sources.

The reports detail trends in the global green energy sector, including which sources attracted the greatest attention from investors and governments in different world regions.

Full news release text, click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage by the BBC: click here

Posted in Environment, United Nations Environment Programme | Tagged Achim Steiner, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Eric Usher, Green energy, Michael Liebreich, Science Media, SEFI, UNEP, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Leave a comment

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

Posted on June 10, 2010 by admin

Jacques Cousteau 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 André de Cubzac, a small town in southwest France.

To mark the centennial of his birth, the Cousteau Society is launching a year-long celebration in Paris with Cousteau’s global legion of admirers, and welcomes proposals from around the world.

The re-launch and tour of Calypso, the ship aboard which Cousteau created many of the world’s first glimpses of deep-sea life, will highlight the end of the centennial in 2011.

Instantly recognizable by his red cap and gaunt silhouette, Cousteau was just 33 when he co-invented the aqualung that enabled divers to explore ocean depths for extended periods, opening a window to an entire world then virtually unknown to humankind.
Continue reading →

Posted in Cousteau Society, Environment, Marine Biology, Marine Science | Tagged Cousteau Society, Environment, Jacques Cousteau, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Science Media | Leave a comment

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

Posted on May 10, 2010 by admin

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. May 10 in the UK journal Nature Biotechnology.

Researchers from five developing countries, together with colleagues at Canada’s McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, interviewed over 300 experts in 13 developing countries to produce the first-ever large scale study of “south-south” collaboration in health-related biotechnology.

Full news release text, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Example coverage, by the DPA newswire, click here, by SciDev.net, click here

Posted in Abdallah Daar, Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Pharmaceutical Science, Public Health | Tagged Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Pharmaceutical Science, Political Science, Public Health, Research, Researchers | Comments Off

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

Posted on May 7, 2010 by admin

Tiny Sea Creature 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 explorers are puzzling out Nature’s purpose behind an astonishing variety of tiny ocean creatures like microbes and zooplankton animals – each perhaps a ticket-holder in life’s lottery, awaiting conditions that will allow it to prosper and dominate.

The inventory and study of the hardest-to-see sea species — tiny microbes, zooplankton, larvae and burrowers in the sea bed, which together underpin almost all other life on Earth — is the focus of four of 14 field projects of the Census of Marine Life.

Full news release text: click here

Coverage summary, click here

Associated Press newswire coverage: click here; more sources, click here

Posted in Census of Marine Life, Environment, Global Health | Tagged Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Census of Marine Life, Climate, Environment, Fisheries, Ian Poiner, Jesse Ausubel, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Oceanography, Science Media | Leave a comment

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

Posted on May 7, 2010 by admin

Canadian Science Prodigy 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 national finalist in the event’s 17-year history, “astonished” nine judges at Canada’s National Research Council with her search for an early way to tell apart two strains of a crop-killing fungus, one strain of which can wipe out half a farmer’s lentil harvest if left unrecognized and untreated.

Full news release text, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Canadian Press newswire story: click here

Posted in Bioscience Education Canada, Biotalent Canada | Tagged Bioscience Education Canada, Biotalent Canada, Biotechnology, National Research Council, Pharmaceutical Science, Research, Researchers, Rui Song, Sanofi-Aventis Biotalent Challenge, Science Media | Leave a comment

Greater access to cell phones than toilets in India: UN

Posted on May 7, 2010 by admin

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 by 2015.

They also urge the world community to set a new target beyond the MDG (which calls for a 50 percent improvement in access to adequate sanitation by 2015) to the achievement of 100 percent coverage by 2025.

Full news release text, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Coverage by Agence France Presse, click here

Op-ed in the New York Times: click here

Posted in United Nations University, UNU, Zafar Adeel | Tagged cell phones, Environment, India, Institute for Water Environment and Health, Science Media, toilets, United Nations, United Nations University, Zafar Adeel | Leave a comment

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

Posted on April 20, 2010 by admin

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.

Claudia Emerson, PhD, Program Leader in Ethics, and Peter A. Singer, MD, Director of the Canadian-based McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health (MRC) at the University Health Network and University of Toronto, present a series of compelling arguments that completing polio eradication is an ethical imperative.

They say the polio eradication agenda in recent years has largely centered on questions of economic and technical feasibility and has come under fire from opponents who strongly support an ‘effective control’ strategy. However, it is estimated that this alternative to eradication would result in 4 million children contracting polio in the next 20 years.

The authors introduce a moral justification for eradication to the debate, asking: “How can we ethically justify this course of action when the opportunity and means to rescue are available?”

Full news release text, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Example coverage, by Asian News International Newswire, click here, by the InterPress News Service newswire, click here, by the Globe and Mail, click here

Posted in Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Medical Ethics, Peter A. Singer, Public Health, Science Media | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Grand Challenges Canada, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, polio, Science Media | Comments Off

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

Posted on February 23, 2010 by admin

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 up to properly collect and recycle materials, many developing countries face the spectre of hazardous e-waste mountains with serious consequences for the environment and public health, according to UN experts in a landmark report released today by UNEP.

Issued at a meeting of Basel Convention and other world chemical authorities prior to UNEP’s Governing Council meeting in Bali, Indonesia, the report, “Recycling – from E-Waste to Resources,” used data from 11 representative developing countries to estimate current and future e-waste generation – which includes old and dilapidated desk and laptop computers, printers, mobile phones, pagers, digital photo and music devices, refrigerators, toys and televisions.

In South Africa and China for example, the report predicts that by 2020 e-waste from old computers will have jumped by 200 to 400 percent from 2007 levels, and by 500% in India

By that same year in China, e-waste from discarded mobile phones will be about 7 times higher than 2007 levels and, in India, 18 times higher.

By 2020, e-waste from televisions will be 1.5 to 2 times higher in China and India while in India e-waste from discarded refrigerators will double or triple.

China already produces about 2.3 million tonnes (2010 estimate) domestically, second only to the United States with about 3 million tonnes. And, despite having banned e-waste imports, China remains a major e-waste dumping ground for developed countries.

Moreover, most e-waste in China is improperly handled, much of it incinerated by backyard recyclers to recover valuable metals like gold — practices that release steady plumes of far-reaching toxic pollution and yield very low metal recovery rates compared to state-of-the-art industrial facilities.

Full news release, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Coverage by The Guardian, click here

Coverage by Reuters, click here

Posted in Disease in the Developing World, e-waste, Environment, Global Health, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Public Health, Stop the eWaste Problem, sustainable development, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Disease in the Developing World, e-waste, Environment, Global Health, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Ruediger Kuehr, Science Media, Stop the eWaste Problem, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

Water experts of 26 UN agencies meet in Canada, plan coordinated response to looming crisis

Posted on February 6, 2010 by admin

United Nations University

1-Feb-2010

More than two dozen leading United Nations water experts will convene in Hamilton, Canada Feb. 2-4 to plan fresh strategy for a coordinated approach to the global water crisis that increasingly threatens both human health and international security.

At its first-ever meeting in Canada, the group known as UN-Water will also formalize international ceremonies to mark the World Water Day 2010 (March 22) and help set both direction and UN agency contributions for the next triennial World Water Development Report in 2012.

The meeting is being convened by UN-Water’s new Chair, Zafar Adeel, Director of the United Nations University’s Hamilton-based Institute for Water, Environment & Health.

Full text: Click here

Coverage summary: Click here

Coverage by the Reuters newswire: Click here

Posted in United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Environment, Institute for Water Environment and Health, Science Media, UN-Water, United Nations, United Nations University, Water, Zafar Adeel | Leave a comment

Sales of green energy to help halt decay of Philippines’ legendary rice terraces

Posted on January 26, 2010 by admin

e8
Montreal
21-Jan-2010

2,000-year-old ‘stairway to heaven,’ a threatened World Heritage Site, to benefit from proceeds of $1 million, e8-donated mini-hydro project

Philippines officials today received the symbolic keys to a donated 200 kW hydro-electric project that, in addition to green energy, will start generating money to halt deterioration of the country’s fabled ancient rice terraces.

The massive, spectacular and iconic Asian rice terraces were created on mountainsides largely by hand by indigenous people of the northern Ifugao province at least two millennia ago. Fed by tropical forest springs above, they are popularly referred to as “the stairways to Heaven,” and the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”

Eighty generations later, the terraces’ condition prompted UNESCO in 2001 to include them on its list of World Heritage Sites in Danger.

The $1 million mini-hydro facility, donated by the e8 and located discretely in the Ambangal river downstream of the postcard terraces, will create annually about 1,450 megawatts hour (MWh) of much-needed new energy for the area, meeting 18% of the province’s electricity needs, and generating some US $70,000 in annual revenue for the new Rice Terrace Conservation Fund, fully dedicated to urgently needed shoring up of the terraces and related activities.

Developed over four years in collaboration with the Philippines Department of Energy and the Provincial Government of Ifugao, the facility was built and donated by Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) on behalf of the e8, an international non-profit organisation of 10 leading power utilities from G8 countries.

Full text: Click here

Coverage summary: Click here

Coverage at the New York Times: click here

Posted in E8, Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership | Tagged Climate, E8, Energy sources, Environment, Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership, International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, Science Media, United Nations | Leave a comment

China a rising star in regenerative medicine despite world skepticism of stem cell therapies

Posted on January 26, 2010 by admin

McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health
University Health Network / University of Toronto
8-Jan-2010

Chinese researchers have become the world’s fifth most prolific contributors to peer-reviewed scientific literature on clock-reversing regenerative medicine even as a skeptical international research community condemns the practice of Chinese clinics administering unproven stem cell therapies to domestic and foreign patients.

According to a study by the Canadian-based McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health (MRC), published today by the UK journal Regenerative Medicine, China’s government is pouring dollars generously into regenerative medicine (RM) research and aggressively recruiting high-calibre scientists trained abroad in pursuit of its ambition to become a world leader in the field.

And its strategy is working: Chinese contributions to scientific journals on RM topics leapt from 37 in year 2000 to 1,116 in 2008, exceeded only by the contributions of experts in the USA, Germany, Japan and the UK.

The accomplishment is all the more astonishing given that China’s international credibility has been and still is severely hindered by global concerns surrounding Chinese clinics, where unproven therapies continue to be administered to thousands of patients.

New rules to govern such treatments were recently instituted but need to be strictly enforced in order to repair China’s global reputation, according to MRC authors Dominique S. McMahon, Halla Thorsteinsdóttir, Peter A. Singer and Abdallah S. Daar.

They drew their conclusions after having gained unprecedented access to almost 50 Chinese researchers, policy makers, clinicians, company executives and regulators for interviews. The research was made possible by funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Full text: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Coverage by The Economist: Click here

Posted in McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer | Tagged Biotechnology, China, Global Health, Grand Challenges Canada, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter Singer Toronto, Science Media, stem cell research, stem cells | Leave a comment

Student sleuths exploring with DNA barcodes reveal zoo of 95 species in typical NYC homes – find a mystery cockroach and new evidence of food fraud

Posted on January 2, 2010 by admin

Rockefeller University
New York City
28-Dec-2009

Two New York City high school students exploring their homes using the latest high-tech DNA analysis techniques were astonished to discover a veritable zoo of 95 animal species surrounding them, in everything from fridges to furniture, from sidewalks to shipping boxes, and from feather dusters to floor corners.

Guided by DNA “barcoding” experts at The Rockefeller University and the American Museum of Natural History, Grade 12 students Brenda Tan and Matt Cost of Trinity School, Manhattan, also revealed a lot of apparent consumer fraud in progress, finding that the labels of 11 of 66 food products purchased at local markets misrepresented the actual contents.

The January edition of BioScience magazine will report on their “DNA House” project, detailed as well online at http://phe.rockefeller.edu/barcode/dnahouse.html

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Coverage by the New York Times: click here

Posted in Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Jesse Ausubel, Rockefeller University | Tagged Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Brenda Tan, Consortium for the Barcode of Life, Encyclopedia of Life, Environment, Jesse Ausubel, Matt Cost, Paul Hebert, Research, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Sloan Foundation, Trinity School | Leave a comment

Indigenous delegates to UN talks in Copenhagen debut video evidence, accounts of climate change

Posted on December 19, 2009 by admin

3-Dec-09

Christensen Fund

Palo Alto, California

A delegation of more than 20 indigenous teens, women, elders and shamen heading to historic Copenhagen climate talks today offered the world self-created video evidence and testimonials of climate change problems in their far-flung home communities.

The videos include scenes of cows and zebra dead or dying of drought in Kenya; parched landscapes and stunted crop growth in Cameroon; destructive, unseasonal summer downpours in Peru, and a dry, rerouted river in the Philippines among other images and personal accounts of the impact climate change and development are having on indigenous people.

The testimonials also describe the unintended consequences of imposed climate change mitigation efforts on local livelihoods, and examples of the value of traditional knowledge in responding to climate change.

Created with the support the California-based Christensen Foundation, award-winning community video trainers, photographers and non-governmental organizations, the vignettes, entitled Conversations with the Earth (CWE), debuted today online at www.conversationsearth.org

Full news release: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/cf-idt113009.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlbF9zth54L8dExnUTI4UzRmZ1JDNFdNcTNSYTRVcEE&hl=en

Posted in Agriculture, sustainable development, United Nations | Tagged Christensen Fund, Science Media, United Nations | Leave a comment

Traditional indigenous fire management techniques deployed against climate change

Posted on November 30, 2009 by admin

29-Nov-2009
United Nations University
Tokyo / Darwin

Carbon credits bring millions for new jobs in indigenous communities;
Australian project a model of opportunity, especially for Africa

A landmark Australian project that mitigates the extent and severity of natural savannah blazes by deploying traditional Indigenous fire management techniques is being hailed as a model with vast global potential in the fights against climate change and biodiversity loss, and for protecting Indigenous lands and culture.

The enterprise is expected initially to generate at least 1 million tonnes worth of carbon credit sales annually, creating over 200 new jobs in traditional Northern Australia Indigenous communities.

Proponents heading to the December climate change talks in Copenhagen say similar projects can be adopted in the savannas of Africa, where the potential for reductions is very high.

Full release:
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/unu-tif112409.php

Coverage summary:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tc-B3thfxSXfmnWvJzzisxQ

Posted in United Nations University, UNU | Tagged indigenous knowledge, Konrad Osterwalder, Sam Johnston, Science Media, traditional knowledge, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

Beyond sunlight: Explorers census 17,650 ocean species between edge of darkness and black abyss

Posted on November 29, 2009 by admin

22-Nov-2009

Census of Marine Life

Washington DC

Deep sea teeming with species that have never known sunlight

Census of Marine Life scientists have inventoried an astonishing abundance, diversity and distribution of deep sea species that have never known sunlight – creatures that somehow manage a living in a frigid black world down to 5,000 meters (~3 miles) below the ocean waves.

