Terry Collins & Assoc. Global Media

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

2010-12-13T10:08:00.000-08:00

McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health
Toronto

Canadian-based global health experts have published a major collection of papers detailing the main inhibitors of African health science innovation, drawing on experiences in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Madagascar, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, and Uganda.

In addition to triumphs and troubles, researchers discovered 25 "stagnant" health technologies -- a human odor-based mosquito repellant; a new herbal malaria medicine; a fuel-free incinerator for media waste in rural areas; a quick, cheap dipstick diagnostic test for schistosoma (a parasitic disease that affects more than 50% of people in some areas of Africa), and other valuable products languishing due to a lack of support and marketing experience, problems for which the authors prescribe urgent solutions.

The papers, produced by Canada's McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health (based at the University Health Network and University of Toronto), were published as a special supplement in the UK-based open-access journal publisher BioMed Central and in the journal Science.

Full news release text: click here

Special McLaughlin-Rotman Centre website: click here

Coverage by the Agence France Presse: click here

Coverage by PostMedia News, Canada: click here

Coverage by the BBC The World Today: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Africa Can Feed Itself in a Generation

2010-12-02T10:52:00.000-08:00

2-Dec-2010
Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge MA USA

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.

Full news release text: click here

Coverage summary, click here

Coverage by the Associated Press (via Washington Post): click here

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

2010-11-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans, Plymouth, UK

31-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.

The Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO), representing 38 major oceanographic institutions from 21 countries and leading a global consortium called Oceans United, will urge government officials and ministers meeting in Beijing Nov. 3-5 to help complete an integrated global ocean observation system by target date 2015.

Full news release, click here

Media coverage summary, click here

Coverage by Reuters: click here

Continuing biodiversity loss predicted but could be slowed

2010-11-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

DIVERSITAS, Paris

26-Oct-2010

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.

Published today in the journal Science, the analysis found universal agreement across the studies that fundamental changes are needed in society to avoid high risk of extinctions, declining populations in many species, and large scale shifts in species distributions in the future.

Full news release text: click here

Media results: click here

Coverage by the European Commission's news service: click here

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

2010-10-05T00:13:00.000-07:00

4-Oct-2010
Census of Marine Life
Washington DC

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

After a decade of joint work and scientific adventure, marine explorers from more than 80 countries today delivered a historic first global Census of Marine Life.

In one of the largest scientific collaborations ever conducted, more than 2,700 Census scientists spent over 9,000 days at sea on more than 540 expeditions, plus countless days in labs and archives.

Released today are maps, three landmark books, and a highlights summary that crown a decade of discovery.

The now-completed documentation in books and journals, plus the accumulating databases and established websites, videos, and photo galleries report and conclude the first Census. Over the decade more than 2,600 academic papers were published - one, on average, every 1.5 days.

Presented is an unprecedented picture of the diversity, distribution, and abundance of all kinds of marine life in Planet Ocean - from microbes to whales, from the icy poles to the warm tropics, from tidal near shores to the deepest dark depths.

Full news release: click here

Coverage summary: click here

Coverage by the Associated Press: click here

Coverage by the Wall Street Journal: click here

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

2010-08-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

2-Aug-2010
Census of Marine Life
Washington DC

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.

Published by the open access journal PLoS ONE, the landmark collection of papers and overview synthesis will help guide future decisions on exploration of still poorly-explored waters, especially the abyssal depths, and provides a baseline for still thinly-studied forms, especially small animals.

Full news release text: click here

Coverage summary, click here

Coverage by the Agence France Presse, click here

Reports detail global investment and other trends in green energy

2010-07-16T13:55:00.000-07:00

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Division of Technology Industry and Economics
Paris
15-Jul-2010

In 2009, for the second year in a row, both the US and Europe added more power capacity from renewable sources such as wind and solar than conventional sources like coal, gas and nuclear, according to twin reports launched today by the 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

Media coverage, including the Dow Jones and Bloomberg newswires: click here

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

2010-06-10T06:23:00.000-07:00

8 June 2010
Cousteau Society
Paris

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.

He went on to pioneer many areas, including documenting the sonar-like capabilities of dolphins, public demonstrations to protect the oceans from radioactive dumping and over-exploitation, and mass communication of marine research through films and television.

