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• Life feels the effects of a changing climate

  Climate change is already altering our planet's biology, with only life in Antarctica so far spared its influence. That's the conclusion from an analysis of tens of thousands of individual local studies covering shrinking glaciers, changing river flows, melting permafrost, increased coastal erosion, and warming lakes and rivers. The study, published in Nature (DOI: 10.1038/nature06937) this week, is based on more comprehensive data than any previous investigation of the biological effects of climate change.

  • 17/05/2008

  • New Scientist
  • • Climate Change
    • Climate Science
    • Climate Impacts
    • Glacial Melt
    • Flora
    • Fauna

• Food commodity derivatives: a new cause of malnutrition?

  Poverty causes malnutrition, but malnutrition also contributes to poverty through increased morbidity, impaired development in children, and reduced capacity for work and productivity in adults. In rich countries food is a relatively small part of household consumption (10

  • 17/05/2008

  • Lancet
  • • Food Prices
    • Malnutrition
    • Health Effects
    • Trade
    • Consumption Patterns
    • Child Health
    • Nutritional Diseases
    • Poverty

• Pollution in the Mahanadi: Urban sewage, industrial effluents and biomedical waste

  The discharge of municipal sewage, industrial effluents and biomedical waste into the Mahanadi has raised concerns about environmental sustainability and also posed a serious threat to the health of people living on the banks. This article critically examines the river pollution caused by the spiralling urbanisation and industrialisation along with dumping of waste by many medical facilities. There is an urgent need to address this enormous challenge which is a direct outcome of inefficient planning and management.

  • 17/05/2008

  • Economic and Political Weekly
  • • River Pollution
    • Mahanadi
    • Sewage Pollution
    • Industrial Pollution
    • Public Interest Litigation (PIL)
    • Waste Disposal
    • Fertiliser Industry
    • India
    • Orissa (Odisha)
    • Cuttack (T)
    • Sambalpur (T)

• Alchemy, the safer cigarette, and Philip Morris

  20 years ago Philip Morris, the manufacturer of Marlboro cigarettes, notes in its annual report to shareholders that the company accounted for just 7% of worldwide cigarette sales, but added determinedly that "since our share of most international cigarette markets is still far below our US level, we have considerable room for future growth. The prophetic rise in Philip Morris' market share of current global cigarette sales to 15.6% has culminated in the March spinoff of Philip Morris International (PMI).

  • 17/05/2008

  • Lancet
  • • Tobacco
    • Health Effects
    • Smoking
    • United States Of America (US)

• Rescuers struggle to reach China quake victims

  BEIJING: At least three dozen villages and towns in southwest China remained cut off from the outside world Thursday as tens of thousands of soldiers and emergency workers struggled against impassable roads and mountains of concrete and brick to reach the 40,000 people that officials say are still buried in the rubble or missing after a massive earthquake Monday.

  • 16/05/2008

  • International Herald Tribune (Bangkok)
  • • Earthquakes
    • China
    • Taiwan

• TV ad for heart stent faces questions

  A television advertisement for a heart stent that promotes the product's potential benefits but seems to play down the medical risks may deceive the public and should be reviewed by federal regulators, according to a commentary in The New England Journal of Medicine. The 60-second ad for the Cypher stent, made by the Cordis subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, fails to warn consumers adequately about the potential dangers of receiving a stent, two cardiologists argued in the essay, to appear in next Thursday's issue but already available online.

  • 16/05/2008

  • International Herald Tribune (Bangkok)
  • • Medical Research
    • Heart Diseases
    • Medical Technology
    • Advertising

• Despite expense, oil-producing countries keep subsidies in place

  BEIJING: China, India and other nations that subsidize gasoline and diesel prices may be even less willing to raise prices than they were six months ago, aiding crude's ascent toward $130 even as demand deteriorates elsewhere. While Indonesia appears set to raise prices this month, the world's fastest-growing oil users show little inclination to reduce their subsidy programs and allow fuel prices to rise, as fighting inflation has become their top priority.

  • 16/05/2008

  • • Diesel
    • Energy
    • Subsidies
    • China
    • Indonesia
    • India
    • Fuel Pricing

• Los Angeles Eyes Sewage as a Source of Water

  Faced with a persistent drought and the threat of tighter water supplies, Los Angeles plans to begin using heavily cleansed sewage to increase drinking water supplies, joining a growing number of cities considering similar measures.

  • 16/05/2008

  • New York Times (New York)
  • • Drinking Water
    • Water Supply
    • Sewage

• Minister blames contaminated water for rise in polio cases

  While Sindh has become a key battleground for the eradication of polio from the country, its newly inducted Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed on Thursday declared that an increase in polio cases was mainly due to the use of polluted water. The minister asked the district governments to ensure supply of clean drinking water to their respective populations.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Dawn (Pakistan)
  • • Water Pollution
    • Poultry
    • Health
    • Polio

• Polar bear is made a protected species

  The polar bear, whose Arctic hunting grounds have been greatly reduced by a warming climate, will be placed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced Wednesday.

