Search Results for: Climate change

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALAN OSBORN

ONE of the more colourful (and thankfully less deadly) aspects of Russia’s mini-war with Georgia in August was the simultaneous attach by hackers on Georgian Internet sites, especially those of its government.,

Ones of these were crashed by ‘denial of service’ attacks, where masses of data are sent to particular sites until they cannot handle the megabytes and closedown.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Energy Agency (IEA) has concluded that 50% of global electricity supplies must come from renewable sources by 2050 to avert the most serious effects of climate change. In a new report, the Paris-based agency said the most effective renewable energy policies involve Germany, Spain, Denmark and Portugal developing onshore windpower and China cost effective solar heating.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CONFERENCE on aviation environmental issues has been told by senior European transport figures to expect further action to fight climate change, beyond including the sector in the European Union’s (EU) emissions trading scheme. Staged in Geneva by the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) and the European Commission, the conference was told by Switzerland transport and environment minister Moritz Leuenberger the sector must act or face more regulation: "If aviation is not ready to take the appropriate steps now…states will force the industry to act…" Furthermore, EU transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani agreed said the emissions trading scheme was just a "first step", with a final objective being "global measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aviation".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A UN Development Programme study comparing Bhutanese with Laotian textile production has highlighted shortcomings in the Bhutan sector, showing how focused international development assistance can make permanent improvements. Bhutan textiles could potentially be of high quality and command international sales, said the report, but their production is hamstrung by potentially resolvable shortcomings: inflating Bhutanese scarves prices 40% above those in Laos.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT would seem even the worst man-made ecological disasters can be reversed: the northern Aral Sea – once a shallow saline remnant of its former self, surrounded by dust bowls – is now growing again, boosting fish production and improving the weather.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN and MARIANA SANTIBANEZ

California became the first state to ban the use of the fats in restaurants in August, with the new law signed by state governor Arnold Schwarzenegger saying trans fats must be removed from California restaurant meals beginning in 2010 and from all retail baked goods by 2011.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

INCREASES in greenhouse gas pollution caused by deforestation, especially in developing countries, will be part of a revised Kyoto Protocol, covering the years beyond 2012. This was the agreement of a working group at a meeting last week (Aug 21-27) of the UN-sponsored global Climate Change Talks in Accra, Ghana.…

By Monica Dobie

American scientists have shown that recovery from bone breaks can be significantly sped up – strangely – by taking out the damaged bone’s marrow.

A team at Yale University School of Medicine, in Connecticut, performed a study on rats whereby the bone marrow, the spongy material inside the bones that produces stem cells, was removed from a fractured bone.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Commission president José Manuel Barroso has tried to coax German public opinion into favouring nuclear energy. In an interview with the weekend newspaper Bild am Sonntag, Barroso said: "Nuclear energy is a delicate issue in Germany…on the other hand, more and more countries see in nuclear energy an at least temporary solution to stop climate change and to reduce our dependency on oil and gas."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ECONOMICS and technical specialists at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have launched a long term research project comparatively analysing the storage of nuclear waste and carbon dioxide. The aim is sparking new discoveries and interpretations of storage techniques for both wastes.…