Revealed via deep-towed cameras, sonar and other vanguard technologies, animals known to thrive in an eternal watery darkness now number 17,650, a diverse collection of species ranging from crabs to shrimp to worms. Most have adapted to diets based on meager droppings from the sunlit layer above, others to diets of bacteria that break down oil, sulfur and methane, the sunken bones of dead whales and other implausible foods.

Full release:

www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/coml-bs111609.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlbF9zth54L8dHRuNXJ3ZWNmUnlRNTlpODR4b09Ya1E&hl=en

Example coverage by CNN, click here; more sources, click here

Posted in Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Census of Marine Life, Jesse Ausubel | Tagged Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Census of Marine Life, Climate, coml, Environment, Fisheries, Ian Poiner, Jesse Ausubel, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Oceanography, Robert Carney, Robert S Carney, Science Media | Leave a comment

Powerful new world alliance of global health researchers announce landmark pact on priorities

Posted on November 29, 2009 by admin

16-Nov-2009
Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases

Agencies managing 80 percent of global public health research funding set first priorities for common, concerted efforts on heart and lung diseases, other ‘chronic non-communicable diseases’

An alliance of institutions collectively managing an estimated 80 percent of all public health research funding worldwide today announced their first targets for concerted action in the fight against “chronic non-communicable diseases” (CNCDs).

Lowering hypertension (high blood pressure), and reducing tobacco use and the indoor pollution caused by crude cooking stoves in developing countries — which together contribute to about 1 in 5 deaths each year — were chosen as initial priorities for the unprecedented coordinated research program under the recently-formed Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases.

Full news release:
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/gafc-pnw111109.php

Coverage summary:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlbF9zth54L8dDV6ZDF6VDltVmsxcUVPSFliaEphV0E&hl=en

Posted in Abdallah Daar, Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Political Science, Public Health, Researchers, United Nations | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Political Science, Public Health, Research, Researchers, Science Media, United Nations | Leave a comment

DNA barcodes: Creative new uses span health, fraud, smuggling, history, more

Posted on November 9, 2009 by admin

Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL),

Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

6-Nov-2009

The scientific ability to quickly and accurately identify species through DNA “barcoding” is being embraced and applied by a growing legion of global authorities – from medical and agricultural researchers to police and customs authorities to palaeontologists and others.

Some 350 experts from 50 nations gathering in Mexico for their 3rd global meeting will outline the latest creative applications of DNA barcoding, including projects to sequence ancient plant and animal remains extracted from northern permafrost cores.

Using new techniques to identify species from degraded DNA, the results could reveal how life on Earth responded to global climate change in ages past.

Meanwhile, by analyzing the DNA of gut contents, scientists have started unravelling secrets of what eats what in the animal world.

Full news release text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/cftb-dbc110109.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlbF9zth54L8dEVnM3ItQ3pmQVBEdHBJaHJQTkxBZUE&hl=en

Posted in Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Consortium for the Barcode of Life, Encyclopedia of Life, Environment, Jesse Ausubel, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Paul Hebert, Researchers, Rockefeller University | Tagged Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity Biotechnology Consortium for the Barcode of Life Encyclopedia of Life Environment Jesse Ausubel Marine Biology Marine Science Paul Hebert Research Researchers Rockefeller University, Science Media, Sloan Foundation | Leave a comment

Tap wealth of local products emerging to fight ‘neglected’ diseases of poor: study

Posted on November 3, 2009 by admin

McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health

3 Nov 2009

Experts propose ‘Global Health Accellerator’ to help new drugs, diagnostics, vaccines reach distant markets

Research firms in developing countries have a medicine cabinet full of affordable and innovative drugs, diagnostics and vaccines on shelves or in development to address “neglected tropical diseases” but need help to get such products to more potential users.

Canadian research, published today by the journal Health Affairs (“A Business Plan To Help The ‘Global South’ In Its Fight Against Neglected Diseases”), says roughly 1 billion people worldwide are killed or sickened by “neglected tropical diseases” (NTDs). More than 30 such diseases, caused by worms, protozoa, bacteria, fungi or viruses, afflict the poorest people in the poorest countries, and collectively cause a health burden comparable to malaria, tuberculosis or AIDS (known as the “Big 3″ tropical diseases).

The McLaughlin Rotman Centre for Global Health study notes earlier research that, of 1,556 new drugs approved between 1975-2004, only 21 (1.3%) targeted NTDs. That represents “a public health failure,” authors say, given that NTDs affect roughly 15% of humanity.

Full news release text, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Example coverage, by the InterPress News Service, click here

Posted in Abdallah Daar, Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer | Tagged Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Pharmaceutical Science, Political Science, Public Health, Research, Researchers, Science Media | Comments Off

World will miss 2010 target to stem biodiversity loss, experts say

Posted on October 22, 2009 by admin

DIVERSITAS, Paris

11-Oct-2009

Growing water needs, mismanagement leading to ‘catastrophic decline’ in freshwater biodiversity

The world will miss its agreed target to stem biodiversity loss by next year, according to experts convening in Cape Town for a landmark conference devoted to biodiversity science.

The goal was agreed at the 6th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in April 2003. Some 123 world ministers committed to “achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the local, national and regional levels, as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on Earth.”

“We will certainly miss the target for reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 and therefore also miss the 2015 environmental targets within the U.N. Millennium Development Goals to improve health and livelihoods for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people,” says Georgina Mace of Imperial College, London, and Vice-Chair of the international DIVERSITAS program, which is convening its 2nd Open Science Conference Oct. 13-16 with 600 experts from around the world.

Full text:

www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/d-wwm100409.php#

Medical ethics experts identify, address key issues in H1N1 pandemic

Posted on September 30, 2009 by admin

University of Toronto

Joint Center for Bioethics

23-Sep-2009

The anticipated onset of a second wave of the H1N1 influenza pandemic could present a host of thorny medical ethics issues best considered well in advance, according to the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, which today released nine papers for public discussion.

Topics include duty of health care workers to work during a serious flu pandemic; government restrictions on individual freedoms and privacy and their responsibilities administering vaccination programs; how to allocate limited medical resources; and the obligation of rich countries to share such resources with those less fortunate.

“While we hope there will not be a major second wave of the H1N1 flu, there is limited cause for optimism and we could well see the pandemic’s full onset late this year or early next when the traditional flu season begins,” says JCB Director Ross Upshur.

“Now is the time to think through the serious ethical challenges societies may confront, not in the midst of crisis with line-ups at hospital doors. These issues and concerns, though drawn largely from a Canadian point of view, have relevance to countries everywhere.”

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-09/uotj-mee092209.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlbF9zth54L8dGJTYzZzOGFPcFJmTmsxVkxyV1AxdGc&hl=en

Posted in Joint Center for Bioethics | Tagged Joint Center for Bioethics, Joint Centre for Bioethics, Ross Upshur, Science Media | Leave a comment

Medical ethics experts identify, address key issues in H1N1 pandemic

Posted on September 23, 2009 by admin

Joint Centre for Bioethics, Toronto

23 Sep 2009

JCB’s Canadian Program of Research on Ethics in a Pandemic (CanPREP) prepared the papers with the benefit of both academic and public opinion research, obtaining the views of 500 Canadians through a national telephone survey and nearly 100 more via a series of town hall meetings nationwide.

Full news release text, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Example coverage, by the CanWest News Service, click here

Posted in Abdallah Daar, Global Health, Health Care, Joint Center for Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Peter A. Singer, Public Health | Tagged Joint Center for Bioethics, Joint Centre for Bioethics, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, Ross Upshur, Science Media | Comments Off

Set world standards for electronics recycling, reuse to curb e-waste exports to developing countries

Posted on September 15, 2009 by admin

United Nations University

15 September 2009

Sold in 2006: 230 million computers, 1 billion cell phones, 45.5 million TVs; many destined for uncontrolled disposal without change in policies, consumer practices

Processes and policies governing the reuse and recycling of electronic products need to be standardized worldwide to stem and reverse the growing problem of illegal and harmful e-waste processing practices in developing countries, according to experts behind the world’s first international e-waste academy.

Making appropriate recycling technologies available worldwide and standardizing government policy approaches to reuse and recycling could dramatically extend the life of many computers, mobile phones, TVs and similar products and allow for more complete end-of-life harvesting of the highly valuable metals and other components they contain.

“Rapid product innovations and replacements – the shift from analog to newer digital technologies and to flat-screen TVs and monitors, for example – is pushing every country to find more effective ways to cope with their e-waste,” says Ruediger Kuehr of United Nations University, Executive Secretary of a global public-private initiative called Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP). Based in Bonn, Germany, StEP works with policy makers, industry, academia and other stakeholders.

Full text: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Example coverage, by Reuters, click here

Posted in e-waste, Energy sources, Stop the eWaste Problem, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Disease in the Developing World, e-waste, Environment, EPA, Global Health, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Ruediger Kuehr, Science Media, Stop the eWaste Problem, United Nations, United Nations University | Comments Off

Health biotech firms with developing country partners better postitioned to innovate, prosper

Posted on September 9, 2009 by admin

McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health

9 Sep 2009

Lower manufacturing, clinical trial, R&D costs of developing country partners equal major opportunities to advance global health, market position

Collaboration with health biotech companies in developing countries represents a major opportunity for companies in developed countries to strengthen their market reach and innovation potential, acording to the results of a new study.

The study by the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health (MRC), based at the University Health Network and the University of Toronto, found that one in four Canadian health biotech firms are involved in some form of partnership initiative in developing countries.

Full news release text, click here

Example coverage, by LiveMint, India, click here

Posted in Abdallah Daar, Biotechnology, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Pharmaceutical Science, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Pharmaceutical Science, Political Science, Public Health, Research, Researchers, Science Media | Comments Off

Cool new tools let public contribute to massive interactive online biodiversity encyclopedia

Posted on September 8, 2009 by admin

Encyclopedia of Life
Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
23-Aug-2009

Over 30,000 still images and video, as well as local information about changing biodiversity, have been uploaded to the Encyclopedia of Life via new tools that let the public contribute as never before to a global online science collaboration of unprecedented scale.

Experts and citizen scientists alike have fuelled explosive growth of the interactive encyclopedia, which dedicates a Web page to each known species and will eventually contain 1.8 million pages.

More than 150,000 species pages populated with expert-verified text and/or images are now available at EOL.org, a fast-growing inventory expected to shed new light on everything from conservation strategies for endangered species to climate change and the movements of disease-bearing or invasive pests. Some experts believe it may one day even help advance human longevity.

As the 10-year project marks its 2nd anniversary, EOL officials say pages with vetted information cover 150,000 species likely to be of greatest public interest. They also announced completion of over 75% of the encyclopedia’s architecture, with 1.4 million placeholder pages now in place.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/eol-cnt081709.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlbF9zth54L8dEpiSmprZTkydjNkUUdYaU5ubUNCRkE&hl=en

Posted in Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, DNA Barcoding, Encyclopedia of Life, Jesse Ausubel, Researchers, Rockefeller University | Tagged Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Consortium for the Barcode of Life, Encyclopedia of Life, Environment, Jesse Ausubel, Marine Biology, Paul Hebert, Research, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Sloan Foundation | Leave a comment

Tuvalu hopes solar project inspires climate talks; nation sets goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2020

Posted on July 20, 2009 by admin

e8, Montreal
19 July 2009

Pacific nation of 9 islands seeks to expand first solar system, donated by e8, a consortium of G8 country electricity firms

Amid worsening climate change-related problems for small island states, Tuvalu has established a national goal of being powered entirely by renewable energy sources by 2020.

Government officials and the donors of Tuvalu’s first large-scale solar energy system alike hope the moves help inspire much larger nations later this year in negotiations of a successor to the Kyoto Protocol agreement on climate change.

The solar system installed on the roof of Tuvalu’s largest football stadium now supplies 5 percent of the electricity needed by that nation’s capital, Funafuti.

In its first 14 months, the operation has reduced Tuvalu’s consumption of generator fuel, shipped from New Zealand, by about 17,000 litres and reduced Tuvalu’s carbon footprint by about 50 tonnes.

(more…)

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/e-ths071309.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tTXbewukRmovSqzvThmOrBw&hl=en

Posted in Climate, E8, Energy sources, Environment, Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership, sustainable development, United Nations | Tagged Climate, E8, Energy sources, Environment, Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership, International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, Science Media, United Nations | Leave a comment

Health research agencies form global alliance to curb humanity’s most fatal diseases

Posted on June 18, 2009 by admin

Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases

London / Washington / Toronto

15-Jun-2009

Six of the world’s foremost health agencies, collectively managing an estimated 80% of all public health research funding, today announced formation of a landmark alliance to collaborate in the critical battle against chronic, non-communicable diseases: cardiovascular diseases (mainly heart disease and stroke), several cancers, chronic respiratory conditions, and type 2 diabetes.

The health impact and socio-economic cost of these largely-preventable diseases is enormous and rising, potentially derailing efforts at poverty reduction.

The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (Alliance) is being created to support clear priorities for a coordinated research effort that will address this growing health crisis, now reaching world epidemic proportions. Experts estimate that, unless action is stepped up, 388 million people worldwide will die of one or more such diseases within the next decade.

Full news release text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/pols-hra060909.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rW6LjEJSktJoUolgvSr7IBQ&hl=en

Posted in Abdallah Daar, Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Political Science, Public Health, Research, Researchers, Science Media, United Nations | Leave a comment

UNEP report details surprising green energy investment trends worldwide

Posted on June 9, 2009 by admin

United Nations Environment Programme
Nairobi / Paris
3-Jun-2009

Some $155 billion was invested in 2008 in clean energy companies and projects worldwide, not including large hydro, a new report launched today says.

Of this $13.5 billion of new private investment went into companies developing and scaling-up new technologies alongside $117 billion of investment in renewable energy projects from geothermal and wind to solar and biofuels.

The 2008 investment is more than a four-fold increase since 2004 according to Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2009, prepared for the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative by global information provider New Energy Finance.

Full news release text:
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/udot-urd060109.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=ruwx4IHEwFza8u2EfQojSYA&hl=en

Posted in Energy sources, Environment, Green economy, Green energy, United Nations Environment Programme | Tagged Achim Steiner, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Eric Usher, Green energy, Michael Liebreich, new energy finance, PNUE, Science Media, SEFI, UNEP, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Leave a comment

Scientists announce major global collaboration to create online ‘macroscopic observatory’ of Earth’s biodiversity

Posted on June 1, 2009 by admin

Consortium for the Barcode of Life, Encyclopedia of Life

Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC;

Natural History Museum, London

31-May-2009

Biodiversity information, innovative internet architecture being fused to create seamless, global view of life

Wanted (soon): observations from environment-minded citizens that will allow science to study biodiversity at a planetary level in a massive, comprehensive virtual observatory of historic importance.

The online information system for life on Earth, now under construction, will take its place alongside the global network that records earthquakes, or the world meteorology data network that pools information to predict the weather.

