Search Results for: Global Warming

BY MARK GODFREY, in Beijing

THE CHINA National Publications Import and Export Corporation, which controls imports of books, imported 50,000 English language copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The company usually orders about 100 copies of popular English language books.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MANY international organisations have an impact on the fish farming sector, although with quite a narrow remit, drawing up specialist health and environmental standards for the industry, for instance. However, the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has a broader role, with freedom to pursue a wide variety of imaginative schemes.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

INDIA’S response to the final Harry Potter novel has been “absolutely amazing and delightful” for the local distributor Penguin India. With 170,000 copies sold in first 12 hours across the country and another 90,000 decorating bookshops, it is by far India’s fastest selling book ever.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed adjusting the current European Union (EU) system of classification of chemical substances and mixtures with the United Nations’ Globally Harmonised System (GHS). This internationally accepted classification criteria and labelling system is to be integrated in new EU legislation, replacing the current laws on the classification, labelling and packaging of chemical substances (directive 67/548/EEC) and mixtures (directive 1999/45/EC).…

BY MARK ROWE

DANISH scientists believe they are on the verge of developing a novel means of storing carbon dioxide. Its Professor Susan Stipp, of the University of Copenhagen’s Nanotechnology Centre is developing a way to extract CO2 from the atmosphere and store it by turning it into rock.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have signed an agreement pledging cooperation and the exchange of information when assessing food safety risk. This is the first formal international cooperation agreement EFSA has signed and the first Euro-American deal on food safety risk assessment.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

CANADIAN bookseller, Indigo Books and Music Inc., has for the first time, outdone Canadian online sales over Amazon.ca, the global book giant’s Canada arm, according to an industry analyst.
Despite Amazon’s securing 25% more Canadian online traffic in the past months, Indigo’s conversion rate or the rate of how many browsers turn to sellers is substantially higher than Amazon’s.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE TOBACCO sector has always been a worldwide business, relying on raw materials and products being shipped to and from all continents, and with the growth of new emerging markets, it is if anything becoming increasingly globalised. As a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming more important.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

THE PROPOSED European Union (EU) CO2 emissions target for automobiles of 130 (g/km) level by 2012 was damned as “unrealistic” at a Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) conference of manufacturers, legislators and transport interests.
As part of the “mix” to achieve hefty reductions in average emissions, alternative fuels and propulsions are welcome but not necessary, experts were told by an engineer from ADAC, the German automobile organisation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PRODUCTION of one kilogram of beef creates more greenhouse gas emissions than motoring for three hours, leaving the lights on at home, according to a new Japanese study. The country’s National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science, Tsukuba, examined CO2 emissions emitted by way of methane from beef cattle; the energy required to create the beef (including feed production, husbandry, transport, slaughtering, butchering and packaging); plus the environmental effects of production methods, for instance water acidification and eutrophication, with excessive nutrient runoff into lakes, rivers and ponds reducing oxygen content and CO2 absorption.…