Full news release: click here
Coverage summary: click here

Coverage by The Associated Press: click here
Coverage by Agence France Presse: click here

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

2010-05-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

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°C; Release of historic global ocean Census: October 4, 2010

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

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

2010-05-07T07:50:00.000-07:00

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

Greater access to cell phones than toilets in India: UN

2010-05-07T07:25:00.000-07:00

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

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

2010-02-23T10:12:00.000-08:00

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

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

2010-02-06T06:32:00.000-08:00

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

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

2010-01-25T19:18:00.000-08:00

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

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

2010-01-25T18:54:00.000-08:00

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

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

2010-01-02T03:27:00.000-08:00

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

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

2009-12-19T07:27:00.000-08:00

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

Traditional indigenous fire management techniques deployed against climate change

2009-11-29T16:03:00.000-08:00

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

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

2009-11-29T15:58:00.000-08:00

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

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

2009-11-29T15:56:00.000-08:00

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

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

2009-11-08T18:56:00.000-08:00

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

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

2009-10-22T14:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

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

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

2009-09-29T17:56:00.000-07:00

United Nations University

Tokyo / Bonn

15-Sep-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: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-09/unu-sws091009.php

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlbF9zth54L8dG54TVNGZUh5bVdSYU83VktqamJ6Nnc&hl=en&pli=1

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

2009-09-08T07:51:00.000-07:00

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

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

2009-07-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

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

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

2009-06-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

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

UNEP report details surprising green energy investment trends worldwide

2009-06-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

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

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

2009-06-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

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

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

2009-06-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

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

Mexican Genome Mapped

2009-05-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

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

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

2009-05-14T16:38:00.000-07:00

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

DNA barcoding of mosquito species deployed in bid to end elephantiasis

2009-04-30T06:45:00.000-07:00

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

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

2009-04-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

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

Clean energy investment not on track to avoid climate change

2009-03-05T05:07:00.000-08:00

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

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

2009-02-18T09:32:00.000-08:00

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

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

2009-02-18T09:23:00.000-08:00

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

Rainforests Regrowing: Impact on Extinction Rates Sparks Debate at Smithsonian

2009-01-19T13:50:00.000-08:00

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

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

2008-12-15T18:53:00.000-08:00

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

Scientists Report Major Steps Towards 1st Census of Marine Life

2008-11-11T12:24:00.001-08:00

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

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

2008-11-11T12:05:00.000-08:00

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

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

2008-10-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-10-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-10-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-10-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-08-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-08-07T10:46:00.000-07:00

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

UNEP: Clean energy investments charge forward despite financial market turmoil

2008-07-03T12:48:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-06-27T04:34:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-05-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

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

Ottawa high school student's "flu glue" wins national prize

2008-05-16T20:31:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-05-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

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

Indigenous peoples hardest hit by climate change describe impacts

2008-05-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-05-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

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

Scientists to explore life's mysteries through encyclopedic 'macroscope'

2008-03-04T07:20:00.000-08:00

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

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

2008-02-20T07:40:00.000-08:00

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

$1 trillion US carbon trading market by 2020: study

2008-02-20T07:37:00.000-08:00

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

Global corporate giants ask suppliers to volunteer CO2 emissions information

2008-01-31T12:43:00.000-08:00

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
(notes: if needed to open the file, enter usual email address and create a password; tabs across the bottom point to different types of coverage).

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

2008-01-09T05:46:00.000-08:00

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

Economists: Reduce fish catch now for bigger net profits later

2007-12-07T10:53:00.000-08:00

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

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

2007-12-07T10:42:00.000-08:00

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

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

2007-11-27T14:17:00.000-08:00

Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans
(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

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

2007-11-27T14:13:00.000-08:00

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

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

2007-11-14T17:42:00.000-08:00

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

Global corporate climate change report released

2007-09-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

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

Coverage results: http://news.google.ca/news?hl=en&ned=&q=%22carbon+disclosure+project%22&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

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

2007-09-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

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

Pioneering study catalogs ethical issues of scientific research in developing world

2007-09-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, Program on Life Sciences, Ethics and Policy
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 results: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pRwdzmg01IrQ63Dq9yWYPGg&hl=en