The global scientific collaboration to construct a virtual observatory for the unprecedented study and monitoring of life in an integrative way will be announced by some 500 biology and technology experts from 50 countries, meeting for the first time in London June 1 to 3.

Full news release text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-05/eol-emt052609.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rmZBuMP9FlK9u_505B3dukQ&hl=en

Posted in Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Environment, Jesse Ausubel, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Jesse Ausubel, Research, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Sloan Foundation | Leave a comment

Ocean life in olden days: Researchers upend modern notions of ‘natural’ animal sizes, abundance

Posted on June 1, 2009 by admin

Census of Marine Life

Washington DC

24-May-2009

Census of Marine Life historians reconstruct images of past sea life that boggle today’s imagination

Before oil hunters in the early 1800s harpooned whales by the score, the ocean around New Zealand teemed with about 27,000 southern right whales – roughly 30 times as many as today – according to one of several astonishing reconstructions of ocean life in olden days to be presented at a Census of Marine Life conference May 26-28.

At about the same time, UK researchers say large pods of blue whales and orcas, blue sharks and thresher sharks darkened the waters off Cornwall, England, herds of harbour porpoise pursued fish upriver, and dolphins regularly played in waters inshore.

Using such diverse sources as old ship logs, literary texts, tax accounts, newly translated legal documents and even mounted trophies, Census researchers are piecing together images – some flickering, others in high definition – of fish of such sizes, abundance and distribution in ages past that they stagger modern imaginations.

They are also documenting the timelines over which those giant marine life populations declined.

Full news release text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-05/coml-oli051809.php

This release is also available in Chinese.

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=r26Tgt0R6Mtr2_E30XaNKoA&hl=en

Example coverage: click here and here

Posted in Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Census of Marine Life, Environment, Jesse Ausubel, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Jesse Ausubel, Research, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Sloan Foundation | Leave a comment

Mexican Genome Mapped

Posted on May 14, 2009 by admin

National Institute of Genomic Medicine
Mexico City
11-May-2009

Landmark Mexican Study Reveals Significant
Genetic Variation Between Nation’s Population And World’s Other Known Genetic Subgroups

Study moves scientists closer to identifying individuals at risk or resistant to flu and other diseases, and to the potential of creating genome-customized drugs

Could genetic differences explain why some people and not others have died of H1N1 Influenza A?

That is among the questions raised by a landmark Mexican study showing significant genetic variation between Mestizos (Latin Americans of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry) and the world’s other known genetic subgroups.

The study, by Mexico’s National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN), was published Monday May 11 by the Washington DC-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and presented by lead researcher Dr. Gerardo Jimenez-Sanchez to Mexican President Calderon at the Presidential residence.

Full release text: here

Example coverage, by the Associated Press, click here; by Mexican news sources, click here and here

Posted in Global Health, Health Care, Public Health, Researchers | Tagged Gerardo Jimenez-Sanchez, National Institute of Genomic Medicine, Science Media | Leave a comment

“Designer Wheat” Research Breakthrough Wins Grade 10 Saskatchewan Student, 16, Top Honour in National Biotech Competition

Posted on May 14, 2009 by admin

Canadian Biotechnology Education Resource Centre / BioTalent Canada
Toronto / Ottawa
6-May-2009

Genetic research by a 16-year-old Saskatchewan student that could one day help farmers grow “designer wheat” — tailoring the starch content of grain grown for different markets — has earned the top national prize in the 2009 Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge (SABC).

Grade 10 Student Scott Adams of Saskatoon’s Walter Murray Collegiate Institute won the $5,000 national 1st place prize today with a ground-breaking study showing agricultural scientists a novel way to turn off a gene in wheat and alter its starch elements, making it possible potentially to grow wheat customized for different markets ranging from textiles to foods such as pasta and bread.

Full release text: here
Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=r4A3wrznE3TxgCE7tecxF-A&hl=en

Posted in Bioscience Education Canada, Biotalent Canada, Biotechnology | Tagged Bioscience Education Canada, Biotalent Canada, Biotechnology, National Research Council, Pharmaceutical Science, Research, Researchers, Sanofi-Aventis Biotalent Challenge, Science Media, Scott Adams | Leave a comment

DNA barcoding of mosquito species deployed in bid to end elephantiasis

Posted on April 30, 2009 by admin

JRS Biodiversity Foundation
Philadelphia, USA
29-Apr-2009

First use of DNA barcoding in war against a major world disease

New biotechnologies that allow scientists to quickly and accurately distinguish species based on a simple DNA analysis are being creatively deployed for the first time in the war against a major global disease.

The University of Ghana, supported by the Philadelphia-based JRS Biodiversity Foundation, is pioneering the use of DNA “barcodes” to map menacing mosquito species in West Africa that spread lymphatic filariasis (LF), commonly known as elephantiasis. Using a short DNA sequence from a particular genome region, scientists can obtain a species’ ‘barcode’ identity. Barcodes are needed because closely-related species, with different capabilities to transmit LF, are otherwise hard to distinguish.

The ability to precisely identify mosquito species in this way is a promising advance in the battle against LF, an often disfiguring disease that today threatens 1 billion people across roughly 80 countries. Over 120 million people have the parasitic infection and more than 40 million have been permanently disabled or disfigured.

The research is identifying species spreading the worm larvae that clog the human lymph system, often causing grotesque swelling. By revealing the menace species’ habitat and range, it also aids understanding of environmental factors that influence their breeding and abundance.

Full news release text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/jbf-dbo042209.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=r3XnUjJ09TeguDSjgFe7Aig&hl=en

Posted in Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, DNA Barcoding, Environment, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, Researchers, Science Media | Tagged Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Consortium for the Barcode of Life, Environment, JRS Biodiversity Foundation, Paul Hebert, Research, Researchers, Science Media | Leave a comment

Indigenous peoples at world summit to share climate change observations, coping techniques

Posted on April 20, 2009 by admin

United Nations University
Tokyo, Japan
19-Apr-2009

With the first climate change-related relocation of an Inuit village already underway, some 400 Indigenous People and observers from 80 nations are convening in Alaska for a UN-affiliated conference April 20-24 to discuss ways in which traditional knowledge can be used to both mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Co-sponsored by UN University and hosted by the Inuit Circumpolar Council, the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change is also designed to help strengthen the communities’ participation in and articulate messages and recommendations to the December UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, at which a successor agreement to the Kyoto protocol will be negotiated. The Summit will conclude Fri. April 24 with a declaration and action plan, and a call for world governments to fully include Indigenous Peoples in any post-Kyoto climate change regime adopted in Copenhagen.

Full news release text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/unu-ipa041309.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrQiPbknHgfNTQ&hl=en

Example coverage: by the Associated Press, click here, other sources, click here

Posted in United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged indigenous knowledge, Sam Johnston, Science Media, traditional knowledge | Leave a comment

Clean energy investment not on track to avoid climate change

Posted on March 5, 2009 by admin

New Energy Finance
London
4-Mar-2009

Impact of recession and low energy prices may postpone peak of world CO2 emissions by more than a decade

The world economic crisis has hit investment in clean energy and means its growth is no longer on track for the world to avert the worst impact of climate change, according to leading clean energy and carbon market analysts, New Energy Finance.

Presenting their Global Futures 2009 insights to the second New Energy Finance Summit on March 4th, NEF analysts say that although lower economic activity due to the financial crisis will reduce CO2 emissions, in the longer term the drying up of funding for lower-carbon energy solutions is likely to have far greater adverse impact on emissions.

Investment in clean energy – renewables, energy efficiency and carbon capture & storage – increased from $34bn in 2004 to around $150bn in each of 2007 and 2008. New Energy Finance’s latest Global Futures report demonstrates that investment needs to reach $500bn per annum by 2020 if CO2 emissions from the world’s energy system are to peak before 2020.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/nef-cei030209.php

Coverage summary: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/nef-cei030209.php

Example coverage, by Reuters: click here, other sources, click here

Posted in Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Green economy, Green energy, New Energy Finance | Tagged Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Green energy, Michael Liebreich, new energy finance, Science Media | Leave a comment

Census of Marine Life explorers find hundreds of identical species thrive in both Arctic, Antarctic

Posted on February 18, 2009 by admin

Census of Marine Life

Washington DC

15-Feb-2009

Earth’s unique, forbidding ice oceans of the Arctic and Antarctic have revealed a trove of secrets to Census of Marine Life explorers, who were especially surprised to find at least 235 species live in both polar seas despite a distance of more than 13,000-kilometer distance in between.

The scientists found marine life that both poles apparently share in common include marathoners such as some great whales (blue www.eol.org/pages/328574; humpback www.eol.org/pages/328575; fin www.eol.org/pages/328573) and birds, but also worms, crustaceans, and angelic snail-like pteropods, the latter discoveries opening a host of future research questions about where they originated and how they wound up at both ends of the Earth. DNA analysis is underway to confirm whether the species are indeed identical.

Among many other findings, the scientists also documented evidence of cold water-loving species shifting towards both poles to escape rising ocean temperatures.

The discoveries are the result of a series of landmark, often perilous voyages conducted during International Polar Year, 2007-2008. Biologists braved waves of up to 16 meters (48 feet) while getting to and from the Antarctic while their Arctic colleagues often worked under the watchful eye of an armed lookout to protect them from polar bears.

The studies by a global network of polar researchers have added substantially to human knowledge about the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life, with results to be fully detailed in the world’s first Census report, to be released in London Oct. 4, 2010.

Full release text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/coml-com020909.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrSdHgbonEp7XA&hl=en

Example coverage: click here

Biotech Scientists Team with Curators to Stem Decay of World’s Art, Cultural Heritage

Posted on February 18, 2009 by admin

United Nations University

Programme for Biotechnology for Latin America and the Caribbean

(UNU-BIOLAC),

Caracas, Venezuela

8-Feb-2009

The growing relationship between scientists and curators is the focus of a 4-day, UN-affiliated international conference in Caracas designed to promote innovative ways to stem the decay of some of humanity’s greatest art and cultural treasures.

“With the world financial crisis and the advent of climate change effects, there is a state of emergency at the museums of several tropical countries: entire collections are compromised,” says Alvaro Gonzalez, a researcher at the Caracas-based Institute of Advanced Studies (IDEA) and Director of Venezuela’s Cultural Heritage Conservation Foundation, the host of the event.

Says Jose-Luis Ramirez, Director of the United Nations University’s Programme for Biotechnology for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNU-BIOLAC), an event sponsor: “The normal concern about single artifacts is no longer paramount. Storing and protecting entire collections safely has become a priority and scientists have a key role: developing techniques and procedures that are fundamental to heritage conservation.”

Many of the world’s cultural treasures are creations made of organic materials such as paper, canvas, wood and leather which, in prolonged warmth and dampness, attract mold, micro-organisms and insects, causing decay and disintegration.

New biotechnology techniques to be described include the use of micro-organisms to remove fungus and other problems on artwork, photos, documents, masonry and more.

Full text of release:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/unu-bst012909.php

Coverage summary:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrSBlsr_K03aLg&hl=en

Example coverage: click here

Posted in Biotechnology, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged BIOLAC, Biotechnology, Jose-Luis Ramirez, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

Rainforests Regrowing: Impact on Extinction Rates Sparks Debate at Smithsonian

Posted on January 19, 2009 by admin

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Washington / Panama

12-Jan-2009

Satellite data and other research reveal that huge tracts of abandoned tropical forests that were once logged or farmed are regrowing, prompting a contentious debate among world scientists convening at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History Jan. 12.

At issue is the extent to which this regrowth might mitigate the loss of biodiversity.

Some researchers contend that this process has been inadequately factored into estimates of future species loss and that the biodiversity crisis has been overstated ( the prevailing scientific prediction is that up to half of all species may be lost in our lifetimes ).

Others contend that only 50 to 80 percent of plant species may return to logged or altered forests, and many animal species will not survive the transition.

Still others warn that the continuing rapid expansion of logging and mining roads makes forest access easier for commercial poachers and the hungry, with animals being hunted for exotic food, trophies, medicine and pets on levels that threaten the continued existence of many species.

They state that this increasingly massive harvest of animals, combined with the emergence of devastating wildlife diseases, habitat loss due to industrial scale development, climate change and other factors, is a recipe for catastrophic biodiversity collapse, despite encouraging evidence of rainforest regrowth in many places.

The need to shed light on these issues has prompted the Smithsonian to invite leading experts to present their ideas at a major symposium on the tropical extinction crisis, featuring eight researchers whose symposium papers will be published in a special volume of the U.S. journal Conservation Biology.

Full text: http://media-newswire.com/release_1083946.html

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrRN-FMpvxkScg

Coverage by Reuters, click here, other sources, click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Climate, Environment, Forestry, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged conservation biology, Eldredge Bermingham, forestry, rainforest, Science Media, smithsonian, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute | Leave a comment

Biomarkers in blood could aid diagnosis of crippling, often fatal forms of malaria

Posted on December 16, 2008 by admin

McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health
University of Toronto / University Health Network
7-Dec-2008

Canadian researchers have identified protein biomarkers that shed new light on the development of two severe and debilitating forms of malaria.

The findings may let doctors detect earlier two crippling malaria variations – one that develops in the placenta of pregnant women affecting countless unborn children, the other, cerebral malaria, that develops in the brain’s blood vessels – malaria’s most deadly form.

Full release: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-12/pols-bib120208.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrQxHi1zD28kTw

Example coverage by the BBC Online, click here

Posted in Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Pharmaceutical Science, Public Health, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, malaria, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, Science Media | Leave a comment

Scientists Report Major Steps Towards 1st Census of Marine Life

Posted on November 11, 2008 by admin

Census of Marine Life
Washington DC
9-Nov-2008

Among report’s revelations: Antarctic ancestry of many octopus species, behemoth bacteria, colossal sea stars, mammoth mollusks, more

In a report on progress towards the first Census of Marine Life, more than 2,000 scientists from 82 nations announce astonishing examples of recent new finds from the world’s ocean depths.

As more than 500 delegates gather for the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity (Valencia, Spain Nov. 11-15), organized by the Census’s European affiliate program on Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning, the report details major progress towards the first ever marine life census, for release in October, 2010. In Spain, renowned marine scientists will announce more new and surprising results daily throughout the event, to be opened with a news conference in Valencia Tues. Nov. 11.

In the fourth report issued since the global collaboration began in the year 2000, Census scientists say their work is:

* Compiling an unprecedented number of “firsts” for ocean biodiversity;
* Advancing technology for discovery;
* Organizing knowledge about marine life and making it accessible;
* Measuring effects of human activities on ocean life;
* Providing the foundation for scientifically-based policies.

According to Ian Poiner, chair of the Census’s International Scientific Steering Committee and Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, “The release of the first Census in 2010 will be a milestone in science. After 10 years of new global research and information assembly by thousands of experts the world over, it will synthesize what humankind knows about the oceans, what we don’t know, and what we may never know – a scientific achievement of historic proportions.”