  • 16/05/2008

  • International Herald Tribune (Bangkok)
  • • Canada
    • Climate Change
    • Endangered Species
    • Wildlife

• PPA demands reforms in poultry sector

  To ensure revival of poultry sector and to meet the requirements of poultry meat and eggs, the Pakistan Poultry Association has urged the government to immediately undertake policy reforms in poultry sector. The PPA has warned that failure would cause a huge loss to the sector. Chairperson of PPA, Abdul Basit, while giving recommendations for budget 2008, said that the poultry industry bore huge loss of Rs 30.000 billion to Rs 35.000 billion during the 2006-07 due to bird flu rumours.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Nation (Pakistan)
  • • Avian Flu
    • Livestock
    • Poultry

• Human behaviour raises global warming fasterx: NASA study

  Houston, May 15 Climatic changes induced by humans have affected the flora and fauna, along with the physical environment of the world at a much faster pace than previously thought, scientists have said. A new NASA-led study, noting changes in the physical system, such as glaciers shrinking, permafrost melting and lakes and rivers warming, has linked physical and biological impacts since 1970 with increase in temperatures during that period.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Financial Express (New Delhi)
  • • Climate Change
    • Global Warming
    • Climate Impacts
    • Glacial Melt
    • Wildlife

• Green tea an armour against fatal diseases

  Green tea plays a protective role in human body against the fatal diseases, as it is found as rich in anti-oxidants, mainly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). This was said by Prof Dr Muhammad Iqbal Chaudhry, acting director international centre for chemical and biological sciences (ICCBS), Karachi University (KU) here on Thursday. While delivering a lecture at the ICCBS, he said the extensive consumption of the tea helps reducing fat cells (obesity) in human body, which is most common health problem of the country especially in the urban areas.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Nation (Pakistan)
  • • Tea
    • Health

• Proper disposal of solid waste stressed

  The participants of a seminar held here on Thursday called for properly disposing of the solid waste besides recycling the same for obtaining energy. The seminar, titled "Waste disposal and management" was jointly organised by Solid Waste Management Association of Pakistan (SWMAP) and Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak EPA). Dr Klaus Frike, head of department, waste management, and Dr Florian Kolsch, technical expert, Tube University, Germany, addressed the seminar.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Nation (Pakistan)
  • • Solid Waste
    • Waste Disposal
    • Landfill

• UK plans bin tax' to recycle garbage

  Britons may have to pay

  • 16/05/2008

  • Financial Express (New Delhi)
  • • Garbage
    • Waste Disposal
    • Waste Recycling

• Reuse of DDT to check kalaazar stressed

  The government should reintroduce banned DDT insecticide as a preventive tool to halt the spread of

  • 16/05/2008

  • New Age (Bangladesh)
  • • DDT
    • Vector Borne Diseases
    • Kala Azar
    • Bangladesh

• Efforts to make Haryana self-reliant on power front

  With the aim of augmenting availability of electricity in Haryana, the state government is undertaking short, medium and long term measures to be self-reliant in power within the next few years. These include commissioning of its three major thermal power projects at Yamuna Nagar, Jhajjar and Hisar which will generate about 3,300 mw of electricity; contracting power from various projects outside the state for 4,000 mw and generating power through bidding process under case I of tariff policy to the tune of 2,000 mw.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Financial Express (New Delhi)
  • • Thermal Power Plants
    • Yamunanagar TPS
    • Power Industry
    • Haryana
    • Hisar (D)
    • Jhajjar (D)

• Paddy farmers cry for rain in Patuakhali, Barguna

  PADDY farmers in Patuakhali and Barguna are now prying for rain as absence of rainfall, lack of normal flash flood and drying up of the six major rivers at many points are affecting the irrigation. The farmers said they were now gripped with serious anxiety. The farmers said the irri and aus plants were withering and turning pale under the blazing sun on vast tracts of land in all the 12 upazilas of the two districts. The water-starved land have developed cracks at many places.

  • 16/05/2008

  • New Age (Bangladesh)
  • • Agriculture
    • Farmers
    • Bangladesh
    • Rainfall Pattern

• Infrastructure growth slips

  The growth of six core infrastructure industries declined to 5.6 per cent in 2007-08 from 9.2 per cent in 2006-07. However, in March , the growth in these sectors stood at 9.6 per cent compared to 10.5 per cent in March 2007, according to the latest data released by the Government here on Thursday.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Hindu (New Delhi)
  • • Iron And Steel Industry
    • Economic Development
    • Cement Industry
    • Power Industry

• Navi Mumbai airport gets MoEF green signal

  The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has just two day ago given its in principle clearance for the Rs 4,000-crore Navi Mumbai international airport. MoEF, in March, had deferred environment clearance for the project on the grounds that the airport would involve reclamation of low-lying areas in an ecologically fragile zone as well as destruction of several hectares of mangroves.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Financial Express (New Delhi)
  • • Ecology
    • Land Use
    • Mangroves
    • Urban Development
    • Ministry Of Environment And Forests (MOEF)