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

2007-09-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

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

Tuna Past and Present

2007-08-26T02:00:00.000-07:00

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

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

2007-07-03T20:31:00.000-07:00

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

Investors flock to renewable energy and efficiency technologies: UN study

2007-06-20T15:12:00.000-07:00

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

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

2007-06-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

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

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

2007-05-13T17:20:00.000-07:00

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

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

2007-04-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

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

Potential new bird, bat species revealed by extensive DNA barcode studies

2007-03-21T04:30:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-21T04:20:00.000-07:00

University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics
22-Jan-2007

Public health trumps individual human rights, medical ethics experts say

Medical ethics and other experts say tough isolation measures, involuntary if need be, are justified to contain a very deadly, highly-contagious and drug-resistant mutant strain of tuberculosis and to prevent "a potentially explosive international health crisis" brewing 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

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

2007-03-21T04:15:00.000-07:00

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

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

2007-03-07T07:58:00.000-08:00

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

Antarctic marine explorers reveal first biological changes after collapse of polar ice shelves

2007-03-07T07:50:00.000-08:00

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

Experts advise world policies to cope with causes, rising consequences of creeping desertification

2007-03-07T07:47:00.000-08:00

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

Extreme Life, Marine Style, Highlights 2006 Ocean Census; Frontiers of Marine Science Stretched by Census experts

2007-03-07T07:45:00.002-08:00

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

Pioneering study shows richest 2 percent own half world wealth

2007-03-07T07:45:00.001-08:00

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

End of deforestation in view? Experts advance new way to size up global forest resources

2007-03-07T07:44:00.000-08:00

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

Child soldiers: If children are not prosecuted for war crimes, are they more likely chosen by warlords to perform the worst atrocities?

2007-03-07T07:43:00.000-08:00

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

Carbon capture, water filtration, other boreal forest ecoservices worth estimated $250 billion/year

2007-03-07T07:42:00.000-08:00

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

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

2007-03-07T07:41:00.002-08:00

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

Ocean microbe census discovers diverse world of rare bacteria

2007-03-07T07:41:00.001-08:00

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

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

2007-03-07T07:40:00.000-08:00

19 July 2006
Consultative Process Towards an International Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity, Paris

Warning that Earth is on the verge of "a major biodiversity crisis," 19 of the field's most distinguished scientists and policy experts today called for a new global coordinating mechanism to provide a united, authoritative scientific voice to inform government decision-making internationally.
And they called upon the wider scientific community 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

Creating a Window on ‘Oceans in Motion’: Academic, Science, Engineering Experts Illuminating Sea Life Conditions, Migrations

2007-03-07T07:39:00.000-08:00

26 June 06
Dalhousie University

Ocean Tracking Network

Scientists and resource managers could soon have a highly detailed picture of marine conditions and the migrations of fish and ocean animals throughout the world, according to international experts convening a landmark conference in Canada June 27-30.

Academics, scientists and technical experts at the meeting aim to 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

How to cut energy waste in China, India, Brazil said crucial to forestalling climate change

2007-03-07T07:38:00.000-08:00

29 May 06
UNEP / 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

Diverse sea 'bugs' revealed on landmark Atlantic cruise to census zooplankton

2007-03-07T07:36:00.000-08:00

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

Landslides: Experts seek ways to mitigate losses, danger said growing due to climate change

2007-03-07T07:35:00.000-08:00

17 Jan 06
United Nations University

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

'Fish with chips' reporting from ocean among highlights at Census of Marine Life mid-point

2007-03-07T07:32:00.000-08:00

14 Dec 05
Census of Marine Life

Discoveries and news in 2005 from the global Census of Marine Life
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-12/coml-com120805.php

A physconect siphonophore, Marrus sp., photographed during NOAA's Arctic "Hidden Ocean" expedition in support of the Census of Marine Life. (c) 2005, Kevin Raskoff

Restaurant seafood prices since 1850s help plot marine harvests through history

2007-03-07T07:31:00.002-08:00

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

Ethics in a pandemic

2007-03-07T07:31:00.001-08:00

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

Nanotechnology's miniature answers to developing world's biggest problems

2007-03-07T07:30:00.002-08:00

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

Put science at center of decision-making on third world development, experts tell UN

2007-03-07T07:30:00.001-08:00

26 Jun 05
University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics

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.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-01/uotj-psa010205.php

Conflicts pitting doctors vs. patients / kin is #1 issue in medical ethics

2007-03-07T07:29:00.001-08:00

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

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Many of 2 billion dryland dwellers at risk as land degrades

2007-03-07T07:28:00.002-08:00

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