Bottom left: Megeleledone setebos, endemic to the Southern Ocean, surrounded by related octopus species that evolved in the deep-sea. Click here for more information.

Full news release text:
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-11/coml-sam110308.php

Coverage summary:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrS2OeiDIMRHBg

Example coverage: click here and here and here

‘Arid aquaculture’ among livelihoods promoted to relieve worsening pressure on world’s drylands

Posted on November 11, 2008 by admin

United Nations University
11-Nov-2008

“Arid aquaculture” using ponds filled with salty, undrinkable water for fish production is one of several options experts have proven to be an effective potential alternative livelihood for people living in desertified parts of the world’s expanding drylands.

In a report released today, researchers with the United Nations University, the International Centre on Agricultural Research in Dryland Areas (ICARDA), and UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program say alternatives to traditional crop farming and livestock rearing will need to be put in place in drylands in order to mitigate human causes of desertification.

While it may sound far-fetched, researchers say using briny water to establish aquaculture in a dry, degraded part of Pakistan not only introduced a new source of income, it helped improve nutrition through diet diversification. The researchers also showed it possible to cultivate some varieties of vegetables with the same type of brackish water.

Drylands residents, many of whom are the world’s “poorest of the poor,” employ “highly vulnerable livelihood strategies that depend on land productivity” warns the report, which describes the success of several occupational options explored in a four-year, multi-country study.

Full news release text:
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-11/unu-aa110308.php

Coverage summary:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrSuVgycW55Ucg

Example coverage, by Asian News International: click here

Posted in Agriculture, Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Fisheries, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Institute for Water Environment and Health, sustainable development, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Climate, Environment, Fisheries, Institute for Water Environment and Health, Science Media, UN-Water, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Leave a comment

Providing toilets, safe water is top route to reducing world poverty: UN University

Posted on October 20, 2008 by admin

United Nations University

Tokyo Japan / Hamilton, Canada

19-Oct-2008

Simply installing toilets where needed throughout the world and ensuring safe water supplies would do more to end crippling poverty and improve world health than any other possible measure, according to an analysis released today by the United Nations University.

The analysis says better water and sanitation reduces poverty in three ways.

New service business opportunities are created for local entrepreneurs;
Significant savings are achieved in the public health sector; and
Individual productivity is greater in contributing to local and national economies.

UNU also calls on the world’s research community to help fill major knowledge gaps that impede progress in addressing the twin global scourges of unsafe water and poor sanitation.

Information gaps include such seemingly obvious measures as common definitions and worldwide maps to identify communities most vulnerable to health-related problems as a result of poor access to sanitation and safe water. UNU also calls for creation of a “tool-box” to help policy-makers choose between available options in local circumstances.

Full text:

www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/unu-pts101408.php

Coverage summary:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrSJVyd2UR86Xw

Posted in Disease in the Developing World, Environment, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Institute for Water Environment and Health, Public Health, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Environment, Institute for Water Environment and Health, international year of sanitation, Science Media, toilets, UN-Water, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Leave a comment

Environmental migrants: UN meeting aims to build consensus on definitions, support, protection

Posted on October 9, 2008 by admin

United Nations University

Tokyo, Japan

8-Oct-2008

A growing international consensus to formally recognize and protect people uprooted by environmental problems is expected to accelerate at a major conference in Bonn, Germany Oct. 9 to 11.

Featured at the conference will be the presentation and discussion of early results of the first comprehensive empirical study, funded by the European Commission, gauging the extent to which environment problems influence migration decisions.

Hosted by the United Nations University, the conference on Environment, Forced Migration and Social Vulnerability (www.efmsv2008.org) will capture the current state of research and debate on the issue and conclude with recommendations for moving forward.

Experts estimate that by 2050 some 200 million people will be displaced by environmental problems, a number of people roughly equal to two-thirds of the USA today (or the combined population of the UK, France, Italy and the Netherlands).

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/unu-emu100608.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrRnJ6KA8hKiCg

Example coverage, by Reuters, click here

Posted in United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Climate, Environment, environmental migration, janos bogardi, migrants, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, UNU-EHS | Leave a comment

Explorers find hundreds of undescribed corals, other species on familiar Australian reefs

Posted on October 9, 2008 by admin

Census of Marine Life
Washington D.C.
18-Sep-2008

Hundreds of new kinds of animal species surprised international researchers systematically exploring waters off two islands on the Great Barrier Reef and a reef off northwestern Australia — waters long familiar to divers.

The expeditions, affiliated with the global Census of Marine Life, help mark the International Year of the Reef and included the first systematic scientific inventory of spectacular soft corals, named octocorals for the eight tentacles that fringe each polyp.

The explorers today released some initial results and stunning images from their landmark four-year effort to record the diversity of life in and around Australia’s renowned reefs.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/coml-efh091208.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrRpiC7PrOQTXA&hl=en

Example coverage: click here

Experts meet on need for new rules to govern world’s fragile polar regions

Posted on October 9, 2008 by admin

United Nations University
Tokyo
7-Sep-2008

A new co-ordinated international set of rules to govern commercial and research activities in both of Earth’s polar regions is urgently needed to reflect new environmental realities and to temper pressure building on these highly fragile ecosystems, according to several of the experts convening in Iceland for a UN-affiliated conference marking the International Polar Year.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/unu-emo090108.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrTXn7Vzrp8bdw&hl=en

Posted in Antarctica, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Climate, Environment, Fisheries, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Oceanography, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

Students Use DNA Barcodes to Unmask “Mislabeled” Fish at Grocery Stores, Restaurants

Posted on August 25, 2008 by admin

Rockefeller University / Trinity School

New York
22-Aug-08

Two New York City high school friends, curious about new DNA barcoding technology, discovered that fish at local stores and restaurants are commonly mislabeled and sold for far more than regular market price.

Worse, in two cases DNA barcode tests revealed that filleted fish sold as the popular Red Snapper (caught mostly off the southeast U.S. and in the Caribbean) was instead the endangered Acadian Redfish (which swims in the North Atlantic).

The report details the first known student use of the four-year-old DNA barcoding technology in a public marketplace. Based in part on the results, barcode scientists are developing sampling kits for schools – an educational program that could contribute to consumer protection at the same time.

Full text: http://phe.rockefeller.edu/mislabeledfish/Mislabelled%20fish.pdf

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrTL_xQdGV5vVQ&hl=en

Rising energy, food prices major threats to wetlands as farmers eye new areas for crops

Posted on August 7, 2008 by admin

United Nations University
25-Jul-2008

Critical food shortages and growing demand for bio-fuels and hydro-electricity due to high fossil fuel prices rank among the greatest threats today to the preservation of precious wetlands worldwide as farmers and developers look for new areas for agriculture, energy crop plantations and hydro dams.

However, resisting pressures to convert wetlands is vital to avoid destroying ecosystems that provide a suite of services essential to humanity, including safe, steady local water supplies, preserving biodiversity and the large-scale capture and storage of climate warming greenhouse gases, according 700 leading world experts concluding a week-long meeting in Cuiaba, Brazil.

The experts issued the Cuiaba Declaration July 25, the final day of the 8th INTECOL International Wetlands Conference, convened on the northern edge of the world’s largest tropical wetland, the Pantanal (pictured).

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/unu-ref072408.php
Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrTP10O5oHqTNw&hl=en

Example coverage, by the BBC Online: click here

Posted in Agriculture, Climate, sustainable development, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water | Tagged Biodiversity, Climate, Environment, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water | Leave a comment

Massive greenhouse gases may be released as destruction, drying of world wetlands worsens: UN

Posted on August 7, 2008 by admin

United Nations University
20-Jul-2008

700 leading experts convene at edge of Brazil’s vast Pantanal to take stock, offer policy prescription to remedy wetlands crisis

Leading world scientists convene in Brazil July 21-25 amid growing concern that evaporation and ongoing destruction of world wetlands, which hold a volume of carbon similar to that in the atmosphere today, could cause them to exhale billows of greenhouse gases.

Meeting in the city of Cuiaba on the edge of South America’s vast Pantanal, the largest wetland of its kind, some 700 experts from 28 nations at the 8th INTECOL International Wetlands Conference will prescribe measures urgently needed to better understand and manage these vibrant ecosystems, ranked among the planet’s most threatened, and slow their decline and loss.

Warming world temperatures are speeding both rates of decomposition of trapped organic material and evaporation, while threatening critical sources of wetlands recharge by melting glaciers and reducing precipitation.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/unu-mgg071408.php
Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrTP10O5oHqTNw&hl=en

Example coverage: The Associated Press (via Climate Ark), click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Climate, Environment, sustainable development, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water | Tagged Biodiversity, Climate, Environment, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water | Leave a comment

UNEP: Clean energy investments charge forward despite financial market turmoil

Posted on July 3, 2008 by admin

United Nations Environment Programme
Nairobi, Kenya

01 Jul 08

With end of cheap oil, renewables and energy efficiency attracts fast-growing interest; new investment surpasses $148 billion in 2007, a 60 percent rise from 2006
Climate change worries, growing support from world governments, rising oil prices and ongoing energy security concerns combined to fuel another record-setting year of investment in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries in 2007, according to an analysis issued Tuesday July 1 by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

Over $148 billion in new funding entered the sustainable energy sector globally last year, up 60% from 2006, even as a credit crunch began to roil financial markets, according to the report, “Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2008,” prepared by UK-based New Energy Finance for UNEP’s Paris-based Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative.

“Just as thousands were drawn to California and the Klondike in the late 1800s, the green energy gold rush is attracting legions of modern day prospectors in all parts of the globe,” says Achim Steiner, head of UNEP.

“A century later, the key difference is that a higher proportion of those looking for riches today may find them. With world temperatures and fossil fuel prices climbing higher, it is increasingly obvious to the public and investors alike that the transition to a low-carbon society is both a global imperative and an inevitability.”

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/udot-uce062708.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrTK68uqOGHZNQ&hl=en

Posted in Energy sources, Environment, Green economy, sustainable development, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Tagged Achim Steiner, Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Eric Usher, Green energy, Michael Liebreich, PNUE, Science Media, SEFI, UNEP, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Leave a comment

Census of Marine Life lists 122,500 known species, over halfway to complete inventory by Oct. 2010

Posted on June 27, 2008 by admin

Census of Marine Life

Washington D.C.

25-Jun-2008

World Register of Marine Species inaugurated with first 122,500 validated names; over 56,000 aliases for ocean species identified

Census of Marine Life-affiliated scientists consolidating world databases of ocean organisms have demoted to alias status almost one-third of all names culled from 34 regional and highly specialized inventories.

The new World Register of Marine Species (http://www.marinespecies.org/) contains about 122,500 validated marine species names (experts having recognized and tidied up some 56,400 aliases – 32% of all names reviewed). It also contains some 5,600 images, hyperlinks to taxonomic literature and other information.

Marking the World Register’s official inauguration, some 55 researchers from 17 countries met in Belgium to plan its completion by 2010. Leading WoRMS experts independently estimate that about 230,000 marine species are known to science. They also believe there are three times as many unknown (unnamed) marine species as known, for a grand total on Earth that could surpass 1 million.

“Convincing warnings about declining fish and other marine species must rest on a valid census,” says Dr. Mark Costello of the University of Auckland, co-founder of WoRMS and a senior Census of Marine Life official. “This project will improve information vital to researchers investigating fisheries, invasive species, threatened species and marine ecosystem functioning, as well as to educators. It will eliminate the misinterpretation of names, confusion over Latin spellings, redundancies and a host of other problems that sow confusion and slow scientific progress.”

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/coml-com062208.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrTPcx8jAFZ4Iw&hl=en

Example coverage, click here and here

Marine explorers marvel at ‘Brittlestar City’ on seamount in powerful current swirling around Antarctica

Posted on May 19, 2008 by admin

Census of Marine Life
Washington DC

18-May-2008

Millions of starfish-like creatures catch passing food in 4 km/h current; cod shelter from ‘rattling’ current in folds of huge bubblegum coral

See video at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7408161.stm

Census of Marine Life-affiliated scientists, plumbing the secrets of a vast underwater mountain range south of New Zealand, captured the first images of a novel “Brittlestar City” established against daunting odds on the peak of a seamount – an underwater summit taller than the world’s tallest building.

Its cramped starfish-like inhabitants, tens of millions living arm tip to arm tip, owe their success to the seamount’s shape and to the swirling circumpolar current flowing over and around it at roughly four kilometers per hour. It allows Brittlestar City’s underwater denizens to capture passing food simply by raising their arms, and it sweeps away fish and other hovering would-be predators.

Discovery of this marine metropolis, announced today along with important new insights into seamount geology and physics, highlighted a month-long April expedition to survey the Macquarie Ridge aboard the Research Vessel Tangaroa of New Zealand’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, host of the Census of Marine Life seamount programme, CenSeam.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/coml-ema051208.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrSVF3V0KvYNPg&hl=en

Example coverage, click here

Ottawa high school student’s “flu glue” wins national prize

Posted on May 17, 2008 by admin

Canadian Biotechnology Education Resource Centre
/ BioTalent Canada

Toronto / Ottawa

7-May-2008

Health Canada’s preliminary test of student’s findings ‘encouraging’

A ground-breaking study by a 17-year-old Ottawa student that demonstrated the potential of a new way to diagnose, and perhaps prevent, influenza has earned top national honours among 14 regional entries in the 2008 Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge (SABC), announced today at National Research Council Headquarters, Ottawa.

Grade 12 student Maria Merziotis of Ottawa’s Hillcrest High School won the top $5,000 national prize, plus a $1,000 prize for the project with the greatest commercial potential.

The application of her research related to identifying different influenza types has already been tested by Health Canada with encouraging results.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/features/kids/2008-05/cber-ohs050708.php
Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrTDeccnclQtIw&hl=en

Posted in Bioscience Education Canada, Biotalent Canada, Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Science, Public Health, Researchers, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged Bioscience Education Canada, Biotalent Canada, Biotechnology, Maria Merziotis, National Research Council, Pharmaceutical Science, Research, Researchers, Sanofi-Aventis Biotalent Challenge, Science Media | Leave a comment

International health experts to enlist the public in war on African malaria

Posted on May 17, 2008 by admin

McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health
University of Toronto / University Health Network

20-Apr-2008

British entrepreneur, 25, created world’s top soccer Web site; now teams with leading global health professors to innovate in malaria philanthropy

Philanthropy just got easier and a lot more accessible to the public thanks to the social networking power of the Internet and a ground-breaking partnership between a young British entrepreneur, a global health think tank and an African medical research institute.

Debuted April 20 to offer individuals a meaningful way to mark World Malaria Day (Friday, April 25), its creators hope http://www.malariaengage.org/ will do for African research what YouTube did for sharing videos and what eBay did for trading things – open it up in a creative and engaging way to the vast global community through the World Wide Web.

