While most companies are watching soaring oil prices with an eye on rising costs some renewable energy executives are licking their lips at the prospect of "spectacular" growth. Oil sped above $135 to a new record for a third straight day on Thursday. That and new forecasts of a higher floor price has some alternative energy suppliers dreaming of an era of peak oil when global crude output starts to fall.
The germs that help cattle eat grass and gorillas gorge on leaves may have been the secret weapon that let mammals populate the planet, researchers reported on Thursday. Two separate teams of researchers reported on the bacteria living in and on the bodies of humans and other animals, and found they are surprisingly well-adapted to their hosts -- so well that they may have helped different species evolve. "We have evolved together with our bacteria," Dr. Julie Segre of the National Human Genome Research Institute said in a telephone interview.
Four people were killed and close to 5,000 forced out of their homes amid heavy rain and flooding in central and southern Chile, and the evacuation figure could rise further, the government said on Thursday. Of those killed, two died in landslides, one was struck by a boulder and another was hit by a falling tree. Television images showed streets turned into rivers in the port town of Valparaiso, where 93 mm (3.7 inches) of rain fell in 24 hours during two storm fronts.
Shares in timber company Gunns fell sharply in intraday trading today, following reports that the ANZ bank would pull out of funding Gunns' controversial $2 billion pulp mill project in Tasmania. At 12.51pm, Gunns was down 18 cents, or 5.61%, at $3.03, having touched a low for the day of $3.01. "There's a bit of uncertainty over the funding of the mill,'' CMC Markets head of trading James Foulsham said. "But there still hasn't been big volumes going through. "So I don't think it's any wholesale dumping by any of the institutional investors or anything like that.''
Leading Hong Kong clothing manufacturers are coming together to reduce the environmental impact of their factories in response to growing pressure from international retailers. The group, the Sustainable Fashion Business Consortium, is being launched today, World Earth Day. Many Chinese suppliers are being told to clean up operations from their US and European customers. Leading the charge is Wal-Mart. The world's biggest retailer will in October convene a meeting of 1,000 of its suppliers to set goals for reducing their impact on the environment.
Understanding the composition of the atmosphere over geological time is critical to understanding the history of the Earth system, as the atmosphere is closely linked to the lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. Although much of the history of the lithosphere and hydrosphere is contained in rock and mineral records, corresponding information about the atmosphere is scarce and elusive owing to the lack of direct records.
The chief of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has called for the creation of a National Climate Service to manage and disseminate information about global warming.
In a long-anticipated decision hailed as a victory by environmental groups, the United States declared the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) a 'threatened' species. But this heightened protection status may have little bearing on the animals' ultimate fate.
Saving a handful of photogenic species
An international youth meeting on the environment began Thursday in Kobe for a three-day run, bringing together about 100 students from 20 countries and Taiwan. At the opening ceremony of the Youth Summit for Environment in Kobe, actress Norika Fujiwara talked about the importance of addressing climate change. She cited her trip in March to Tuvalu, a South Pacific island country said to be sinking from rising sea levels due to the effects of global warming.
Honda will sell a new, improved and affordable gas-electric hybrid in the U.S., Japan and Europe starting in early 2009, the company president said Wednesday. President Takeo Fukui told reporters that green cars, especially hybrids, will be a pillar of Honda Motor Co's strategy for the next three years, starting this fiscal year that began April 1.
For years, smokers have been exhorted to take the initiative and quit: use a nicotine patch, chew nicotine gum, take a prescription medication that can help, call a help line, just say no. But a new study finds that stopping is seldom an individual decision. Smokers tend to quit in groups, the study finds, which means smoking cessation programs should work best if they focus on groups rather than individuals. It also means that people may help many more than just themselves by quitting: quitting can have a ripple effect prompting an entire social network to break the habit.
Cameco, the world's largest uranium producer, has told the Canadian nuclear regulator that its refinery might have leaked uranium, arsenic and fluorides into Lake Ontario. A section of the Port Hope, Ontario, plant of Cameco, the world's largest uranium producer. The plant at Port Hope, Ontario, across the lake from Rochester and down the shore from Toronto, first refined uranium for the Manhattan Project during World War II. It has been temporarily closed since July to remove contaminated soil.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday removed the smoking cessation drug Chantix from the list of medications considered safe for pilots and air-traffic controllers after a new study linked the medication to mental confusion and other problems that could put passengers at risk. FAA spokesman Les Dorr said the agency took that step after reviewing the study, which raises concerns about Chantix use by people operating vehicles. QUIT SMOKING: Social contacts are major motivators
China said the death toll from last week's powerful earthquake jumped to more than 51,000, while the government appealed Thursday for millions of tents to shelter homeless survivors. The confirmed number of dead rose to 51,151, a jump of almost 10,000 from the day before, Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin told a news conference. Another 29,328 people remained missing and nearly 300,000 were hurt in the May 12 quake centered in Sichuan province, he said.
Not long ago, the fledgling ethanol industry was the darling of investors, farmers, the federal government and a lot of Americans who liked the idea of turning corn into fuel. Suddenly, it doesn't have nearly as many friends. RISING PRICES: Is a bubble brewing in super-hot commodities markets?
Pointing that there are now just 12 crops and 14 animal species that provide most of the world's food, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has asked countries to protect genetic diversity of crops at a time of soaring food prices.
THE government has planned to eliminate monga (near famine situation) through cultivating early variety of paddy in five northern districts by 2010. It has undertaken a plan to cultivate BRRI dhan-33 variety of paddy, developed by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute. in 40,000 hectares of land in the districts this year which, officials concerned said, will create massive job opportunities for the farm labourers during the lean period in the region.
Staff of Peninsula Sea Fish Limited are busy packing frozen fish. The company has started to supply frozen sea fish to the domestic market to meet the rapidly growing demand for uncontaminated fish. One of the country's leading fish exporters has started to supply frozen sea fish to the domestic market to meet the rapidly growing demand for uncontaminated fish. Peninsula Sea Fish Limited (PSFL), a concern of the Peninsula Group, claims to be the first Bangladeshi company selling fish frozen at sea in the local market in any scale.
Although the Environment Cell of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) in 2003 detected 36 industrial plants in Tejgaon Industrial Area of the capital as the main polluters of the Balu river and linked canals, no action has yet been taken against them. The list comprises 30 washing and dyeing factories, 4 soap factories, and 2 ink producing factories.
