Search Results for: Australia

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA, India and Japan have joined the 10 Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) countries, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea in signing the Cebu Declaration on East Asian Energy Security, on promoting energy sustainability. Although the pact includes no binding targets on emissions reduction, it strongly urges biofuel and other alternative energy sources development.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The European Commission has made a pitch for world leadership in the fight against climate change by calling on the 27 EU member states to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% by 2020. The move is seen as an example to other countries of the kind of action needed in the post-Kyoto period if there should be no further international agreement for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by then.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

THE FIRST real-data study on the shark fin trade has estimated that 38 million sharks are killed annually: significantly higher than the 10 million accepted by the UN, although lower than the 100 million of some rough estimates.…

BY MARK ROWE

NANOTECHNOLOGY is assisting paint manufacturers to offer new products across an extremely diverse range of industries, a new report from the Scotland-based Institute of Nanotechnology has claimed. Distinctive features include nanostructured antibacterial surfaces, anti-microbial polymers and coatings; self-cleaning and changing colours; and anti-microbial and anti-corrosion coatings.…

BY MARK ROWE

AUSTRALIA is developing a reputation as a leading producer and supplier of premium organic extra virgin olive oil. Kailis Organic (SPELLING CORRECT) predicts it will generate GB Pounds 26 million (US$51.48 million) in exports annually from the oil within seven years, citing huge growth in demand from North America.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

IN an era when military intervention has been given a bad name through the Iraq morass, serving with the army, navy or air force might not be the immediate choice of many nurses as a career path which helps the needy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MARK ROWE

THE INSTITUTE of Nanotechnology, in Stirling, Scotland, has released a new compendium of groundbreaking research, with many studies focusing on the use of nanotechnology in environmental health. The research covers commercial and academic developments in using nanoparticles, for instance in antibacterial, self-decontamination and anti-fouling coatings; antimicrobial capsules and surfaces; making surfaces easy to clean conventionally; self-cleaning glass; eliminating odours; and other uses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will spend Euro 28.3 million on research to fight bird flu, which remains a threat to European Union (EU) environmental health. The studies will examine the flu’s microbiological mode of attack, human and livestock vaccine development, better diagnosis and early warning systems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CANADA, in alliance with Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, has successfully scuppered plans to place chrysotile asbestos on the ‘watch list’ of the United Nations’ Rotterdam Convention, a move that would have allowed importing countries to insist on prior consent before admitting any cargoes of this mineral.…

BY MARK ROWE

OFFICIALS in the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan have called for urgent action to tackle the country’s uranium dumps, a legacy of the country’s role in the nuclear industry of the former Soviet Union. Their call has highlighted increasing concerns about how depleted uranium is stored, at a time when the United Kingdom and other governments look set to press ahead with a new generation of nuclear power stations.…