At MalariaEngage.org, people can enlist directly in the anti-malaria battle by contributing $10 or more to an initial choice of seven highly varied projects involving selected scientists in developing countries. Over time, new projects will replace those that reach their funding goal (the original seven have objectives ranging from $10,000 to $50,000). The site features a discussion area where supporters can interact with researchers and each other, obtain news and photos of both funded and proposed projects, a running tally of money raised, and stories from the front lines in the war against the scourge of malaria.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-04/unep-fmi041408.php

Example coverage, by Reuters, click here

Posted in Abdallah Daar, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Public Health | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Grand Challenges Canada, Health in Developing Countries, malaria, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, Science Media, Tom Hadfield | Leave a comment

Indigenous peoples hardest hit by climate change describe impacts

Posted on May 17, 2008 by admin

United Nations University – Institute of Advance Studies
Yokohama

2-Apr-2008

Biofuel production, renewable energy expansion, other mitigation measures uprooting indigenous peoples in many regions

Indigenous peoples have contributed the least to world greenhouse gas emissions and have the smallest ecological footprints on Earth. Yet they suffer the worst impacts not only of climate change, but also from some of the international mitigation measures being taken, according to organizers of a United Nations University co-hosted meeting April 3 in Darwin, Australia.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-04/unu-iph040108.php
Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrSUKBKFrkQ7Pg&hl=en

Example coverage, by Reuters, click here

Posted in Climate, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Climate, Environment, indigenous knowledge, Sam Johnston, Science Media, traditional knowledge, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

Sanitation investment in poor countries would yield $9-to-1 benefits in productivity, health: UN

Posted on May 17, 2008 by admin

United Nations University / International Year of Sanitation
20-Mar-2008

Experts estimate that $9 in productivity, health and other benefits are returned for every dollar invested installing toilets for people in countries that today are off-track in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for sanitation.

Some argue that meeting the sanitation MDG is also a prerequisite to the goals of reducing global poverty.

Achieving the sanitation goal – to simply halve the number of people without access to a toilet by 2015 – would cost $38 billion, less than 1% of annual world military spending. That investment, however, would yield $347 billion worth of benefits – much of it related to higher productivity and improved health.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/unu-sii031808.php
Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrTGUBebks6zaQ&hl=en

Example coverage, by Reuters, click here

Posted in United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Environment, Institute for Water Environment and Health, international year of sanitation, Science Media, toilets, UN-Water, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Leave a comment

Scientists to explore life’s mysteries through encyclopedic ‘macroscope’

Posted on March 4, 2008 by admin

Encyclopoedia of Life

Smithsonian Institution

25 Feb 2008

The first 30,000 pages of a massive online Encyclopedia of Life were unveiled today (Feb. 27) at the prestigious Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Conference in Monterey, California.

Intended as a tool for scientists and policymakers and a fascinating resource for anyone interested in the living world, the EOL is being developed by a unique collaboration between scientists and the general public.

By making it easy to compare and contrast information about life on Earth, the resulting compendium has the potential to provide new insights into many of life’s secrets.

In essence, EOL will be a microscope in reverse, or “macroscope,” helping users to discern large-scale patterns. By aggregating for analysis information on Earth’s estimated 1.8 million known species, scientists say the EOL could, for example, help map vectors of human disease, reveal mysteries behind longevity, suggest substitute plant pollinators for a swelling list of places where honeybees no longer provide that service, and foster strategies to slow the spread of invasive species.

Full story: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/eol-ste022008.php

Coverage summary:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrRIPbori5KreA&hl=en

Posted in Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Encyclopedia of Life, Environment, Jesse Ausubel, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Jesse Ausubel, Research, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Sloan Foundation | Leave a comment

First wind turbines on Galapagos Islands will halve diesel imports, reduce risk of future oil spills

Posted on February 20, 2008 by admin

e8
Montreal, Canada
18-Feb-2008

Power utilities from US, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Russia team on project to help protect ‘Mona Lisa’ of biodiversity

In January 2001, the world held its breath when the tanker Jessica, loaded with 150,000 gallons of fuel, struck a reef and began breaking up in the heart of one of the most precious, famous and fragile ecosystems on earth – the Galapagos Islands.

At risk were vast numbers of unique species of flora and fauna renowned through studies by Charles Darwin that contributed to his landmark theory of evolution by natural selection.

While scores of wildlife required cleaning by Galapagos National Park Service staff and volunteers, the wind and currents stepped in to narrowly avert an environmental catastrophe. Yet the sight of thousands of gallons of oil pouring into the ocean off the Galapagos island of San Cristobal triggered a determined international initiative to mitigate risks of future spills by dramatically reducing the islands’ dependence on diesel fuel to generate electricity.

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa today launched his country’s programme to rid the use of fossil fuels on the Galapagos by 2015, an initiative led by the San Cristobal Wind Project – three giant wind turbines that will halve the island’s diesel fuel imports and pave the way for further renewable energy development elsewhere in the archipelago.

Turbines installed by the San Cristobal Wind Project, an international partnership between the government of Ecuador, the UN Development Program and nine of the world’s largest electricity companies (known as the e8), started supplying power on the islands last October. The system will meet 60 to 80% of electrical demand during the windy months of October, November and December.

Full story: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/e-1wt021808.php

Example coverage, Greenwire (via NY Times), click here; more sources, click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Climate, E8, Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership, Green energy, Marine Biology, Science Media | Tagged Climate, E8, Energy sources, Environment, galapagos, Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership, Science Media, United Nations | Leave a comment

$1 trillion US carbon trading market by 2020: study

Posted on February 20, 2008 by admin

New Energy Finance
London, Washington
14-Feb-2008

The United States will be home to a $1 trillion carbon emission market by 2020 if federal and state policymakers continue on their current path towards a comprehensive “cap-and-trade” program that is confined to domestic trading only.

In an analysis of bills today before the U.S. Congress, New Carbon Finance research economists based in New York, Washington D.C. and London, U.K. predict that in 12 years a carbon-constrained U.S. economy that includes a cap-and-trade system allowing only domestic trades will produce:

* A $1 trillion carbon trading market — more than twice the size of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme;
* A carbon price of $40 per tonne as soon as 2015, which will result in a rise in consumer energy prices in real terms of roughly 20% for electricity, 12% for gasoline and 10% for natural gas — as well as impacts on other prices as higher energy and transportation costs filter through the economy; and
* Major U.S. investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas mitigation projects and technologies.

The analysis was released Feb. 14 by Michael Liebreich, CEO of New Energy Finance, parent of New Carbon Finance, attending climate change roundtable discussions at U.N. headquarters, New York.

Full story: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/nef-tu021208.php

Example coverage, by New Scientist, click here

Posted in Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Green economy, Green energy, sustainable development | Tagged Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Green energy, Michael Liebreich, new energy finance, Science Media | Leave a comment

Global corporate giants ask suppliers to volunteer CO2 emissions information

Posted on January 31, 2008 by admin

Carbon Disclosure Project
London, UK
20-Jan-2008

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a collaboration of over 315 institutional investors (including Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Allianz and HSBC, with assets under management of more than $41 trillion), has partnered with some of the world’s largest companies to assess the greenhouse gas emissions of their supply chain firms.

Under CDP’s Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration, multinationals including Dell, Hewlett Packard, L’Oreal, PepsiCo, Cadbury Schweppes, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble and Unilever will use a standardized CDP questionairre to elicit CO2 emission-related information from suppliers.

The eventual goal: to obtain data from tens of thousands of suppliers and develop strategies to reduce the carbon footprints of corporations worldwide.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/cdp-gcg011608.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrRgHc-9l_Nxag&hl=en

Example coverage, by Reuters (via the NY Times), click here

Posted in Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Green economy, Green energy, sustainable development | Tagged Carbon Disclosure Project, Climate, Energy sources, Environment, paul dickinson, Science Media | Leave a comment

China’s Health Biotech Industry: An Asian Dragon is Growing

Posted on January 9, 2008 by admin

McLaughlin Rotman Centre for Global Health
University of Toronto / University Health Network
7-Jan-2008

Government funds innovation but venture capital needed; Wary investors ‘need to be shown the exits’; Returning ‘sea turtles’ bring expertise, international credibility

Backed by a government intent on promoting innovation and fuelled by the “brain gain” of talented scientists and entrepreneurs returning from abroad, China’s health biotech industry only needs a more favourable investment climate to emerge as a global force in the production of therapies and medicines – both new and low-cost generics – experts say in a new study.

Long considered a skillful product replicator, China today boasts of daring medical science innovation and stunning breakthroughs – including the world’s first commercialized gene therapy product and the sole cholera vaccine tablet. However, Chinese firms face an uphill battle in attracting high-risk venture capital needed to sustain innovative, research-driven projects, says the study published by Nature Biotechnology.
Conducted through face to face interviews with management of 22 Chinese firms, the work is the first study of China’s most innovative health biotechnology companies available in the public domain.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/pols-cbi010108.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrRq0vhMobZDXg&hl=en

Sample coverage, by Agence France Presse, click here, by Reuters, click here

Posted in Biotechnology, Health Care, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Public Health, Researchers, Science Media | Tagged Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, Science Media | Leave a comment

Economists: Reduce fish catch now for bigger net profits later

Posted on December 7, 2007 by admin

Australian National University, Crawford School of Economics and Government
6-Dec-2007

A new and compelling argument for reducing fish harvests – the profit motive – could persuade world fishers to endure the short-term pain of lower catches for the long-term gain of higher returns for their labor, according to authors of a ground-breaking study on fisheries over-exploitation.

They say their findings, published in the journal Science Dec. 7, will help overcome a key cause of over-fishing – industry opposition to lower catches – by demonstrating that when stocks are allowed to recover, profits take a sharp turn upward.

“It has always been assumed that maximizing fishing profits will lead to stock depletion and possibly even extinction of some commercial species,” says co-author Quentin Grafton, research director at the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University (ANU) and one of the co-authors of the paper “Economics of Over-exploitation Revisited.”

“But our results prove that the highest profits are made when fish numbers are allowed to rise beyond levels traditionally considered optimal. In other words, bigger stocks mean bigger bucks.”

Full release text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/anuc-erf120207.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrRzjUrm1YpRew&hl=en

Sample coverage: by ABC News (Australia), click here, by The Associated Press (via Washington Post), click here

Posted in Environment, Fisheries, Marine Science, Science Media, sustainable development | Tagged Australian National University, Crawford School of Economics and Government, Quentin Grafton, Science Media | Leave a comment

European Union forests expanding, absorbing carbon at surprisingly high rate: study

Posted on December 7, 2007 by admin

University of Helsinki
29 Nov 07

European Union countries likely require an old ally – Mother Nature and her forests – to meet an ambitious post-Kyoto goal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020, according to new research.

The University of Helsinki study says that despite rising population and affluence, the EU can meet its obligations post-Kyoto (2012-2020). However, it will likely require more than energy savings, new technologies and mitigating non-CO2 gasses such as methane; partial credit for expansion of the region’s forests could be decisive, say researchers Pekka E. Kauppi, Laura Saikku and Aapo Rautiainen, whose report, The Sustainability Challenge of Meeting Carbon Dioxide Targets in Europe by 2020, is published today in the peer-reviewed UK journal Energy Policy.

Full release text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/uoh-efk_1112707.php

Coverage summary:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrTLT2FfphVpGw&hl=en

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Posted in Climate, Forestry, Pekka Kauppi, sustainable development | Tagged Biodiversity, carbon, forestry, Pekka Kaupi, Research, Researchers, Science Media, University of Helsinki | Leave a comment

Marine scientists warn human safety, prosperity depend on better ocean observing system

Posted on November 27, 2007 by admin

Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans, Plymouth, UK,
and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, La Jolla, CA
25-Nov-2007

Speedy diagnosis of the temper and vital signs of the oceans matters increasingly to the well being of humanity, says a distinguished partnership of international scientists urging support to complete a world marine monitoring system within 10 years.

The Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) says warming seas, over-fishing and pollution are among profound concerns that must be better measured to help society respond in a well-informed, timely and cost-effective way.

Full release:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/coml-msw111807.php

Coverage summary:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrSmRFo5PkPUNA&hl=en

Example coverage, click here

Posted in Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Environment, Jesse Ausubel, Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Jesse Ausubel, Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans, Research, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Sloan Foundation | Leave a comment

Curbing world’s most fatal diseases: consensus created by health experts offers global prescription

Posted on November 27, 2007 by admin

McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health
Toronto
21-Nov-2007

20 ‘Grand Challenges’ in chronic non-communicable diseases, 1st agreed roadmap to reduce rising toll of slow killer illnesses

Several of the world’s most eminent health scientists and organizations today publish a landmark global consensus on the 20 foremost measures needed to curb humanity’s most fatal diseases, their study featured in Nature magazine.

Full release:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/pols-cwm111807.php

Coverage summary:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrTQz_-FXlwjBA&hl=en

Example coverage, by Agence France Presse, click here, by TIME Magazine Online, click here

Posted in Abdallah Daar, Disease in the Developing World, Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Public Health, Science Media | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, Science Media | Leave a comment

Great potential to improve collection, recycling of Europe’s electronic waste, says UN report

Posted on November 15, 2007 by admin

United Nations University

15-Nov-2007

Low collection rates and consumer awareness, rising need to harmonize regulations, UNU advises European Commission

Only about 25% of Europe’s medium sized household appliances and 40% of larger appliances are collected for salvage and recycling, leaving “substantial room for improvement,” according to a study for the European Commission by a United Nations University-led consortium. Small appliances, with a few exceptions, are close to zero percent collection.

“The study suggests possible long-term collection rate targets of around 60% for small appliances like MP3 players and hairdryers, as well as for medium sized audio equipment, microwaves and TV’s and 75% for large appliances like refrigerators and washing machines. If implemented, these targets would lead to a reported European harvest of roughly 5.3 million tonnes of e-waste by 2011, up from 2.2 million tonnes today,” says study manager Ruediger Kuehr of UNU’s office in Bonn, Germany.

The study predicts that across the EU27 (see http://europa.eu/abc/european_countries/index_en.htm) e-waste will rise 2.5 to 2.7% per year – from 10.3 million tonnes generated in 2005 (about one-quarter of the world’s total) to roughly 12.3 million tonnes per year by 2020.

Full text, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Example coverage, by Reuters, click here

Posted in e-waste, Environment, Green economy, Stop the eWaste Problem, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Disease in the Developing World, e-waste, Environment, EPA, Global Health, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Ruediger Kuehr, Science Media, Stop the eWaste Problem, United Nations, United Nations University | Comments Off

Human clones: New U.N. analysis lays out world’s choices

Posted on November 15, 2007 by admin

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 and discrimination, according to authors of a new policy analysis by the United Nations University’s Institute of Advanced Studies (http://www.ias.unu.edu/).

