Search Results for: Climate change

BY DEIRDRE MASON
A RESEARCH paper from the respected University of Uppsala, in Sweden, has set off an intense debate amongst climate change specialists by claiming that there are not enough recoverable oil and gas reserves worldwide to lead to previously predicted disastrous global warming scenarios.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union health Commissioner David Byrne has revealed that the European Commission is planning to update European Union (EU) packaging legislation regarding so-called ‘active’ and ‘intelligent’ packaging. Speaking in Brussels, Mr Byrne said officials were examining how to update the existing 1989 directive “materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have welcomed the European Commission’s environment and health strategy for 2004-2010, approving its initial focus on childhood respiratory diseases, asthma, allergies; neuro-developmental disorders; child cancer and endocrine disrupters.

Ministers called on the Commission to develop research models to assess the health impact of public policies, (and associated socio-economic affects), especially on children and other vulnerable groups.…

BY PHILIP FINE

IN the era of the Kyoto Protocol, where polluters pay more environmentally friendly businesses and services for ‘carbon credits’, a group has been formed to ready the food industry to profit from the situation. The Consortium for Agricultural Soils Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases groups nine US universities and several American government agencies to set out the financial benefits.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
250 words, DM Pounds 48, plus expenses: Train/tube travel from Honor Oak Park to Piccadilly return on 4 November: ?6.20, Phone card ?5 (Tickets should come in post – if not – can you ask Deirdre if she’s sending them in – of not, just send in the claim anyway.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLITICAL pressure has been piled onto the British government by the European Union (EU) over commercial diesel tax rates, after ministers passed a directive allowing Member States to charge lower duty on diesel sold to hauliers than to car drivers.…

BY RICHARD HURST
THE US$5 million second phase of the Dikulushi copper-silver mine, in south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is to start soon, by the second week in November, according to Bill Turner, managing director of Australia’s Anvil Mining. He said that the new phase would extend the life span of the mine by another five years allowing the mine to produce 42 million pounds of copper and 1.8 million ounces of silver.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Commission proposals to boost nuclear energy safety in Europe have come under fire from the British and German governments as well as the European Parliament, making it highly unlikely that they will be approved unscathed. In an unusual joint letter to the Commission, UK prime minister Tony Blair and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder criticised Brussels’ proposed directive, claiming that it would not deal tangible benefits in nuclear security.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IT is an odd and depressing fact that employees who expose corruption, negligence and other malpractices in their work-place usually end up more reviled and outcast than those actually responsible for the wrong-doing in the first place. The institutions of the European Union offer excellent case studies in this regard.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BLUE flags system, alerting tourists to a beach with high bathing water quality, is to be integrated with a new system of ‘smiley’ symbols deemed more easily understood by non-EU visitors. The change – agreed last week by the European Parliament – is part of a reform of EU bathing water legislation, aimed at raising cleanliness standards.…