A legally-binding global ban on work to create a human clone, coupled with freedom for nations to permit strictly controlled therapeutic research, has the greatest political viability of options available to the international community, says the report: Is Human Reproductive Cloning Inevitable: Future Options for UN Governance, released Nov. 12 by A.H. Zakri, Director of UNU-IAS, based in Yokohama, Japan.

News release: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/unu-hcn110507.php

Coverage results: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrQBDVfKMgnaZQ&hl=en

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Posted in AH Zakri, Medical Ethics, Researchers, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged AH Zakri, cloning, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, UNU-IAS | Leave a comment

Global corporate climate change report released

Posted on September 27, 2007 by admin

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 from the world’s largest corporations regarding the impact of climate change on shareholder value.

CDP also launches the Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI), a prestigious honour roll for global corporations addressing the challenges of climate change. The CDLI is comprised of 68 FT500 companies that show distinction in their responses to the CDP survey based on their reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and assessment of climate change strategies.

Climate Disclosure Leadership Index members are distinguished by the disclosure of their awareness of the risks and opportunities of climate change, as well as the quality and effectiveness of programs put in place to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/cdp-gcc092007.php

Example coverage, by the NY Times, click here, more sources, click here

Posted in Climate, Energy sources, Environment | Tagged Carbon Disclosure Project, Climate, Energy sources, Environment, paul dickinson, Science Media | Leave a comment

Amid spiralling government interest, world’s top 350 DNA barcode scientists meet in Taipei

Posted on September 27, 2007 by admin

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 and food safety to disease prevention and better environmental monitoring.

Specifically, this burgeoning three-year-old scientific field could, among many other things, help get illegal fish and timber out of global markets, slow the spread of invasive pests, reduce bird-plane collisions, and uncover the hideouts of medically-important species of mosquito.

Government agencies, particularly in North America but elsewhere as well, are expanding investments in applications for the new technologies that identify and distinguish known and unknown species ever more quickly, cheaply, easily and accurately based on snippets of DNA code.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/cftb-asg090707.php

Coverage results: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrQ_lTsdPZw3NQ&hl=en

Posted in Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Consortium for the Barcode of Life, DNA Barcoding, Environment, Jesse Ausubel, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Jesse Ausubel, Research, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Sloan Foundation | Leave a comment

Pioneering study catalogs ethical issues of scientific research in developing world

Posted on September 27, 2007 by admin

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 PLoS Medicine.

The challenges range from problems such as government corruption to questions surrounding community and public engagement, cultural acceptability, and gender.

Professor Peter Singer (Senior Scientist, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University of Toronto) and colleagues conducted 70 interviews with academics, government officials, and NGO and private sector experts from developing countries. The study team pinpointed 13 ESC issues of concern for major science programs.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/plos-psc090407.php

Coverage summary, click here

Example coverage, by CanWest News Service, click here

Posted in Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Medical Ethics, Peter A. Singer, Public Health, Researchers | Tagged Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, Science Media | Leave a comment

Restoring soils vital to feed world, forestall climate change: experts

Posted on September 27, 2007 by admin

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 it did in the last 10,000 years combined, warn experts organizing a major world forum on the critical need to restore and protect Earth’s precious soil resources.

While demand for soil’s services are growing, however, the problems of land degradation and desertification are intensifying in many parts of the world — a creeping environmental crisis affecting one-third of all people on Earth today and worsened by the effects of warming global temperatures.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/scso-rsv082907.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrRmoLOlpgnwIQ&hl=en

Example coverage, by Reuters, click here

Posted in Agriculture, Climate, Environment, Institute for Water Environment and Health, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Climate, Environment, Institute for Water Environment and Health, Science Media, UN-Water, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Leave a comment

Tuna Past and Present

Posted on August 26, 2007 by admin

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 abundant bluefin tuna populations off the coast of northern Europe.

The chronicle of decimation of the bluefin tuna population in the North Atlantic is being published as other affiliated researchers release the latest results of modern electronic fish tagging efforts off Ireland and in the Gulf of Mexico, revealing remarkable migrations and life-cycle secrets of the declining species.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/coml-com073007.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrQ82gXsI97gSQ&hl=en_GB

Example coverage: click here

Desertification: UN experts prescribe global policy overhaul to avoid looming mass migrations

Posted on July 4, 2007 by admin

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 presentation June 28 at UN Headquarters, New York, UNU experts say the loss of soil productivity and the degradation of life-support services provided by nature pose imminent threats to international stability. They outline a multi-point prescription for policy reform at every level of government.

Full text:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/unu-due062507.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrTvvDSDJaatYA&hl=en_GB

Example coverage, by the New York Times (and International Herald Tribune): click here

Posted in Institute for Water Environment and Health, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Climate, Environment, Institute for Water Environment and Health, Science Media, UN-Water, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Leave a comment

Investors flock to renewable energy and efficiency technologies: UN study

Posted on June 20, 2007 by admin

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 energy and energy efficiency industries, according to a trend analysis from the UN Environment Programme.

The report says investment capital flowing into renewable energy climbed from $80 billion in 2005 to a record $100 billion in 2006. As well, the renewable energy sector’s growth “although still volatile … is showing no sign of abating.”

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/udot-uia061807.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrRnLS2THybdAA

Posted in Energy sources, Environment, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Tagged Achim Steiner, Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Eric Usher, Green energy, Michael Liebreich, PNUE, Science Media, SEFI, UNEP, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Leave a comment

UN engages banks to light up rural India; Solar loans, energy access transform life for poor

Posted on June 6, 2007 by admin

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 for solar home systems.

The $1.5 million pilot, managed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has improved so many lives in India that sister programmes to boost energy access are being initiated in other developing countries.

Even a few hours of 20 to 40-watt solar-powered lighting in homes and small shops nightly has been credited with better grades for schoolchildren, better productivity for cottage-based industries such as needlework artisans, and even better sales at fruit stands, where produce is no longer spoiled by fumes from kerosene lamps.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/urco-ueb042307.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrT5J__rYq7rFA

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Posted in Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Green energy, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Tagged Achim Steiner, Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Eric Usher, Green energy, PNUE, Risoe Center, risoe centre, Science Media, SEFI, UNEP, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme | Leave a comment

Winnipeg Student Wins A Triple Crown in High School Science; Grade 12 Researcher, 17, Seeks Potential Alternative to Chemotherapy

Posted on May 14, 2007 by admin

May 11, 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 Research Council judged 13 national finalists in coast-to-coast video conferences yesterday, awarding top marks to Ted Paranjothy, a Grade 12 student at Fort Richmond Collegiate, Winnipeg. He won $2,000 regionally in Manitoba April 24, $5,000 today, and US$7,500 Monday in Boston for the best project at the 2007 sanofi-aventis International BioGENEius Challenge. In all, his prize total from the competition series exceeds C$15,000.

Full text: http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/May2007/11/c8006.html

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrQrpikxOLi7KA

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Posted in Bioscience Education Canada, Biotalent Canada, Global Health, Sanofi-Aventis Biotalent Challenge, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged Bioscience Education Canada, Biotalent Canada, Biotechnology, National Research Council, Pharmaceutical Science, Research, Researchers, Sanofi-Aventis Biotalent Challenge, Science Media, Ted Paranjothy | Leave a comment

India’s biotech industry emerging as world innovator, collaborator, competitor

Posted on April 12, 2007 by admin

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 published April 9.

The budding of an innovative Indian biotech sector holds major implications for the global industry and for improving both health and prosperity in the developing world.

“India is innovating its way out of poverty,” says co-author Peter A. Singer, MD, of the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health (University Health Network and University of Toronto). “With a massive and increasingly well-educated workforce, India is poised to revolutionize biotechnology just as it did the information technology industry.

“India’s biotech sector is like a baby elephant – when it matures, it will occupy a lot of space. The biotech industry is globalizing rapidly and the impact of India’s market entry and contribution to improving world health is potentially huge.”

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/pols-ibi040107.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrRomcFO8esmBA

Example coverage, by The Associated Press, click here

Posted in Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Pharmaceutical Science, Public Health, Researchers, Science Media | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Biotechnology, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, Science Media | Leave a comment

Gene hunters, patent prospectors leave indigenous communities in Pacific feeling besieged, betrayed

Posted on March 21, 2007 by admin

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.

The unique flora, fauna and peoples of the small island nations scattered across the South Pacific have attracted legions of tourists but also hoards of genetic and biomedical researchers. Pacific Islander’s DNA and plants relied upon for millennia have been patented without permission. Bizarre human-animal hybrid transgenic experiments have been conducted and one biomedical experiment nearly turned the tiny Cook Islands into a “rogue state” in the eyes of the US government, according to the book.

Full text:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/unu-ghp031207.php

Coverage summary:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrT_psO1K338Sg

Posted in United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

UN, industry, others partner to create world standards for e-scrap recycling, harvesting components

Posted on March 7, 2007 by admin

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 new global public-private initiative called Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP).

Major high-tech manufacturers, including Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Dell, Ericsson, Philips and Cisco Systems, join UN, governmental, NGO and academic institutions, along with recycling / refurbishing companies as charter members of the initiative, officially launched March 7.

(photo (c) Empa, Switzerland)

Valuable resources in every scrapped product with a battery or plug — computers, TVs, radios, wired and wireless phones, MP3 players, navigation-systems, microwave ovens, coffee makers, toasters, hair-dryers, to name but a few — are being trashed in rising volumes worldwide.

Worse, items charitably sent to developing countries for re-use often ultimately remain unused for a host of reasons, or are shipped by unscrupulous recyclers for illegal disposal. And, too often, e-scrap in developing countries is incinerated, not only wasting needed resources but adding toxic chemicals to the environment, both local and global.

“There’s more than gold in those mountains of high-tech scrap,” says Ruediger Kuehr of the United Nations University, which will host the StEP Secretariat in Bonn. “This partnership is committed to salvaging these increasingly precious resources and preventing them from fouling the environment.”

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/unu-uio022707.php

Media coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrTWcGq9WF-HSw

Example coverage, by the Indo Asian News Service, click here

Posted in Disease in the Developing World, e-waste, Environment, Global Health, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Stop the eWaste Problem, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Disease in the Developing World, e-waste, Environment, Global Health, Green economy, Health in Developing Countries, Ruediger Kuehr, Science Media, Stop the eWaste Problem, United Nations, United Nations University | Leave a comment

Replacing insulin is top-ranked breakthrough foreseen for health in developing world

Posted on March 7, 2007 by admin

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 potential breakthroughs for health in developing countries seen emerging from the new world of regenerative medicine, according to a study published today in the prestigious journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-09/uotj-rii090506.php

Posted in Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, Joint Center for Bioethics, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Pharmaceutical Science, Public Health, Science Media | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Political Science, Public Health, Research, Researchers, Science Media | Leave a comment

Titans of biodiversity science call for united, authoritative voice to inform decision-makers

Posted on March 7, 2007 by admin

19 July 2006
DIVERSITAS, Paris

Robert Watson

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 and stakeholders to lend active support to a newly established consultation process designed to create just such an international organizing and unifying mechanism for science advice on biodiversity.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-07/d-tob071706.php

Example coverage: Environment News Service, click here, by Reuters, click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Climate, Diversitas, Environment, Forestry, Political Science, Researchers, Science Media, Scientists, sustainable development, United Nations Environment Programme | Tagged 'Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, Anne Larigauderie, Biodiversity, Carlo Heip, Charles Perrings, Christoph Hauser, Didier Babin, Diversitas, Environment, Georgina Mace, H.A. Mooney, Hal Mooney, IPBES, Jose Sarukhan, Keping Ma, Madhav Gadgil, Mary Kalin Arroyo, Michael Donoghue, Michel Loreau, Peter Raven, Peter Schei, Research, Researchers, Robert Barbault, Robert J. Scholes, Science Media, Scientists, UNEP, United Nations Environment | Leave a comment

Creating a Window on ‘Oceans in Motion’: Academic, Science, Engineering Experts Illuminating Sea Life Conditions, Migrations

Posted on March 7, 2007 by admin

26 June 06
Dalhousie University

Ocean Tracking Network

Ron O'Dor

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 throw open a large, vivid new global window on marine life by expanding worldwide the work of two pioneering North America-based programs that follow the movements of important species using electronic tags.

Full text: www.dal.ca/news/media/2006/2006-06-26.pdf

Example coverage, by MSNBC, click here, by The Telegraph (UK), click here, by the Agence France Press, click here

Posted in Biodiversity, Census of Marine Life, Environment, Fisheries, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged animal tagging, Biodiversity, Census of Marine Life, Climate, Dalhousie University, Environment, Fisheries, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Ocean Tracking Network, Oceanography, Ron O'Dor, Science Media, tagging | Leave a comment

Diverse sea ‘bugs’ revealed on landmark Atlantic cruise to census zooplankton

Posted on March 7, 2007 by admin

May 4, 2006
Census of Marine Life

Zooplankton DNA Sequenced at Sea; scientists census tiny species with starring role in food chain, world climate

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-05/coml-ds050206.php

Example coverage: click here

Landslides: Asia has Most; Americas, the Deadliest; Europe, the Costliest; Experts Seek Ways to Mitigate Losses; Danger Said Growing Due to Climate Change, Other Causes

Posted on March 7, 2007 by admin

17 Jan 06
United Nations University

Landslide in Italy

Asia suffered 220 landslides in the past century – by far the most of any world region – but those in North, Central and South America have caused the most deaths and injuries (25,000+) while Europe’s are the most expensive – causing average damage of almost $23 million per landslide.

And, warn international experts, climate change-related increases in the number and intensity of storms, including typhoons and hurricanes, will produce in tandem a rising danger of landslides in future.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-01/unu-les011106.php

Example coverage, by The Associated Press, click here

Posted in Environment, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Climate, Environment, Hans van Ginkel, landslides, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

Ethics in a pandemic

Posted on March 7, 2007 by admin

27 Nov 05
University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics

Coping effectively with a predicted influenza pandemic that threatens to affect the health of millions worldwide, hobble economies and overwhelm health care systems will require more than new drugs and good infection control.

An international medical ethics think-tank says that all-important public cooperation and the coordination of public officials at all levels requires open and ethical decision making.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/uotj-eia112105.php

Posted in Joint Center for Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Peter A. Singer | Tagged Joint Center for Bioethics, Joint Centre for Bioethics, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, Ross Upshur, Science Media | Leave a comment

Scientists pioneer biotech techniques to halt infestation of history, art treasures in tropics

Posted on March 7, 2007 by admin

03 Nov 04
United Nations University

The use of biotechnologies originally intended to remedy crop infestations and other problems is being pioneered in the protection of priceless art and historical archives in tropical countries from decay caused by insects, heat, humidity and other natural causes.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-11/unu-spb102704.php

Posted in Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, UNU-BIOLAC | Leave a comment

Antarctic marine explorers reveal first biological changes after collapse of polar ice shelves

Posted on February 25, 2007 by admin

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 Larsen A and B ice shelves, 12 and five years ago respectively.

Now it has yielded secrets to some 52 marine explorers who accomplished the seabed’s first comprehensive biological survey during a 10-week expedition aboard the German research vessel Polarstern.

The expedition forms part of the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (http://www.caml.aq/), which has 13 upcoming voyages scheduled during International Polar Year, to be launched in Paris March 1.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/coml-ame022207.php

Media coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrRlnlC14NiFPQ

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Example coverage: click here

Potential new bird, bat species revealed by extensive DNA barcode studies

Posted on February 18, 2007 by admin

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 on Earth.

Revealing their results in the UK journal Molecular Ecology Notes, they report having assembled a genetic portrait of birdlife in the U.S. and Canada, and announce the startling discovery of 15 new genetically distinct species, nearly indistinguishable to human eyes and ears and consequently overlooked in centuries of bird studies.

The barcoders also successfully logged the DNA attributes of 87 bat species of Guyana and reveal six new species, characterized by unique genetic make-up. One of the new species, a look-alike of Trachops cirrhosus (pictured), feasts on frogs.

As well, the scientists report that 14 pairs of North American bird species with separate identities are in fact DNA twins, two trios of bird species are DNA triplets, and no less than eight gull species are virtually DNA identical.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/ru-nbb021207.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrRD19nxldbvKw

Experts urge strongest isolation for new drug-resistant tuberculosis cases appearing in South Africa

Posted on January 22, 2007 by admin

University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics
22-Jan-2007

Public health trumps individual human rights, medical ethics experts say

Ross Upshur

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 most dangerously in South Africa.

They warn that new variations of the disease now defeat many of the world’s existing drugs and “the forced isolation and confinement of XDR-TB (extensively drug resistant tuberculosis) and MDR-TB (multiple drug resistant tuberculosis) infected individuals may be a proportionate response in defined situations given the extreme risk posed.”

Full text:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/uotj-eus011807.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrQ0nZKAwlAyBw

Example coverage, by The Associated Press, click here

Posted in Disease in the Developing World, Joint Center for Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Public Health | Tagged Joint Center for Bioethics, Joint Centre for Bioethics, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, Ross Upshur, Science Media, south africa, xdr-tb | Leave a comment

Experts advise world policies to cope with causes, rising consequences of creeping desertification

Posted on December 14, 2006 by admin

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, and a growing concern worldwide due to its global health, economic and migration impacts.

Such policies, if successful, could directly reduce the impact of climate change while ensuring adequate food, water and livelihoods for dryland dwellers. And reducing poverty in drylands can have a strong impact on the efforts to curb the flow of people – popularly termed “environmental refugees” – inside countries as well as across national borders.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-12/unu-eaw120806.php

Example coverage by The Toronto Star, click here, by SciDev.net, click here

Posted in Institute for Water Environment and Health, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged Climate, Environment, environmental migration, janos bogardi, migrants, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, UNU-EHS | Leave a comment

Extreme Life, Marine Style, Highlights 2006 Ocean Census; Frontiers of Marine Science Stretched by Census experts

Posted on December 10, 2006 by admin

10-Dec-2006
Census of Marine Life

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), a mighty microbe 1 cm in diameter, mysterious 1.8 kg (4 lb) lobsters off the Madagascar coast, a US school of fish the size of Manhattan Island, and more unfamiliar than familiar species turned up beneath 700 meters of Antarctic ice.

Now in its 6th year, Census participants and their supporters pool talents and specialties, ships and laboratories, archives and technology in an unprecedented global scientific collaboration. Together, they are systematically recording the diversity, distribution, and abundance of global marine life. The most intense field work is taking place in 2006-8; the results will be analysed and synthesized in 2009-10 with the goal by 2010 of an initial census describing what lived, now lives, and will live in the oceans.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-12/coml-elm120506.php

Example coverage: click here and here

Pioneering study shows richest 2 percent own half world wealth

Posted on December 5, 2006 by admin

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 richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. In contrast, the bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth.

The research finds that assets of $2,200 per adult placed a household in the top half of the world wealth distribution in the year 2000. To be among the richest 10% of adults in the world required $61,000 in assets, and more than $500,000 was needed to belong to the richest 1%, a group which — with 37 million members worldwide — is far from an exclusive club.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-12/unu-pss120106.php

Posted in United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Science Media, UN-Water, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU-WIDER | Leave a comment

End of deforestation in view? Experts advance new way to size up global forest resources

Posted on November 13, 2006 by admin

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 forest cover.

The novel approach looks beyond simply how much of a nation’s area is covered by trees and considers the volume of timber, biomass, and captured carbon within the area. It produces an encouraging picture of Earth’s forest situation and may change the way governments size up their woodland resources in future.

The paper, published Nov. 20 in the peer-reviewed US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences was created by six experts from diverse academic disciplines (forestry, environmental technology, ecology, geography, resource economics, and agronomy) in China, Finland, Scotland, and the USA who, following independent lines of thinking, came to agree that forest transition on a major scale is underway and have now collectively demonstrated it.

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-11/uoh-eod111006.php

Coverage summary:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrSTNQTfAoWZKg&hl=en

Posted in Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Environment, Forestry, Jesse Ausubel, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Jesse Ausubel, Pekka Kaupi, Research, Researchers, Rockefeller University, Science Media, Sloan Foundation, University of Helsinki | Leave a comment

Child soldiers: If children are not prosecuted for war crimes, are they more likely chosen by warlords to perform the worst atrocities?

Posted on October 24, 2006 by admin

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 them to even more dangerous combat assignments.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/unu-cs101806.php

Posted in United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged child soldiers, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University | Leave a comment

Carbon capture, water filtration, other boreal forest ecoservices worth estimated $250 billion/year

Posted on September 24, 2006 by admin

24 Sep 06
Canadian Forest Congress

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 Sept. 25-27.

The forests’ huge value as sinks and reservoirs of atmospheric carbon, for example, is unaccounted for today but needs to be recognized in future, according to Mark Anielski of Edmonton, who will make a presentation to Canadian and international forest officials, and experts from native peoples communities, the energy, farming and tourism sectors and other stakeholders assembling for the Congress at Lac Leamy, Gatineau-Ottawa.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-09/cfc-ccw091806.php

Posted in Forestry | Tagged Canadian Forest Congress, forestry, Science Media | Leave a comment

Create National Accounting Systems To Reflect All Values Of Boreal Forests: Economist

Posted on September 22, 2006 by admin

National Forest Congress, Ottawa

www.nfc-cfn.ca

Sept. 24, 2006

Create National Accounting Systems To Reflect All Values Of Boreal Forests: Economist

Carbon Sequestration, Water Filtration, Other Services Worth Estimated US$250 Billion Per Year Worldwide

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 Sept. 25-27.

The boreal forests’ huge value as sinks and reservoirs of atmospheric carbon, for example, is unaccounted for today but needs to be recognized in future, according to Mark Anielski of Edmonton, who will make a presentation to Canadian and international forest officials, and experts from native peoples communities, the energy, farming and tourism sectors and other stakeholders assembling for the Congress at Lac Leamy, Gatineau-Ottawa.

Anielski and research colleagues estimate that environmental services from the boreal – from climate regulation via carbon capture and storage, water filtration and waste treatment, to biodiversity maintenance, pest control by birds, etc. – are worth about $160 per hectare, or $93 billion per year in Canada.

Posted in Forestry | Tagged ecosystem services, forestry, Science Media | Leave a comment

Ocean microbe census discovers diverse world of rare bacteria

Posted on July 31, 2006 by admin

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 life and 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 marine microbial diversity may be some 10 to 100 times more than expected, and the vast majority are previously unknown, low-abundance organisms theorized to play an important role in the marine environment as part of a “rare biosphere.”

Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-07/coml-omc072606.php

Photo: http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/1519.php?from=81807

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How to cut energy waste in China, India, Brazil said crucial to forestalling climate change

Posted on May 29, 2006 by admin

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 could reduce those countries’ energy use today by at least 25% and advanced technologies could reduce their energy use growth projected through 2030 by at least 10% (and reduce projected CO2 emission growth by 16%).

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-05/urco-htc052306.php

Example coverage, by the Financial Times, click here

Posted in Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Green economy, Green energy, United Nations Environment Programme | Tagged Achim Steiner, Climate, Energy sources, Environment, Eric Usher, Green energy, PNUE, Risoe Center, risoe centre, Science Media, SEFI, UNEP, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank | Leave a comment

Tsunami + 1 year: Reviving exhausted fisheries should trump replacing boats, gear, experts say

Posted on December 22, 2005 by admin

22 Dec 05
WorldFish Centre

One year after a tsunami devastated South Asian communities, global fisheries experts say habitat restoration, retraining and education programs are much needed to revive severely exhausted fisheries and steer survivors into more sustainable livelihoods than fishing.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-12/wc-t1121605.php

Posted in Environment, Fisheries | Tagged Malaysia, Penang, Science Media, WorldFish Centre | Leave a comment

‘Fish with chips’ reporting from ocean among highlights at Census of Marine Life mid-point

Posted on December 14, 2005 by admin

14 Dec 05
Census of Marine Life

Discoveries and news in 2005 from the global Census of Marine Life

Coastal Fish Tracking, Using Implanted Chips, Becoming Continental Project;

1,800+ Sharks, Turtles, Other Species Call in Via Satellite from Mid-Ocean;

Carnivorous Sponges among New Species in Southern Ocean Abyss;

Eerie Underwater Dead Zone Found at 2004 Tsunami Epicenter;

Explorers Record Life at Smoking Seafloor Vents, 1st S. of Equator in Atlantic;

Giant Inventory of Marine Life Grows to 8.4 Million Records, 40,000+ Species

Full news release: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-12/coml-com120805.php

Example coverage: click here and here

Ranks of ‘environmental refugees’ swell, calls grow for better definition, recognition, support

Posted on November 5, 2005 by admin

11 Nov 05
United Nations University

Amid predictions that by 2010 the world will need to cope with as many as 50 million people escaping the effects of creeping environmental deterioration, United Nations University experts say the international community urgently needs to define, recognize and extend support to this new category of ‘refugee’.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/unu-ro100405.php

Posted in United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Science Media, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

Prepare public for bird flu, experts urge governments

Posted on November 5, 2005 by admin

Joint Centre for Bioethics, Toronto

27 Nov 2005

Ethicists offer guide to decision-making in predicted flu pandemic; quarantine, duty to care, resource allocations among key issues

Coping effectively with a predicted influenza pandemic that threatens to affect the health of millions worldwide, hobble economies and overwhelm health care systems will require more than new drugs and good infection control.

An international medical ethics think-tank says that all-important public cooperation and the coordination of public officials at all levels requires open and ethical decision making.

The Influenza Pandemic Working Group at the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics today recommended a 15-point ethical guide for pandemic planning, based in part on experiences and study of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis of 2003.

Full release, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Example coverage, by the Ottawa Citizen, click here, by The Canadian Press, click here, by the Toronto Star (editorial), click here, by the Financial Times, click here

Posted in Joint Center for Bioethics, Peter A. Singer | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Global Health, Health Care, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Public Health, Ross Upshur, Science Media | Comments Off

Restaurant seafood prices since 1850s help plot marine harvests through history

Posted on October 23, 2005 by admin

23 Oct 05
Census of Marine Life

Seafood prices collected from U.S. restaurant menus dating to the 1850s will help plot the shifting harvest of marine species, according to a study to be announced at Oceans Past a Census of Marine Life conference in Denmark on the History of Marine Animal Populations.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-10/cp-rsp101705.php

Valuing biodiversity services, including its insurance against disease

Posted on October 5, 2005 by admin

25 Oct 05
DIVERSITAS, Paris

By diluting the pool of virus targets and hosts, biodiversity reduces their impact on humans and provides a form of global health insurance, biodiversity experts say.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-10/gumc-vbs101805.php

Posted in Biodiversity, Diversitas | Tagged Science Media | Leave a comment

Crisis in African fish supplies looms, experts warn Africa leaders

Posted on August 21, 2005 by admin

21 Aug 05
WorldFish Centre

Calling fisheries critical for nourishing the poor and for helping Africa cope with the health, economic and social devastation of problems like HIV and AIDS, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the WorldFish Center and partners are making an urgent appeal to boost the continent’s fish production and strengthen the contribution of fisheries to economic growth and food security.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-08/asfb-cia081505.php

Posted in Environment, Fisheries, Malaysia | Tagged Malaysia, Penang, Science Media, WorldFish Centre | Leave a comment

Census of Marine Life explorers surprised by diversity, density of Arctic creatures

Posted on July 5, 2005 by admin

29 Jul 05
Census of Marine Life

A historic expedition of Census of Marine Life explorers to the planet’s most northern reaches has revealed a surprising density and diversity of Arctic Ocean creatures, some believed new to science.

Photo: Kevin Raskoff

Full text: ww.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/coml-com072805.php

Example coverage: click here

Conflicts pitting doctors vs. patients / kin is #1 issue in medical ethics

Posted on June 26, 2005 by admin

26 Jun 05
University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics

The biggest issue in medical ethics today is the growing occurrence of conflict between health care providers, their patients and patients’ families over treatment options, according to Canadian medical ethicists in a survey published today.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/uotj-cpd062005.php

Posted in Health Care, Joint Center for Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Peter A. Singer | Tagged Joint Center for Bioethics, Joint Centre for Bioethics, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, Ross Upshur, Science Media | Leave a comment

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Many of 2 billion dryland dwellers at risk as land degrades

Posted on June 16, 2005 by admin

16 Jun 05
United Nations University

Growing desertification worldwide threatens to swell by millions the number of poor forced to seek new homes and livelihoods. And a rising number of large, intense dust storms plaguing many areas menace the health of people even continents away, international experts warn in a new report.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/unu-mea061005.php

Example coverage: By Nature, click here, by Reuters, click here, by CNN, click here

Posted in AH Zakri, sustainable development, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water, Zafar Adeel | Tagged AH Zakri, Biodiversity, desertification, INWEH, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Zafar Adeel | Leave a comment

Clear rules needed to govern deep sea bioprospecting: UNU

Posted on June 8, 2005 by admin

08 Jun 05
United Nations University

Vast genetic resources – “blue gold” on the international deep sea floor – need protection from unfettered commercial exploitation, warns a new report from the Japan-based United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS).

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/unu-crn060105.php

Posted in United Nations University, UNU | Tagged AH Zakri, Hans van Ginkel, Sam Johnston, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

Bridging the digital divide by making computers for kids as common as pencils

Posted on May 15, 2005 by admin

15 May 05
United Nations University

A global education system in which a fully portable personal computer is as common as a pencil or textbook to school children even in the poorest nations is the vision of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor, who next week will detail in Tokyo for the first time an accelerating international drive to mass manufacture a $100 laptop.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-05/gmu-btd051105.php

Posted in United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

United Nations University calls for world help to repair Iraqi higher education system

Posted on May 1, 2005 by admin

01 May 05
United Nations University

Since the start of the war of 2003 some 84% of Iraq’s higher education institutions have been burnt, looted or destroyed while four dozen academics have been assassinated and many more brave daily threats, according to an analysis of the system’s reconstruction needs released today by the United Nations University.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-05/unu-unu042505.php

Example coverage: Kuwait News Agency | IPS | EFE | Folha de Sao Paolo

Posted in United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Hans van Ginkel, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

Nanotechnology’s miniature answers to developing world’s biggest problems

Posted on April 11, 2005 by admin

11 Apr 05
University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics

In a new study by researchers at the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics (JCB), published in PLoS Medicine, the open access global health journal, an international panel of 63 experts were asked to rank the nanotechnology applications they think are most likely to benefit developing countries in the areas of water, agriculture, nutrition, health, energy and the environment in the next 10 years. The study is the first ever ranking of nanotechnology applications relative to their impact on development.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/uotj-nma040505.php

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: New Report Warns Ecosystem Changes Will Continue to Worsen, Hampering Global Development Goals

Posted on March 30, 2005 by admin

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment / United Nations University

March 30, 2005

A landmark study released today reveals that approximately 60 percent (15 out of 24) of the ecosystem services that support life on Earth are being degraded or used unsustainably. Scientists warn that the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years.

The study, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) Synthesis Report, is the first in a series of seven synthesis and summary reports and four technical volumes that assess the state of global ecosystems and their impact on human well-being. The study started in 2001 in response to a call by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for global support of the Millennium Development Goals. This first report is being released together with a statement by the MA board of directors entitled “Living beyond Our Means: Natural Assets and Human Well-being.

The MA’s work is overseen by a 45-member board of directors, co-chaired by Dr. Robert Watson, chief scientist of The World Bank, and Dr. A. H. Zakri, director of the United Nations University’s Institute of Advanced Studies.

Example coverage, by The Associated Press, click here, by Reuters, click here, more sources, click here

Posted in AH Zakri, Biodiversity, Environment, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged AH Zakri, Biodiversity, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Comments Off

South America’s vast Pantanal wetland may become next Everglades, UNU experts warn

Posted on March 21, 2005 by admin

21 Mar 05
United Nations University

South America’s giant Pantanal wetlands, one of the world’s most bio-diverse ecosystems, is at growing risk from intensive peripheral agricultural, industrial and urban development – problems expected to be compounded by climate change, United Nations University experts warn.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/unu-sav031705.php

Posted in Environment, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water | Tagged Hans van Ginkel, Pantanaal, Paulo Teixiera, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, UNU-PREP | Leave a comment

First ever estimate of cod fishery in 1850s reveals 96% decline on Scotian Shelf

Posted on March 1, 2005 by admin

1-Mar-2005
Census of Marine Life

Once a dominant species, the volume of cod on the Scotian Shelf has plunged 96% since the 1850s, according to a landmark research to be published March 1.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/coml-fee022305.php

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The hidden vulnerability of mega-cities to natural disasters: underground spaces

Posted on January 14, 2005 by admin

14 Jan 05
United Nations University

The rapid and extensive underground expansion of mega-cities – for subways, malls, parking and public utilities – takes place often with too little knowledge of associated risks and too few plans to minimize the effects of a natural disaster, United Nations University experts warn.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-01/unu-thv011005.php

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Posted in AH Zakri, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged AH Zakri, Hans van Ginkel, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

Put science at center of decision-making on third world development, experts tell UN

Posted on January 6, 2005 by admin

Joint Centre for Bioethics, Toronto

6 January, 2005

Report urges end to monopoly of economists as development policy advisors

Science and technology is so critically important to improving conditions in poor countries that scientific advisors should join economists at the center of government policy-making on development issues, an eminent group of 27 international experts says in a landmark report to the United Nations.

“Economic advice will always be important in guiding policy makers on development matters. But in a knowledge-based economy, leaders and governments increasingly need science advisors to make effective use of emerging technologies,” says the report co-author, Calestous Juma of Harvard University. “In a world marked by rapid technological change and the enormous, emerging opportunities presented by biotechnologies and nanotechnologies, science advisors will soon be a necessary part of every presidential and executive office, including the Office of the UN Secretary-General.”

The report, “Innovation: Applying Knowledge in Development,” was prepared by the Task Force on Science, Technology and Innovation of the UN Millennium Project, commissioned by the UN Secretary General to advise on implementing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Agreed by world leaders in 2000, the MDGs are clear, quantifiable targets to be achieved by 2015. The full Millennium Project will report later in January on strategies to reach all MDGs, including reducing poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women.

Three years in preparation, the report of the Task Force (a 19-member group, with an additional eight-member working group on genomics and nanotechnology based at the University of Toronto), says science, technology and innovation have helped to largely eliminate poverty and hunger and driven remarkable economic growth in much of Southeast Asia and the Asian Pacific.

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Posted in Abdallah Daar, Calestous Juma, Joint Center for Bioethics, Nanotechnology, Peter A. Singer, Political Science, Science Media, Scientists, sustainable development | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Calestous Juma, Joint Center for Bioethics, Joint Centre for Bioethics, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, Science Media | Comments Off

Cuba, South Africa, India, China, Brazil Among Developing Countries with Recipe for Thriving Health Biotechnology Industries, Saving Lives, Researchers Say in Three-Year, First-Ever Study

Posted on December 6, 2004 by admin

Joint Centre for Bioethics, Toronto

6 December, 2004

Cuba, South Korea, and India make and export their own biotech vaccines, Egypt manufactures recombinant insulin, and South Africa is developing a novel vaccine for HIV/AIDS.

Health biotechnology is no longer the sole preserve of high-level research institutions of North America and Europe, according to a ground-breaking three-year study by 15 researchers of health biotechnology innovation systems in seven countries: Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, South Africa and South Korea.

“Nowhere is the need for science and technology as a tool for development more relevant than in addressing the health needs of the world’s poor,” says co-author Peter Singer, MD, Director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, a world-leading think tank on medical ethics.

“Vaccines, diagnostic tools and other products of biotechnology which can be produced relatively easily and cheaply by developing countries have the potential to save millions of people who die every year from diseases. This study helps to reveal and understand the recipe used by developing countries to create thriving health biotech industries.”

Results of the study, funded by Genome Canada and others and published Dec. 6 in a supplement to Nature Biotechnology, documents the development of successful health biotechnology sectors in detailed case studies of seven countries. It identifies factors that led to their success and the challenges that remain.

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Posted in Abdallah Daar, Biotechnology, Global Health, Health Care, Health in Developing Countries, Joint Center for Bioethics, Peter A. Singer, Science Media | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, Joint Center for Bioethics, Joint Centre for Bioethics, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter Singer Toronto, Science Media | Comments Off

Census of Marine Life – Discoveries and Highlights 2004: Scientists add 4m+ records

Posted on November 23, 2004 by admin

23 Nov 04
Census of Marine Life

Even in Europe and the best studied seas, the rapid ongoing discovery of new marine species shows no end in sight, according to the world’s first Census of Marine Life, a massive collaboration to catalog and map marine species worldwide involving hundreds of scientists in more than 70 countries.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-11/coml-com111704.php

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Report: How 10 top new technologies will help world reach globally-agreed goals by 2015

Posted on October 7, 2004 by admin

07 Oct 04
University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics

New medical tools that quickly and accurately diagnose diseases like AIDS and malaria top a list of 10 biotech breakthroughs deemed most important for improving health in developing countries within the decade, science that will dramatically move the world towards its Millennium Development Goals for 2015, according to scientists and ethicists in a major new report to the United Nations.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-10/uotj-rh1100504.php

Posted in Abdallah Daar, Biotechnology, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, Joint Center for Bioethics, Nanotechnology, United Nations | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Disease in the Developing World, Global Health, Health in Developing Countries, Peter A. Singer, Peter Singer Toronto, Science Media | Leave a comment

Two-month study of life in mid-Atlantic yields trove of species, new insights & questions

Posted on August 5, 2004 by admin

05 Aug 04
Census of Marine Life

Exploring life in the mid-Atlantic at various depths down to 4 km (2.5 miles), 60 scientists from 13 countries on a two-month expedition have surfaced a wealth of new information and insights, stunning images and marine life specimens, several thought to be species never before known to science.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-08/coml-tso072704.php

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Melting ice cap gives urgency to new Census of Marine Life project in Arctic Ocean

Posted on June 24, 2004 by admin

24 Jun 04
Census of Marine Life

A new ‘Census of Marine Life’ project based in Alaska with global partners seeks to find lifeforms in the world’s oldest seawater.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-06/coml-mic061804.php

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Two billion vulnerable to floods by 2050; number expected to double or more in two generations

Posted on June 13, 2004 by admin

13 Jun 04
United Nations University

Janos Bogardi

The number of people worldwide vulnerable to a devastating flood is expected to mushroom to 2 billion by 2050 due to climate change, deforestation, rising sea levels and population growth in flood-prone lands, warn experts at the United Nations University.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-06/unu-tbv060404.php

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Posted in Climate, Environment, Forestry, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water | Tagged Climate, Environment, environmental migration, janos bogardi, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, UNU-EHS | Leave a comment

Estimated one in five people worldwide lack enough zinc in diet

Posted on March 23, 2004 by admin

23 Mar 04
United Nations University

Up to one-fifth of the world’s people lack sufficient zinc in their diet, while an estimated one-third live in countries considered at high risk of zinc deficiency, warns a comprehensive new report by an international group of medical researchers.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/unu-eoi031604.php

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Posted in United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged Cutberto Garza, Health in Developing Countries, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

UN study shows environmental consequences from ongoing boom in personal computer sales

Posted on March 4, 2004 by admin

07 Mar 04
United Nations University

Government incentives are quickly needed worldwide to extend the life of personal computers and slow the growth of high-tech trash, according to a new United Nations University (UNU) report into the environmental consequences of the information technology revolution.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/tca-uss030204.php

Posted in e-waste, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged e-waste, Ruediger Kuehr, Science Media, solving the e-waste problem, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

UNU Report: End Catch-22 for Indigenous People

Posted on February 19, 2004 by admin

United Nations University

19 Feb 2004

To decide whether a new product seeking patent protection is novel or based upon traditional knowledge, officials require free access to indigenous secrets. Several countries have inventoried traditional knowledge in publicly-accessible databases for this purpose as a way to prevent its commercial theft.

In many indigenous cultures, however, traditional knowledge is highly guarded, passed down from one generation to the next through codes of conduct and customary law, frequently including initiation rights as a prerequisite for receiving the information.

Obliging indigenous people to offer public documentation of TK for intellectual property protection purposes is insensitive to centuries-old cultural practice in many places and may lead to injustice, according to a UNU report.

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Posted in AH Zakri, Biodiversity, Malaysia, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged AH Zakri, Brandan Tobin, CBD, Environment, Science Media, traditional knowledge, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Comments Off

Money talks: Concern for biodiversity pressed on boardrooms by new breed of fund managers

Posted on February 4, 2004 by admin

10 Feb 04
United Nations University

A new breed of fund managers looking to pressure businesses to improve social, environmental and ethical performance, a phenomenon started in 1999, now wield more than $640 billion in clout in the UK alone – more than 12% of all managed investments in that nation, according to experts at a United Nations forum.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-02/tca-mtc021004.php

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Posted in AH Zakri, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged AH Zakri, Environment, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

UN report: Accelerate global agreement to oversee exploitation of South Pole ‘extremophiles’

Posted on February 1, 2004 by admin

01 Feb 04
United Nations University

Work should be stepped up on international agreements to oversee prospecting efforts in Antarctica by research institutions, universities and pharmaceutical companies to discover and stake ownership to promising organisms and compounds with genetic properties that make survival possible in extremely cold, arid and salty conditions, says a new UN University report.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-02/tca-ura012504.php

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Posted in AH Zakri, Antarctica, United Nations University, UNU | Tagged AH Zakri, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

First-ever UN University diploma offered to grads of online water-management course

Posted on November 30, 2003 by admin

30 Nov 03
United Nations University

In an effort to help raise the quality of water management expertise worldwide, the United Nations University has authorized for the first time in its 26-year history a diploma to be granted to global graduates of a unique new online training program called the “UN Water Virtual Learning Center.”

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/tca-fuu112103.php

Posted in United Nations, United Nations University, UNU, Water | Tagged Colin Mayfield, Environment, Institute for Water Environment and Health, International Network on Water Environment and Health, Ralph Daley, Science Media, United Nations, United Nations University, UNU | Leave a comment

Ethical guidelines needed before ‘nutrigenomic’ groceries come to market

Posted on November 3, 2003 by admin

03 Nov 03
University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics

New research designed to help consumers create customized diets based on their genetic make up will create ethical and legal challenges with serious implications for the scientific and medical communities, warns a new consultation paper by a panel of international experts.

Full text:
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/coml-egn103003.php

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Posted in Abdallah Daar, Biotechnology, Joint Center for Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Peter A. Singer, Pharmaceutical Science, Public Health | Tagged Abdallah Daar, Global Health, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, Peter A. Singer, Public Health, Research, Researchers, Science Media | Leave a comment

How many fish in the sea? Census of Marine Life launches first report

Posted on October 23, 2003 by admin

23 Oct 03

Census of Marine Life

An estimated 5,000 previously unknown ocean fish species and hundreds of thousands of other marine life forms are yet to be discovered, according to scientists engaged in a massive global scientific collaboration to identify and catalog life in the oceans.

www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-10/coml-hmf102203.php

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Posted in Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Biodiversity, Census of Marine Life, Environment, Fisheries, Ian Poiner, Jesse Ausubel, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Ron O'Dor, Science Media, Scientists | Tagged Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Census of Marine Life, Climate, coml, Environment, Fisheries, Ian Poiner, Jesse Ausubel, Marine Biology, Marine Science, Oceanography, Ron O'Dor, Science Media | Leave a comment

New guidelines for MDs draw line between relief of suffering and euthanasia

Posted on September 12, 2002 by admin

Joint Centre for Bioethics, Toronto

12 Sept 2002

Peter A. Singer

Intensive care unit physicians need to be comfortable prescribing drugs in whatever dose is needed to relieve a dying patient’s pain and suffering, even if this hastens the patient’s death, according to proposed new guidelines released today by researchers at an international medical ethics think-tank.

The guidelines identify the intent of the physician administering narcotics and sedatives as the most crucial distinction between palliative care – managing pain and suffering but not treating the underlying illness – and assisted death (euthanasia/assisted suicide).

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Posted in Health Care, Joint Center for Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Peter A. Singer | Tagged Health Care, Laura Hawryluck, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, paliative care, Peter A. Singer, Public Health, Science Media | Comments Off